|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Nat Hentoff
$18.15
By Margaret B. Jones
$16.47
$19
|
|
|
|
jetalone (CC BY 2.0)
|
A government audit showed Japanese authorities have used funds intended for reconstruction after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami on unrelated projects. Those paid for out of the $150 billion relief package include roads in Okinawa, advertisements for Japan’s tallest building and whaling research.
Posted on Oct 31, 2012
READ MORE 
|
ibnu abi (CC BY-ND 2.0)
|
By Peter Van Buren, TomDispatch —
Why has the United States spent so much money and time so disastrously trying to rebuild occupied nations abroad, while allowing its own infrastructure to crumble untended? Why do we even think of that as “policy”?
Posted on Aug 18, 2012
READ MORE 
|
james.gordon6108 (CC-BY)
|
By an estimate its co-chairs call conservative, the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting has found that the government wasted $30 billion on the use of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The co-chairs, writing in The Washington Post, say that number could double. (more)
|
Flickr / rbbaird
|
Benjamin Franklin may be one of the most wanted men in Iraq right now, as the country’s officials threaten to take the Pentagon to court to recoup some $6.6 billion in cash airlifted from the U.S. in 2004 for the purpose of Iraqi reconstruction. (more)
|
|
Today on the list: Why you can’t really get to know more than 150 people, why Democrats should be jealous of Greens and why a Maryland man faces 16 years in prison for shooting a video.
|
U.S. Army / Spc. Christopher Wellner
|
The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction says the Pentagon cannot account for $8.7 billion of Iraq’s money. The Department of Defense was supposed to spend the funds, which came from the sale of oil and other assets, on reconstruction, and it may have—it just doesn’t know for sure.
|
U.S. Marine Corps / Lance Cpl. Matthew R. Jones
|
Add Maj. Gen. Tim Cross to that growing list of people who foresaw disaster in Iraq but were ignored. The senior British liaison to the U.S. reconstruction effort warned his prime minister before the invasion that insufficient postwar planning would lead to chaos. The rest is history. (continued)
|
change.gov
|
Speaking at a Justice Department event in honor of Black History Month, the first black attorney general, appointed by the first black president, acknowledged that America has made progress but warned that “in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.” His full remarks, after the jump.
|
U.S. Navy / Mark H. Overstreet
|
He’s back: Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, has released a new volume in his series of blood-boiling reports. Looking back on his five years as a watchdog, Bowen laments the widespread waste of taxpayer funds in Iraq, and warns that the same mistakes are being made in Afghanistan.
|
AP photo / M. Spencer Green
|
By Stanley Kutler — Some have argued that the Senate does not have the right to reject embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s pick to replace Barack Obama. However, history clearly disagrees.
|
|
Remember when we were told that the Iraq invasion would be a quick and straightforward venture, and that the resulting reconstruction effort would pay for itself? Those notions, like so many others that held sway in recent years, have been belied by the actual outcomes, as evidenced by a new report about the highly problematic rebuilding process in Iraq.
|
AP file photo / Loay Hameed
|
By Anna Badkhen — Walls have become ubiquitous in Baghdad, a place where barricades keep militias from one another and hungry shoppers from the nearest kebab. As Iraqis struggle with sovereignty, the barriers are a constant reminder of the American military occupation.
|
|
A congressional report has found that the Iraqi government will soon have a $79-billion surplus, thanks to the record price of oil. It’s a figure that will surely raise eyebrows as the U.S. shells out an additional $48 billion for reconstruction, but the situation, like all things involving billions and bombs, is a lot more complicated.
|
AP photo / Stan Honda, pool
|
After putting pressure on Burma’s ruling military junta, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has traveled to Burma, where he is taking stock of the devastation left by Cyclone Nargis on May 2. Ban also met with Prime Minister Thein Sein, who told him that the storm-ravaged country is out of the relief phase and into reconstruction.
Posted on May 22, 2008
READ MORE
|
AP photo / Anja Niedringhaus
|
By Anna Badkhen — Sectarian violence has driven millions of Iraqis from their homes. Now that the violence has abated in one formerly upscale Baghdad neighborhood, residents are returning to find squatters who refuse to leave and a government and occupying army unwilling to kick them out.
|
|
The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction has found a disturbing trend among Iraq rebuilding projects. Far too often, when work is incomplete, U.S. officials will revise or “descope” the terms of the contract to list the project as completed. One example: A $35-million children’s hospital in Basra that is marked completed despite the fact that it’s only 35 percent up and running.
|
|
By Amy Goodman — The host of “Democracy Now!” reports from New Orleans, where residents are fighting to keep their homes and resist the unholy alliance of opportunistic developers and an unresponsive government. Meanwhile, the president seems just as oblivious to the suffering of people in Louisiana as he is to that of Iraqis.
|
|
Seventy-five percent of projects surveyed in the latest report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction were no longer functioning properly. Investigators said facilities began breaking down after only six months and that roughly $5 billion is lost every year to fraud.
|
from news.bbc.co.uk
|
Three Army Reserve officers and two civilians have been indicted for funneling $8 million worth of contracts over two years to a construction company in exchange for luxury items and cash. The officers oversaw some $26 billion in reconstruction funds while they were in Iraq.
|
dw-world.de
|
The latest report from the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction says tens of millions of dollars have been wasted because of failure and fraud. Among other abuses, the report cites a never-used $48.3-million housing facility, complete with an Olympic-size swimming pool. If Willie Sutton were alive today, he’d head straight to Baghdad.
|
news.bbc.co.uk
|
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced a $770-million aid package to help with Lebanon’s reconstruction. The war-ravaged nation is hoping to raise $9 billion in aid. Meanwhile, a Hezbollah-backed general strike and mass protests continue to threaten the tenure of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
|
interet-general.info
|
Stuart Bowen of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says billions of dollars of Iraq’s national income are lost annually to corruption, with public funds often ending up in the hands of insurgents. Bowen’s oversight office is set to close due to legislation passed by the Republican Congress.
|
usatoday.com
|
An obscure provision inserted at the last minute into a military authorization bill signed by President Bush has closed the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. The oversight agency had repeatedly embarrassed the administration by exposing corruption, exploitation and negligence in the reconstruction effort in Iraq.
|
|
Donors attending a conference in Sweden have pledged $940 million for Lebanon’s reconstruction, almost twice as much aid as organizers had hoped for. Although he said his country had sustained billions of dollars in damage, Lebanese Prime Minister Siniora expressed his “great appreciation” of the donors’ support.
|
pbs.org
|
A year after the levees broke, Bush has again acknowledged his government’s failure to protect and rescue the citizens of New Orleans, promising “the federal government will learn the lessons of Katrina.” Although the president pledged $110 billion for reconstruction, one of Louisiana’s senators has criticized the slow progress of rebuilding: “Countless neighborhoods appear as if the hurricanes were just yesterday, and they serve as harsh reminders of how our nation was so unprepared.”
|
|
Hezbollah, flush with cash from Iran, has already begun the work of reconstruction in Lebanon, enhancing its reputation in the country. Hezbollah?s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, promised a year?s rent to anyone who lost their home during the conflict, and hundreds of Hezbollah members have been spotted surveying and clearing damaged property.
|
|
By Andy Borowitz — The political satirist reports on Rumsfeld’s plan to punish the government of Iran for its nuclear ambitions by sending the one troop to Tehran.
|
|
After two years and roughly $200 million expended, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects to complete only 20 out of 142 primary health centers. The World Health Organization’s rep calls it “shocking.”
Posted on Apr 2, 2006
READ MORE
|
|
The U.S. has apparently just told Iraq that it should no longer expect American dollars to aid in the country’s reconstruction—rather, Iraq must rely on its own revenues.
Did anyone know this was coming?
|
|
By Andy Borowitz — The $42-billion contract represents the first time that the company has been employed to put its reconstruction expertise to work on one embattled human being. (satire)
|
|
By Molly Ivins — I do hope this is responsible criticism that aims for cures, not defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure.
|
View the most popular tags overall?
|
|
Lock Up Washington
Newsletter 
Like Us
Follow Us
Get Our Feed
