WASHINGTON, Aug. 12, 2008
Iraq Contracts Cost Taxpayers Billions
Military Contracts In Iraq Have Cost U.S. Taxpayers At Least $85 Billion
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Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Peter Orszag, left, gestures during a briefing in Washington, Aug. 12, 2008, on a new study quantifying the budgetary cost and number of contractors supporting U.S activities in the Iraq. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)
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Iraq: 5 Years At War
Five years after the U.S.-led invasion, the war wears on.
The Congressional Budget Office report comes on the heels of increased scrutiny of contractors in the last year, some of whom have been investigated in connection with shooting deaths of Iraqis and the accidental electrocutions of U.S. troops.
The United States has relied more heavily on contractors in Iraq than in any other war to provide services ranging from food service to guarding diplomats. About 20 percent of funding for operations in Iraq has gone to contractors, the report said.
Currently, there are at least 190,000 contractors in Iraq, a ratio of about one contractor per U.S. service member, the report says.
The study does not include monetary figures for 2008, so the total paid to contractors for work in the Iraq theater since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is probably much higher. If spending for contractors continues at about the same rate, by the end of the year, an estimated $100 billion will have been paid to military contractors for operations in Iraq.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate budget committee, which requested the CBO review, said the Bush administration's reliance on military contractors has set a dangerous precedent.
The use of contractors "restricts accountability and oversight; opens the door to corruption and abuse; and, in some instances, may significantly increase the cost to American taxpayers," Conrad said in a statement.
The death of a Green Beret from Pittsburgh, Sgt. Ryan Maseth, who was electrocuted in January while showering in Iraq, prompted a House committee oversight hearing last month into whether contractor KBR Inc. has properly handled the electrical work at bases it is tasked with maintaining. The military has also said that five other deaths were due to improperly installed or maintained electrical devices, according to a congressional report.
Senators have also been looking into the electrical work done by contractors.
In a separate matter, a federal grand jury is investigating whether Blackwater Worldwide guards acted illegally when they opened fire in a busy Baghdad intersection last September. Seventeen Iraqis died and the shooting strained US-Iraqi relations.
The Justice Department is expected to decide soon whether to bring charges. The company itself is not expected to be prosecuted. Executives from Blackwater, based in Moyock, N.C., said recently that they planned to scale back their security contracting business and focus on other areas, in large part because of the negative attention after the shooting.
The CBO estimated Tuesday that $6 billion to $10 billion has been spent on security work, and that the prices paid are comparable to a U.S. military unit doing that work. It estimated that about 25,000-30,000 employees of security firms were in Iraq as of early 2008.
The report said the legal status of contractor personnel is uncertain, particularly for those who are armed. It also noted that military commanders have less direct authority over the actions of contractors than they would a subordinate because the contract is managed by a government contracting officer and not a military commander.
That's because that's how the government designed the relationship, said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel for the Professional Services Council, which represents government contractors.
"There is accountability through the contract and to the contracting officer," Chvotkin said.
The use of military contractors dates to the American Revolution. During the Vietnam War, U.S. contractors were targeted by protesters who accused the companies of profiting from the war.
Since the end of the Cold War, the military has relied more heavily on contractors as it reduced the size of its force. Also, the government in general has sought to outsource more activities that are not inherently governmental.
In the Iraq theater, contractors have performed duties that otherwise would have required the deployment of more troops. About 20 percent are U.S. citizens; 40 percent are citizens of the country where they are working; and the rest are from other countries.
The personal cost to many of the employees has been great.
They've faced kidnappings and at least 1,200 have died - including four Blackwater employees who were ambushed in 2004 by insurgents in Fallujah who strung their remains from a bridge. Some female employees of contractors have alleged they were raped by co-workers in Iraq. Investigators have said a contractor was electrocuted when the air conditioner in his living room shorted, and the death is among the electrocutions under investigation.
Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, much criticism has been directed at Halliburton, an oil services company once run by Vice President Dick Cheney.
Last year, KBR - formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root - separated from Halliburton and is now the Army's largest contractor, according to its Web site. It holds a multibillion-dollar contract to provide basic services including food and shelter for U.S. soldiers.
It agreed in 2006 to pay $8 million to settle six-year-old claims that it overcharged the Army for construction and other support services in the Balkans.
A KBR spokeswoman declined to comment on Tuesday.
In May, an internal audit from the Defense Department's inspector general of about $8 billion paid to U.S. and Iraqi contractors found that nearly every transaction failed to comply with federal laws or regulations aimed at preventing fraud.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hitler brought down Germany by saying "They''re after us! Let''s go get them first!" and taking on the world. Americans are too smart to fall for that. We''ve got 4 more full months of Bush. Let''s spend them impeaching him.
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Posted by notfooled at 09:44 PM : Aug 12, 2008
+ report abuse
Note to self: Some Citizen still in possession of a shirt. Contact RNC Immediately and have them dispatch Gestapo.
Tell them to execute Warrantless Search with Extreme Prejudice.....
"Once Run"???.....He never left....LMMFAO.....
Can you say Secret Offshore Accounts in Dubai???
I KNEW that you could......
We know this! But like other interesting facts i.e. outing CIA Agents and the firing of U.S. Attorneys for political reasons, etc. etc., nothing happens to those responsible! Those responsible have `above the Law` and `Get out of Jail FREE` cards!
Yes, I like that idea. We could all be contractors.
General Bradley:
Have you seen the casualty lists?
Patton:
Yes, I''''ve seen them.
General Bradley. . .
. . .it''''s time to consider how many
casualties we''''d have. . .
. . .if we were still crawling on
that ******* road.
it is time to consider how much more it will cost if we do not defeat FASCIST NAZI TERRORISLAM,,,
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Mega-spammer. You''ve posted this same exact thing like 50 times now.
Boring.
The Cheney/Bush Neocon thugs who''ve been running things for the last 8 years, have been spectacularly successful in diverting the US Treasury from public to private hands -- which has been their goal since FDR''s New Deal days. Talk about holding a grudge! These "people" are totally psycho!
Speaking of psycho . . . terrorislamv is a textbook sexually-deviant pervert who relishes exhibiting and advertizing her numerous sexual dysfunctions thru her postings, which are almost universal in their racially charged vitriol against Obama.
Her rants are both amusing to read -- in a pitiful way -- and dangerous, in that they celebrate the lowest common demnominator of human character flaws: the belief that an individual is superior to another soley based on ethnicity or skin color. Think Adolf Hitler.
The good news is, as long as she''s advocating for John McSame, Obama''s victory in November is assured.
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Absolutely disgusting.
The administration is completely inept.
Posted by imprisonkarl at 07:18 AM : Aug 13, 2008
Here''s another facet of the answer:
Study finds that the majority of domestic and foreign corporations in the United States avoid paying federal income taxes.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined samples of corporate tax returns filed between 1998 and 2005. In that time period, an annual average of 1.3 million U.S. companies and 39,000 foreign companies doing business in the United States paid no income taxes - despite having a combined $2.5 trillion in revenue.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/12/news/economy/corporate_taxes/index.htm?cnn=yes
g.w. and cheney are both failures
But you''re forgetting what''s really important! If the US military carried out these functions, the pals of Bush and Cheney wouldn''t be raking in the money!
That''s what this war is all about--profits for neocons.
Plus, this is helpful training for the private rent-an-army that the fascists could use for their long-planned takeover of the US. Don''t like it?--too bad--you''re a terrorist--your US citizenship will be stripped and you''ll be rendered to Albania for torture by CIA-trained goons.
Let us go all the way to the truth, even the US soldiers in this case are mercenaries, as they are not protecting and defending the US, but enforcing the corrupt agendas of private corporations.
This makes even the US military mercenary.
Us Taxpayers are suckers anyway.
Watch us put another war profiteer into the white house this Nov.
Who needed the CBO to confirm that? Privatization is the biggest crock of crapola that the Republicans have ever foisted on the good people of this country. It is nothing more than a way to enrich your friends and cronies while providing substandard goods and services in reduced quantities.
The military was downsized and the civilian contractors emerged. They were raking in the cash during Bosnia and all other conflicts in the 90''s. So before you blame Bush, like you do for everything, look at how Clinton used the same companies.
You mentioned that the Republicans started Privatization. Did you know that blackwaterusa was founded in 1997 and the Clinton administration awarded them their first contract.
Ask ******** Cheney and his buddies at Halliburton.
Oh, by the way, check our what our troops are dying for in Asia and the Middle East
http://cbs4denver.com/denver2008/denver.protesters.arrested.2.793930.html
Vote the Bums OUT!
Vote the Bums Friends OUT!
Vote the entire Political Party that created this, and all the other, ********** OUT!
Make GOP stand for GOne Permanently.
Tell you waht....the *** has been going on since about 1965......let us spend billions for 43 years. If we can''t show results, then you can whine.
A noble effort sarge, but you''re wasting your time with thes candyassed, Bush-hating, bedwetting libs. This is all they know because they have never had an original thought of their own.
Posted by bigwhtpony at 02:12 PM : Aug 13, 2008
Not true!! We do have original thoughts--unlike Bush, they''re not criminal in nature.
Bush has never been introduced to a law he didn''t try to break.
"The use of contractors "restricts accountability and oversight; opens the door to corruption and abuse; and, in some instances, may significantly increase the cost to American taxpayers," Conrad said in a statement. "
This wasn''t done in the best interest of anyone but Bush cronies!!!
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by babooph
August 15, 2008 12:24 PM EDT
- If only little Georgies mother sent him to the Betty Ford clinic instead of the White House,for rehab.
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