Food Fraud In The War Zone?

(CBS)  Every month tens of thousands of cases of meat, seafood and baked goods are delivered to U.S. troops in Iraq - costing U.S. taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.

Now Justice Department investigators are said to be digging into hundreds of millions of dollars in deals made by major U.S. companies that supply the military with food, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the "large and active" fraud and corruption case reportedly focuses on:

Whether companies such as Perdue Farm, Sara Lee, and ConAgra set unusually high prices when they sold their goods to the Army's prime food contractor for the war zone.

Whether or not that contractor, Public Warehousing Co., improperly pocketed so-called, "refunds" money it got back from its suppliers after these goods were sold.

And what role, if any, current and former Army officials played in a possible kickback scheme involving Public Warehousing, known as PWC, and some of its vendors.

Attorney Alan Grayson has filed dozens of lawsuits against military contractors, including PWC.

"The American taxpayer should be outraged because money is being wasted and our troops are not getting the supplies they should for the money that's being spent," Grayson said.

Based in Kuwait, PWC reportedly receives more than $1 billion a year to feed troops in Iraq. It has denied any wrongdoing, and says it has received positive reviews from government officials.

But in April Tyson Foods, one of the world's largest chicken producers, sent this letter to the Pentagon complaining that compeditors were getting "the appearance of personal favoritism" in selecting suppliers.

Sources tell CBS News that such complaints - dating back to late last year - may well have sparked the investigation - one of 78 such criminal probes of $5 billion in contracts now under review.

[sonotso]

'' ...

imagine shoving trillions of dollars

of drugs

down kids throats,

imagine waving trillions of dollars

of guns

in kids faces,

imagine all the people

sharing all the world,

i hope some day you''ll join us

and the world will live as one,

... ''

[whispyseas]

'' .. as long as the wealthy and entreprenuerial classes fail to provide for the needs of the more poor and less skilled classes: the more poor less skilled classes will tend to compete for resources, thereby utilizing and wasting far more resources than are required or even desired .. if, however, the needs of the more poor less skilled classes are met, then they will be satisfied to tend to settle for far less and to wait out want based shortages, thereby freeing up resources for the wealthy and skilled classes ... it is exactly that people tend to utilize hapazzard and extravagant amounts of food and land and medicine because they are not allowed reasonable amounts of free food and land and medicine .. why invest money and votes in guns to keep folk reminded that most folk most time do not invest money and votes in guns that remind folk most folk most time do not invest money and votes in guns .. ''

'' .. they''ve got trillions in nuclear biological chemical stealth raype arsenals, but spend most of their time educating and disciplining ignorant naive children so the kids don''t get hurt by a world that invests trillions into educating and disciplining ignorant naive children with nuclear biological chemical stealth raype arsenals .. ''

'' .. the pharoah got so rich, that her tinyest most worthless piece of garbage did far more than feed all forever, and then she forgot all about how rich she was and whined of her poverty, ignorance, and mortality .. for a shortest while anyway .. ''