Contractor Waste of Tax Dollars Continues

Staff / Truthdig Aug 13, 2009 DynCorp International got caught charging the government $50 million over contract for providing living facilities in Kuwait. The company's CEO told a congressional commission, "If we're not competitive [in costs], it's possible for the government to replace us." But the opposite seems to be true when it comes to contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, where fraud, waste and abuse have been all too common for years. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The Electricity in Your Garbage

T.L. Caswell / Truthdig Aug 3, 2009 With biomass pioneers advancing their technology, the smelly stuff that you throw away today may be providing electricity for your home tomorrow.Almost like magic, biomass developers are tapping more and more kinds of waste to produce clean, renewable energy. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Congress Funds Wars With Billions to Spare

Staff / Truthdig Jun 19, 2009 After the president signs a $106 billion emergency supplemental, the U.S. will have shelled out about $1 trillion in "emergency" funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- not including the Pentagon's obscene annual budget, exponentially expanding health care costs for wounded troops, and the interest on all that debt. True to form, lawmakers threw in $2.7 billion worth of cargo planes no one asked for. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Iraq Watchdog Looks Back on Years of Reconstruction Waste

Staff / Truthdig Feb 3, 2009 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. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Obama Looking to Trim Budget Waste

Staff / Truthdig Nov 26, 2008 Barack Obama's economy-oriented speaking spree continued on Tuesday, with a third speech planned for Wednesday. Tuesday's talk focused on eliminating federal budget waste and introducing new additions to his economic team. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Turning Trash Into Electricity

Staff / Truthdig Nov 13, 2008 Here's a solution to the energy crisis Americans are sure to love: A company called Geoplasma is building a plant in Florida that will vaporize garbage with a plasma torch, turning 1,500 tons of waste into 60 megawatts of the good stuff. It may not be as clean as solar, but hey, America is the Saudi Arabia of trash. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Baghdad’s Other Power Struggle

BLANK May 11, 2008 As one U.S. soldier tells Truthdig foreign correspondent Anna Badkhen, it's not entirely a bad sign that residents of Baghdad's Saidiyah neighborhood are complaining about their meager daily power allotment: A year earlier they were concerned about just staying alive. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Iraq Reconstruction Breaks Down

Staff / Truthdig Apr 30, 2007 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. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Ronnie’s Legacy

Marie Cocco / Truthdig Mar 8, 2007 Many of our nation's latest scandals, from the abject failure to rebuild New Orleans to the abuse of veterans at Walter Reed, are the logical result of a contempt for government so zealously implemented by Ronald Reagan and his political descendants. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Tens of Millions Wasted in Iraq

Staff / Truthdig Jan 31, 2007 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. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

‘Breathtaking’ Waste and Fraud in Hurricane Aid

Staff / Truthdig Jun 27, 2006 Scams, schemes and bureaucratic snafus related to federal aid for Hurricane Katrina cost taxpayers at least $2 billion. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )