Monday, September 24, 2007

Skelton: "Culture of corruption" in Iraq contract fraud


One hundred ninety thousand weapons intended for Iraqi soldiers are unaccounted for and legislators, including House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo. are angered:

Members of the House Armed Services Committee said Thursday they were saddened and appalled at the number of military officers and civilian officials implicated in as much as $6 billion in contract fraud in Iraq and by the mismanagement that left 190,000 weapons intended for Iraqi security forces unaccounted for.

Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., opened a hearing on incidents of bribery and fraud that occurred in a major contracting office in Kuwait by saying they "were so severe that I fear they represent a culture of corruption," a term repeated by others.


Military officials have another answer for the missing weapons:

The Defense officials sought to deflect some of the committee's ire, noting that the Government Accountability Office, which reported last month it could not account for 30 percent of weapons the United States distributed to Iraqi forces, did not say weapons were actually missing.

The weapons went into Iraq by different means, some went directly to Iraqi troops and others to the warehouses, Velz said. "There just weren't enough people to document them" and no one can be sure if the weapons were ever transferred, he said.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Old Ike may think its a culture of corruption, but he has always voted to fund and continue the war. He says he is against it, but votes for funding. The Democrats have their chance now to end the war. Harry Reid does not have to bring the funding bill to the Senate floor next time the money runs out. Just ignore it, don't put it on the agenda, and if it doesn't come up, it isn't voted on, thus NO MONEY for the war.
They won't have the balls to do it!!

Anonymous said...

Okay, so if they ignore it and it goes away, where do the troops go?

Anonymous said...

Home.