Senate Judiciary Committee in the 109th Congress, including incoming chairman Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont). (photo credit — Newsday)
Just a few days ago, incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), spoke at his alma mater for the Georgetown Law Forum. (Video available at C-SPAN and text here.)
In his prepared remarks, Senator Leahy tackled the issue of war profiteering and the lack of oversight. The six-term senator emphasized a point that many in the pro-oversight community have stressed for years. Corner-cutting war profiteers undermine U.S. military efforts. (By definition, that would back-up then-Senator Harry S. Truman's (D-Missouri) proclamation that war profiteering was "treason.")
It is hard to win a battle for the hearts and minds of Iraqis who still are without basic services, even as they watch billions of dollars being siphoned off by unsupervised contractors. Too much of that money is unaccounted for, and many of the facilities and services it was supposed to provide are still nonexistent. And now this week we read about plans to spend hundreds of millions more to create jobs in Iraq. Weren’t we supposed to be doing that with all those billions of other taxpayers’ dollars?
Senator Leahy added a little bit of humor in asking the money question.
At the risk of incurring another of Vice President Cheney’s special season’s “greetings,” I ask: Where did all the money go? [link added]
Certainly, he is referring to the missing $8.8 billion that the Coalition Provisional Authority says went "missing" in Iraq. I believe CPA Administrator Paul Bremer's exact words were "Oopsie!" or something to that effect…
He continued, noting the utter refusal of this administration, and the willful blindness by the 109th Congress that we are all too familiar with.
Up to now, the committees of Congress have looked the other way, and the Administration has fought tooth and nail against any accountability for this massive wastefulness. We even had to fight to preserve the one watchdog that Congress has sent to Iraq: the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Two months ago, a rider was slipped into the Defense Authorization Bill that pulled the plug on the inspector general’s work. I am pleased that the election results helped us reverse that last week — for now.
According to the New York Times, the legislation to can Stuart W. Bowen Jr. originated with 2008 presidential hopeful, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-California). Bowen is "likely to remain." (A week or two ago, there was some discussion as to Bowen's status.)
Senator Leahy gave us some idea what his plans are in regards to the war profiteers.
The Judiciary Committee will be asking the Justice Department why it has slowed and obstructed the civil suits against contractors brought by whistleblowers, under the False Claims Act. And because prosecuting criminal cases against war profiteering is difficult under current law and has to overcome jurisdictional legal defenses, we also will renew our efforts to enact the War Profiteering Prevention Act. I have repeatedly offered this bill, and it has passed the Senate, only to die in a Republican-controlled conference committee.
In all honesty, I am as excited for Inauguration Day 2007 as I was for Christmas X-Mas as a child.
"On the first day of the 110th Congress, Nancy Pelosi gave to me…" (That would make culture warrior, Bill O'Reilly's head explode.)
Related When speaking of war profiteers, it is difficult not to mention Truman. As we head into a Democratic Congress from a "Do Nothing" Congress (worse than the 1948 Congress that originally earned the moniker from Truman himself), I wanted to highlight a very telling quote on the state of the GOP then, and how it relates to now.
"The Republican Party, as I said a while ago, favors the privileged few and not the common everyday man. Ever since its inception, that party has been under the control of special privilege; and they have completely proved it in the 80th Congress. They proved it by the things they did to the people, and not for them. They proved it by the things they failed to do."
– President Harry S. Truman
Acceptance Speech of the Democratic Nomination in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
July 15, 1948
[Matt Ortega writes at SOTUblog]
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FITZ!
Matt O.!
Chairman Leahy!!!
Thanks Matt.
A commenter over at MyDD notes that the frame for the planned increase in troop strength has not been established. He praises Governor Richardson for using the word “escalation.” That should be our frame. It evokes Vietnam. It reinforces the message that the original troop levels was inadequate for managing the peace. It carries the implication of a permanent war in Iraq.
The president is faced with two alternatives–escalation or withdrawal. We should not let him frame the escalation narrative in a dishonest way.
I think this full-time 110th Congress and its committee chairs (Senate and House) have some serious ass-whuppin’ in mind for the gotbux. I doubt we’ll see oil execs testify without being sworn ever again — or the Attorney General for that matter.
Leahy et al. are managing expectations clearly and candidly. They know Americans voted in November for a thorough investigation and housecleaning of the corrupting stink of the gotbux culture. Iraq, Katrina, our national forests, NCLB: all these have been used by the gotbux to enrich themselves. Americans want it stopped.
Oh, and:
Troops
Home
NOW
Esten!
The Truman quote is useful, especially in the light of Monkey Boy’s attempts at appropriating Truman’s Korean experience.
“escalation” is GOOD. use it again and again to counter “surge”, which is ALL OVER the MSM.
TeddySanFran @ 5
The 110th. does know full well what was voted for recently. The expectations are high. And these expectations will get higher. We will raise the bar commensurate with our expectations.
Hamburger @
8
I’d agree. “Escalation” is a better buzz word to use.
“Escalation” means things are getting tougher. For me, it invokes a Vietnam feel to it.
Leahy will do the heavy lifting. What we are seeing here is a man of principle.
And whosoever in Congress that does not support and embrace these investigations to return our Constitution, the rule of law and justice…
is toast come next election and should be marginalized by the leadership until we kick them out.
Hamburger @ 8
I like “escalation”. I love McCain as Grandpa Simpson.
http://www.moviewavs.com/php/s…..metric.wav
When all is said and done. I want felony indictments.
“surge the troops” – sounds like flooding Baghdad with good ol’ soapy water.
Progs on TV should refuse to use surge, ever, always escalate – or some term that means keeping troops there longer, not letting them go home as scheduled, recycling used troops back into war, yet AGAIN. That’s how they’ll escalate.
http://www.moviewavs.com/php/s…..mocrat.wav
God, I love the interwebs.
Gingrich, Brooks, and Friedman on MTP tomorrow 12/17.
Suggest questions for Timmeh to ask.
Investigations, inquiries, criminal complaints.
I got epu’d with this yesterday (?) and will re-link it, cause it has to do with the enablers and criminals in this administration; here’s John Dean’s take:
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1215-25.htm
here’s a convenient pretext for more than a surge:
Could it be? That the ‘rule of law’ will soon come back in fashion.
I fear that the dems may go easy on them. I hope that I am wrong. The war profiteers, the missing billions, the bad intel, plamegate, domestic spying, habeus corpus, war crimes, and etc. should all be prosecuted to the max – the dems need to go after these guys like the repugs went after Clinton’s zipper.
Clinton’s zipper didn’t get anybody killed nor did it create a $500 billion deficit. Yet the republicans attacked with the tenacity of a pit bull. Dems must do likewise.
In high school I played Joe Keller in the Arthur Miller play “All My Sons.” The role was played by Edward G.Robinson in the movie about a decent family man who made defective parts for the military, shaving costs to improve the profit margines.
In the end he kills himself over the realization that many soldiers were killed and wounded because of what he did. A very well written play.
BTW
You can’t enjoy The Gift if you don’t open it.
War profiteering; treason? Is this then possibly a capital offense?
TeddySanFran @ 17
Thanks for the heads up.
jayackroyd @
4
Excellent point and agreed on, “escalation.” Not only an emotive word but concise and factual. Escalation it is!
jayackroyd @
4
Absolutely. We also need to remind others that it’s an escalation against the Iraqi people we supposedly liberated. Foreign fighters and claimed A/Q is a very small percentage of opposition to to US forces. The Iraqi people, in trying to establish their freedom are the target of Bush admin military escalations.
“Ooopsie” is the name of my car*. It should not be the official reaction to losing 8.8 billion dollars. We might have used that money for…oh don’t get me started.
*Named on the way home the first day. I was driving at 60. Then a few minutes later I looked down and the speedometer said 90. Ooopsie.
I’d like to see the themes escalation and quagmire plastered all over the place.
TeddySanFran @
17
Just like on the O’Reilly Factor, NBC will start marketing products for this weeks Meet the Press guests.
Starting out with a coffee mug.
And moving on from there.
-GSD
Oklahoma kiddo @ 21
Dreamer.
GSD:
Gingrich, Brooks, and Friedman – The Three
StoogesScroogesegregious @ 29
Bill Perry (ISG member & former sec state) used “quagmire” today in the Dem response to chimpy’s ssat. reaadio message.
iinteresting
Hamburger @ 8
Remember surge rhymes with dirge.
Like funeral dirge.
It’s truly amazing how the Bush administration and the corporate/MSM bloviatistas refuse to adapt to the “new reality” revealed by the elections and the polls: that people aren’t buying the spin, lies, and distraction any more. They seem to think if they “just keep going, hell or high water” they’ll surely “win” in the end. Somehow. Or other.
New Counterinsurgency Manual Hits Net
The counterinsurgency field manual’s cover reads in part, “Distribution Restriction: Approved for Public Release; Distribution is unlimited.”
via huffpo
punaise @ 32
I swear, from the first photos I saw of Chertoff, I knew the Grinch was Chertoff incognito looking to detain every bleeding heart Who in Whoville.
egregious @ 31
We have to do this thing– or we can forget America.
Chertoff reminds me of Ming the Merciless.
way OT– Prairie Home Companion is even better than usual…
(that’s high praise, coming from this die-hard fan!)
Is this a good place to note that Bush mysteriously decided to use his radio message to lecture Congress (now that it’s run by us) about the evils of earmarks?
I thought I had heard that Pelosi had stated this week that there would be no more earmarks, but can’t find a reference. The closest is this, referring to cancelling earmarks in early 2007 spending bills.
http://www.forbes.com/business…..marks.html
Anybody else have better info?
Glorfindel @ 36
And did you see the goodbye party for Dumsfeld, with Drunkey Boy giving him a rousing send-off speech? They’ve become so addicted to the idea that all the sheep need is a little bit of pomp & circumstance and they’ll just roll over and carry on watching NASCAR. In my darker moments, I can’t say I blame them.
angie @ 41
Thanks for the heads up – we get it at 6PM PT
That pompous send-off was a disgrace and did you notice the very tepid applause, PeteCO?
angie @ 45
I only saw the clips that KO ran-they were enough. MrsCO & I were like “What planet are these people on?”
egregious @ 31
“Dreamer” How did you know? ;)
Leahy in the chair instead of Specter means more than setting the agenda. Once a hearing opens, the chair will look much more kindly on motions by Democrats for additional time for questions, calling witnesses to return for additional testimony, pressing executive branch officials for requested documents, etc.
Seeing Pat Leahy with the gavel will make Dick Durbin and Russ Feingold happy, happy men.
… joining the discussion late. but wanted to let you-all know, just in case there is anyone who hasn’t yet listened to leahy’s speech, georgetown law now has a good quality webcast posted (the mp3 podcast isn’t up yet but should be soon).
I have had the uneasy feeling that this bit of information that Scott Carpenter (who is related to my husband) and who was the assistant to Paul Bremer) just ripped off the country and then fled to Maine to build his dream home with the windfall…has gotten away with murder and theft. What do I do with this kind of information?
p.s.
am i the only person who fills their itunes/ipod with lectures and speeches?
selise @
51
Nope, I have several JFK speeches, Obama’s ‘04 keynote, etc.
bookwoman @ 50
seymour hersh?
I want the people involved in war profiteering oversite to start calling privitisation what it is.
it’s fascism
“
they can temper their rhetoric with a statement like;
it doesn’t make sense in this day and age we would be promoting the principles of musselini and fascism, as misselini himself stated,
“Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”
bookwoman @ 50
Hold on to it, neither let it go nor reveal it, just yet– we will get to the bottom of it– we, the people, with Chairmans Leahy and Waxman.
Selise@53
Excellent advice. I love Sy Hersch, Amy Goodman, and Greg Palast. We do have to siphon off to invesigative journalists.
Matt Ortega @ 52
i used to depend on local colleges and universities for their public lecture series. now with many universities podcasting and webcasting their public lectures (and some even do classes)… i had to buy a bigger hard drive.
Imperial ambitions inevitably corrupt the societies and the governments in their thrall. Exposing that general corruption is always painful, but it’s absolutely necessary to move public opinion back to something resembling sanity.
Because what is going on now is a kind of institutionalized insanity. When the country’s president is so deeply in denial that he is depending upon the judgment of right-wing pundits such as Rush Limbaugh for approval and ratification of his actions, there’s no other term which fits the situation.
The public will need to see what has been happening in the last six years in some very gory detail in order for the purgative effects to have some lasting value.
But, what most don’t realize is that there are no laws now in effect against war profiteering per se, so what Leahy and others will have to do is impress on the public that the most egregious acts were motivated by greed and were facilitated by the White House for political purposes, and that, in fact, the war was started, in part, as a means of enriching the President’s supporters.
That will be difficult to do, but not impossible. But, when the public begins to see the ulterior motives for the war itself, they will also begin to see the outlines of the imperial ambitions driving the war. That’s a step toward sanity. All the arguments supporting a faux patriotism will begin to melt away when the base nature of this president’s wars is revealed.
bookwoman @ 56
all great choices! My mistake, I inferred that you were uncomfortable going public for family reasons……
montag @ 58
See also
“Today, we’re completely out of line with other advanced countries. The share of income received by the top 0.1 percent of Americans is twice the share received by the corresponding group in Britain, and three times the share in France. These days, to find societies as unequal as the United States you have to look beyond the advanced world, to Latin America. And if that comparison doesn’t frighten you, it should.”
Paul Krugman in Rolling Stone-long, but worthwhile;
http://www.rollingstone.com/po…..sfer/print
angie @
12
HEAR! HEAR!
Hey M.O., I think you are going to have hella fun this next year, don’t you?
Any chance you’ve been following the “Spy Who Billed Me” blog in re: Blackwater? I have a sneaking suspicion there’s been some help from some commercial psyops specialists, but I can’t put my finger on it. Nasty piece of work; they should have a bull’s eye on them within the first 10 hours.
Kathryn in MA — that bit by Larry Johnson is very interesting, but there’s another factor that hasn’t been taken into consideration with all the discussion of juggling more/less troops in Iraq. Have had several discussions this week with my stepson about the conditions; he said in 2003, troops were with folks they’d been with for a very long time, who’d spent quite a bit of time training together for the operations they found themselves in. But as time went on and more Natl Guard came in along with the surge of newer troops pos-9/11, the aggregate level of training had gone down considerably, as had the cohesiveness that a long-term unified team typically has. Some of the increase in violence and damage is not merely because the insurgents have become more passionate, better trained, better resourced, but because the insurgents have been able to take advantage of the deterioration in troops’ cohesiveness. There is very little that can be done to remedy this after this long in Iraq; it is an indictment agains the lack of foresight and planning of this administration and its SecDef that we’ve exhausted our troops this badly.
bookwoman, you could give it to Matt O./ Rajiv Chandrasekaran/Senators Dorgan, Leahy/Congressman Waxman, etc.
bookwoman @ 50
If you have something in the way of proof that would at least compel further investigation, I’d suggest a tip to Jonathan Landay of McClatchy News Service. However, if all you know is that Carpenter worked in Baghdad, and built a house later, those two events are not necessarily connected to wrongdoing. What would suggest wrongdoing is if Carpenter’s assets before his assignment would not have supported the purchase of such a house, but his assets afterwards did by some considerable margin which did not reflect his salary when there.
Glorfindel @ 40
Well said! His face with those sunken troubled eyes always makes me think of the voice of Peter Lorre in those old b/w horror movies. Flat out creepy!
Matt, great writing.
I agree with those upthread who encourage use of “escalation” rather than the wishy-washy “surge.”
Reminds me vividly of the LaMaze instructor who said, “There may be some discomfort involved with with childbirth.”
Gee, ya think?
Angie @59
In a way I am uncomfortable, but what’s more uncomfortable than dying? As background..Scott Carpenter is a “Christian”‘ he comes from a tradition of so-called Christianity. I have struggled for a long time with my extended family and their blindness to their faith. These people need to be exposed for their hypocisy.
newspaperbrat @ 64
Tony Snow’s eyes are beginning to sink… and dart from side to side… he looked haunted as he apologized to David Gregory
bookwoman @ 66
Yay! Good on you! Blessings and you’ve got my support.
Agh…moderation. What did I say?
Oh damn, it’s the word “speci*l*sts”. Has that drug name in it. [sigh]
selise — heck no, you are not alone. I have a small MP3 player dedicated to speeches and news alone, perfect for walking on the treadmill. I’ve got a subscription to Salon mag, worth every cent for the free music, literary downloads as well as interviews. Last three “conversations” were Laura Dern, David Lynch, Crispin Glover, for example.
Here’s another site to check for content:
http://www.lannan.org/ — good stuff.
“Surge” sounds like Katrina.
Rayne – I just freed that up so everyone refresh – since I’m not a mod guru, I could not see what caused that.
Pat Lang is calling the whole surge concept a potential “Stalingrad on the Tigris.”
http://turcopolier.typepad.com….._tyrannis/
he says “The carnage implicit in this concept would be appalling.”
Where’s my troll?
I miss him already.
lina @ 72
I’m thinking more along the lines of the British retreat from Kabul in 1842.
Jane Hamsher @ 73
He heard Ann Coulter’s ass was bony and scurried back to his natural habitat.
Siun — thanks much, you did fine; it’s the word “speci*lists”, have had exactly the same problem before with the same word, both singular and plural.
Jane Hamsher @ 73
I haven’t seen him around since then. I’m not real busy right now if you need me to rake a shot as a temp fill-in. My heart wouldn’t be in insulting you, so it might seem disingenuous, but I could try some wasy smart-assery
“Skinny Ass and All”–
Tom Robbins is surely here, Jane!
There are good points in your article. I would like to supplement them with some information:
I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.
If you are interested in a view of the inside of the Pentagon procurement process from Vietnam to Iraq please check the posting at my blog entitled, “Odyssey of Armaments”
http://www.rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com
The Pentagon is a giant, incredibly complex establishment, budgeted in excess of $500B per year. The Rumsfelds, the Administrations and the Congressmen come and go but the real machinery of policy and procurement keeps grinding away, presenting the politicos who arrive with detail and alternatives slanted to perpetuate itself.
How can any newcomer, be he a President, a Congressman or even the new Sec. Def.Mr. Gates, understand such complexity, particularly if heretofore he has not had the clearance to get the full details?
Answer- he can’t. Therefore he accepts the alternatives provided by the career establishment that never goes away and he hopes he makes the right choices. Or he is influenced by a lobbyist or two representing companies in his district or special interest groups.
From a practical standpoint, policy and war decisions are made far below the levels of the talking heads who take the heat or the credit for the results.
This situation is unfortunate but it is absolute fact. Take it from one who has been to war and worked in the establishment.
This giant policy making and war machine will eventually come apart and have to be put back together to operate smaller, leaner and on less fuel. But that won’t happen until it hits a brick wall at high speed.
We will then have to run a Volkswagen instead of a Caddy and get along somehow. We better start practicing now and get off our high horse. Our golden aura in the world is beginning to dull from arrogance.
before it moves off the front page at Salon.com I’ll re-mention this good call:
to date he has not gone on record with an opinion about mukluks.
Yay, Mr. Sidarth and punaise!
GO Webb!
Pin the war on the wingnut upstairs
Ken Larson @79:
If the policy makers were smarter about the policy they made, they could tailor their war machine to fit the reality of what is actually needed.
Sending 150,000 troops to invade and occupy a country of 27 million people in the middle of Arabia was not a very smart policy decision.
If we didn’t do stupid shit like that, we wouldn’t have to logistically supply a conventional army that is not being used correctly in the first place.
phrase of the day;
“escalating commitment”
Close code
Test
Angie can you still close yr code? 5 min…
Glorfindel @ 40
“What do you mean, ‘Flash Gordon approaching?’”
The crux of the problem is that W equates leaving with losing, while staying = victory. There’s no way we’re getting out while this clown and his enablers are in office.
Can’t recall where I read this (probably Kevin Phillips Wealth and Democracy), but before the revolution, the very richest American would have been about C or D list in London society. After the revolution, there were a small handful rich enough to be A list candidates. All of them made their money through either through supplying the army, or privateering (gov’t sanctioned piracy).
La plus ca change…