OT: Why is Bush making sure no one follows the money?
The Librarian
was never accounted for, it was thought an Inspector General named by
the Congress for oversight would produce some kind of audit on the $9
billion, not to mention the $12 billion in cash supposedly sent to Iraq
straight from the Federal Reserve.
Bush, however, whipped up a "signing statement", one of those 750
Presidential findings that was revealed in April by the Boston Globe,
which neutered the audit by declaring anything to do with the Pentagon
a classified security issue!
The GOP Congress enabled Bush all the way on this outrageous signing,
essentially covering up the likely theft of the urgently needed
Reconstruction Fund.
Now no one is "Following the Money"...
Here is the signing (neutering) statement, posted quietly on the WH Web
site:
Title III of the Act creates an Inspector General (IG) of the CPA.
Title III shall be construed in a manner consistent with the
President's constitutional authorities to conduct the Nation's foreign
affairs, to supervise the unitary executive branch, and as Commander in
Chief of the Armed Forces. The CPA IG shall refrain from initiating,
carrying out, or completing an audit or investigation, or from issuing
a subpoena, which requires access to sensitive operation plans,
intelligence matters, counterintelligence matters, ongoing criminal
investiga-tions by other administrative units of the Department of
Defense related to national security, or other matters the disclosure
of which would constitute a serious threat to national security. The
Secretary of Defense may make exceptions to the foregoing direction in
the public interest.
Provisions of the Act that require disclosure of information, including
section 3001(h)(4)(B) of the Act, shall be construed in a manner
consistent with the President's constitutional authority to withhold
information that could impair foreign relations, national security, the
deliberative processes of the Executive, or the performance of the
Executive's constitutional duties.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
November 6, 2003.
David Lindorff wrote last week in the Baltimore Chronicle:
there is a lot of money to follow in the current scandal that can be
best described as the Bush/Cheney administration, and so far, nobody's
doing it.
My bet for the place that needs the most following is the more than $9
billion that has gone missing without a trace in Iraq--as well as $12
billion in cash that the Pentagon flew into Iraq straight from Federal
Reserve vaults via military transports, and for which there has been
little or no accounting.
As word of massive corruption began to surface in 2003, Congress passed
legislation creating an office of Inspector General, assuming that this
new agency would monitor the spending on the occupation and
reconstruction, and figure why all so much taxpayer money was
disappearing, and why only minimal reconstruction was going on in
destroyed Iraq, instead of a massive rebuilding program as intended.
Bush named an old friend and supporter, Stuart Bowen, to the post--a
move that should have put Congress on alert, given this
administration's long history of putting cronies in positions of
authority.
When the Coalition Provisional Authority was terminated in late 2004,
with corruption still rampant and growing, Congress redefined Bowen's
position as Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
Bowen, went to work. He uncovered some corruption in a report in early
2006 that sounded scathing enough. Bowen found cases of double billing
by contractors, of payments for work that was never done, and other
scandals. But he never came up with more than $1 billion or so worth of
problems--a small fraction of the total amount of money that was
vanishing.
Now we know why so little was done.
It turns out that Bowen was never really looking very hard.
One of the laws the president chose to ignore with a 'signing
statement' was the one establishing the inspector general post for
Iraq, saying that the new inspector general would have no authority to
investigate any contracts or corruption issues involving the Pentagon.
When the Boston Globe, this past April, broke the story that President
Bush has been quietly setting aside over 750 acts passed by Congress,
claiming he has the authority as "unitary executive" and as commander
in chief to ignore such laws, it turned out that one of the laws the
president chose to ignore was the one establishing the inspector
general post for Iraq. What the president did was write a so-called
signing statement on the side (unpublicized of course--though it was
quietly posted on the White House website), saying that the new
inspector general would have no authority to investigate any contracts
or corruption issues involving the Pentagon.
http://baltimorechronicle.com/...
Who gets the bill for this corruption? The American taxpayer! We need
to lay this at the feet of the GOP Congress. Why have Frist and
Hastert done nothing?
This potentially leaves the Abramoff and Cunnungham scandals in the
dust in terms of dollars outright stolen. Yet there is nothing being
done.
The GOP doesn't want to follow the money or why Bush did this signing
because it will likely lead to yet another impeachable crime.