In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Okay you are going to read a lot of writings from the nattering nabobs of negativism below, so let me just report:
Everything is Fine in Iraq
Looters have plundered seven atomic sites in Iraq that contained deadly nuclear materials, radioactive waste and biohazards, U.S. officials admitted yesterday - saying it is impossible to tell how much is missing from the plants or who has run off with what.
Our Institutions of Fair Play are alive and well
And even though he wasn't on the Bechtel payroll, one of those working hardest to convince the Iraqis to hop into bed with the company was the macho man himself, Don "We Don't Need No Stinkin' Antiquities" Rumsfeld. While working as Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East in 1983, Rumsfeld met with Saddam personally and tried to convince him to sign on to Bechtel's pipeline pipe dream.
And Rummy isn't the only current administration official with a close encounter of the Bechtel kind on his CV. Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the agency responsible for handing the lucrative Iraqi rebuilding contract to Bechtel, used to be in charge of overseeing Boston's "Big Dig," a massive highway project managed by Bechtel that went from a projected cost of $4.5 billion to an actual cost of $14 billion.
In a scathing letter sent to Natsios, the Massachusetts Inspector General called Bechtel's handling of the Big Dig "an invitation to fraud, waste and abuse." Apparently, this amounted to a sterling recommendation in Natsios' eyes because, three years later, when the time came to draw up the very short list of companies invited to bid on $1.5 billion in Iraq contracts, he didn't hesitate to include the old gang at Bechtel. Hey, what's a little "fraud, waste and abuse" among chums?
- rob 3:14 PM - [PermaLink] -
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