Iraq Reconstruction

After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born. Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.

A federal audit has finally accounted for nearly $6.6 billion in Iraqi reconstruction money that seemed to have disappeared after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, ending a mystery that highlighted the chaos of the early days of the U.S. occupation. The Pentagon flew the Iraqi cash under its control to Baghdad in planeloads of shrink-wrapped bundles of $100 bills in 2003 and 2004. But its failure to keep complete records showing where the money went fueled concern that some or all of it had been stolen.

The U.S. has invited at least five engineering firms to submit bids for a contract to do reconstruction work in Iraq, government and company officials said. The winning company would get about $900 million to repair Iraqi schools, health services, ports and airports. Bechtel Group Inc. and Fluor Corp. confirmed they had received the invitations. The Wall Street Journal said the Agency for International Development also sent invitations to Parsons Corp., Louis Berger Group Inc.

After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born. Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.

A federal audit has finally accounted for nearly $6.6 billion in Iraqi reconstruction money that seemed to have disappeared after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, ending a mystery that highlighted the chaos of the early days of the U.S. occupation. The Pentagon flew the Iraqi cash under its control to Baghdad in planeloads of shrink-wrapped bundles of $100 bills in 2003 and 2004. But its failure to keep complete records showing where the money went fueled concern that some or all of it had been stolen.

Congress should force the State and Defense departments to cooperate in planning and overseeing any future wartime reconstruction to prevent the kind of problems that befouled rebuilding efforts in Iraq, according to an investigative report to be issued today.

The Pentagon's largest contractor in Iraq, Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, routinely hid information about its work from the public by marking it as proprietary when it wasn't, a U.S. government report said. The company's actions were an abuse of federal contracting rules designed to protect proprietary information, said the report by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. Information as fundamental as the number of meals being served to U.S.

About $10 billion has been squandered by the U.S. government on Iraq reconstruction aid because of contractor overcharges and unsupported expenses, and federal investigators warned Thursday that significantly more taxpayer money was at risk.

An Army Reserve lieutenant colonel was arrested Thursday on charges of being part of a conspiracy to steer Iraq reconstruction contracts to a businessman in exchange for money and gifts, including a Cadillac sport utility vehicle. Debra Harrison, 47, of Trenton, N.J., is the second Army Reserve officer facing charges of conspiracy, money laundering and weapons violations, according to a criminal complaint made public by the Justice Department. Harrison served in Iraq in 2003 and 2004.

A U.S. businessman whose companies made more than $8 million in Iraq reconstruction money through a gifts-for-contracts scheme was sentenced Friday to 46 months in prison. Philip H. Bloom, who has lived in Romania for many years, pleaded guilty last year to bribery and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He admitted that he bribed military personnel with jewelry, computers, cigars and sexual favors from women at his Baghdad villa.

By Liz Sly The shell of a prison that will never be used rises from the desert on the edge of this dusty town north of Baghdad, a hulking monument to the wasted promise of America's massive, $53-billion reconstruction effort in Iraq. Construction began in May 2004 at a time when U.S. money was pouring into the country. It quickly ran into huge cost overruns. Violence erupted in the area, and a manager was shot dead in his office. The Iraqi government said it didn't want or need the prison.

After 9/11, President Bush wanted to go to war against Iraq in the worst way. Two new reports suggest that's exactly what he did. The indictments of administration policy -- one from an in-house watchdog, the other from a Senate committee -- offer a depressing postmortem on the Bush administration's blunders and an instruction manual in reverse for Barack Obama.

Iraq's central government has refused to take possession of more than 2,300 completed reconstruction projects financed with billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars, according to the latest quarterly report by the U.S. agency that oversees the rebuilding effort. As a result, many projects are being turned over to local entities that cannot adequately support them or are being run with continued U.S. funding, according to the report by Stuart W. Bowen Jr.

Congress should force the State and Defense departments to cooperate in planning and overseeing any future wartime reconstruction to prevent the kind of problems that befouled rebuilding efforts in Iraq, according to an investigative report to be issued today.

A U.S. businessman whose companies made more than $8 million in Iraq reconstruction money through a gifts-for-contracts scheme was sentenced Friday to 46 months in prison. Philip H. Bloom, who has lived in Romania for many years, pleaded guilty last year to bribery and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He admitted that he bribed military personnel with jewelry, computers, cigars and sexual favors from women at his Baghdad villa.

About $10 billion has been squandered by the U.S. government on Iraq reconstruction aid because of contractor overcharges and unsupported expenses, and federal investigators warned Thursday that significantly more taxpayer money was at risk.

Singapore dispatched a troop landing ship with a crew of 180 to Iraq on Saturday. The ship Resolution will stay in the Persian Gulf three months, the city-state's Defense Ministry said. The crew's mission is to monitor the waters around key oil terminals, provide logistical support for coalition vessels and helicopters, and conduct patrols and boarding operations, the statement said. The wealthy Southeast Asian island has been a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led effort in Iraq.

The U.S. government wasted tens of millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction aid, including scores of unaccounted-for weapons and an unused camp for housing police trainers that has an Olympic-size swimming pool, investigators say. The quarterly audit by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, is the latest to paint a grim picture of waste, fraud and frustration in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has cost taxpayers more than $300 billion.

The U.S. government wasted tens of millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction aid, including scores of unaccounted-for weapons and an unused camp for housing police trainers that has an Olympic-size swimming pool, investigators say. The quarterly audit by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, is the latest to paint a grim picture of waste, fraud and frustration in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has cost taxpayers more than $300 billion.

Senate supporters of an investigator's office that has unearthed waste and fraud in the rebuilding of Iraq say they will try to keep it running, despite passage of legislation to shut it down. Led by Stuart Bowen Jr., the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction tracks spending in the multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild the country. The agency's work has resulted in four criminal convictions and, most recently, evidence that a subsidiary of Halliburton Co.