Bush Loses More Billions in Iraq,, still wants more money for private contractor friends who aren't doing the job

A $1.2bn (£590m) contract for training Iraqi police was so badly managed that auditors do not know how the money was spent, the US state department says.

The programme was run by a private US company, DynCorp. It insists there has been no intentional fraud.

Auditors have stopped trying to audit the programme because all the documents are in disarray and the government is trying to retrieve some of the money.

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Bush asks for $46 billion more for wars

Halliburton Sunday said third-quarter net profit rose 19 percent, helped by a tax benefit and new international contracts

UPDATE 2-US food companies discount probe of Iraq deals

Con Agra claims poisoning regular run of the mil Americans is quite enough for them. But we'll see. Certainly no one at any agribusiness conglomerate has a shred of credibility.
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The Wall Street Journal said the Justice Department and the Defense Department were examining whether the companies charged excessively high prices to the Army's primary food contractor in the war zone, a Kuwaiti firm called Agility (AGLT.KW: Quote, Profile, Research).

Agility's dealings are the subject of "a very large and active investigation into criminal and civil fraud involving hundreds of millions of dollars," Justice Department lawyer Brian Mizoguchi told a judge in Federal Claims Court in Washington on June 12, the Journal reported.

ConAgra Foods Inc (CAG.N: Quote, Profile, Research), a leading packaged-food vendor, said it had been assured by the Defense Department that its role in the investigation "is limited to that of a witness."

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Food Companies, Including Poison Pot Pie and Peanut Butter People ConAgra, Face U.S. Probe Over Iraq Deals

WASHINGTON -- Prominent American food companies are under scrutiny in a federal probe of possible fraud and corruption in the military's food-supply operations for the Iraq war.

Investigators from the Justice Department and the Defense Department are looking into deals that Perdue Farms Inc., Sara Lee Corp., ConAgra Foods Inc. and other U.S. companies made to supply the military, according to people involved in the inquiry. The companies made the deals with the help of former U.S. military procurement officials they hired as consultants or executives.

The inquiry is focused on whether the food companies set excessively high prices when they sold their goods to the Army's primary food contractor for the war zone, a Kuwaiti firm called Public Warehousing Co. A related question is whether Public Warehousing improperly pocketed for itself refunds it received from these suppliers. Public Warehousing bought vast amounts of meat, vegetables and bakery items from the food companies, and delivered them to U.S. troops.

Public Warehousing's dealings are the subject of "a very large and active investigation into criminal and civil fraud involving amounts in the hundreds of millions of dollars," Justice Department lawyer Brian Mizoguchi told a judge in Federal Claims Court in Washington, D.C., on June 12. Public Warehousing, which receives more than $1 billion annually to feed troops in Iraq and Kuwait, denies wrongdoing.

Federal investigators are also examining the role Army officials played in picking the food companies that are Public Warehousing's suppliers. Once a "prime vendor" is chosen by the Pentagon to deliver the food -- in this case, Public Warehousing -- that vendor receives guidance from the Army on what should be on the menu. Sometimes the Army demands specific brands of food from specific manufacturers. The prime vendor must then negotiate prices for these menu items with these manufacturers.

Profit Margins

In general, many military contracts pay suppliers the cost of the goods they distribute plus a profit margin. In such cases, it is a challenge to ensure that the supplier seeks the lowest price from the maker of the goods. Unless adequate safeguards are in place, the supplier and the maker have an incentive to inflate the cost and share the extra profits among themselves.

Federal law prohibits government contractors from obtaining money through false or fraudulent pretenses.

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Blackwater involved in 195 shootings: report

General Dynamics profit expected to be undented by an Iraq pullout

General Dynamics, the worst-performing stock among the five largest U.S. defense companies, may outpace competitors like Raytheon and Northrop Grumman as investors gain confidence that a U.S. pullout from Iraq will not hurt profit at the company, which is the biggest supplier of combat gear to the U.S. Army.

U.S. troops in Iraq might need armored vehicles and tanks from General Dynamics for years to come, while allies are preparing to step up purchases to modernize their own militaries, said Erik Becker, co-manager of the Waddell & Reed Advisors Core Investment fund, based in Overland Park, Kansas.

"The U.S. military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan will continue for longer than people expect," Becker said.

In addition, revenue from business jets will help the stock rise 25 percent to $105 in the next 12 months, he said. General Dynamics trailed other U.S. defense companies most of the year.

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US plans $2.3bn arms sale to Iraq

Navy adds $1B to Raytheon destroyer tech deal

Department of Defense has awarded a $6.5 million contract to Raytheon's Tewksbury business unit, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems

We'll see. Iraq to end contractor 'immunity'

The new code would require contractors to be subject to Iraqi law and to be monitored by the Iraqi government.
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Correspondents say their behaviour has incensed Iraqis who view them as private armies acting with impunity on their soil.

The contractors are currently granted immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law by Order 17 of the Coalition Provisional Authority - the now-defunct interim body set up by the US-led coalition in the wake of the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The agreement was extended shortly before the CPA was disbanded in June 2004.

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Your Tax Dollars at Work Enriching "defense" contractors in a war of choice

War Costing $720 Million Each Day, Group Says

The money spent on one day of the Iraq war could buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity, according to the American Friends Service Committee, which displayed those statistics on large banners in cities nationwide Thursday and Friday.

Blackwater's 'Drug War' Bonanza

While Blackwater's mercenaries beg for mercy for killing a baby and 19 other people in Baghdad on Sunday, they're already working on another lucrative government contract on yet another foreign adventure: the "war on drugs."

In a major new outsourcing deal reported by only a few outlets, including the Army Times, Blackwater will divvy up a $15 billion pot of government gold, along with four huge defense contractors: Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Arinc.

Blackwater claims to be building remote-control spy airships. Purty darn good for an army based in a little North Carolina town — no, it's Currituck, not Mayberry.

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t probably didn't hurt the mercenary army that, according to federal campaign records, its top execs gave $1,000 to Tom DeLay's campaign on December 14, 2004. Or that they contributed mostly to other openly God-fearing lawmakers, like Bono pal Rick Santorum, Kansas's Todd Tiahrt, and Indiana's Mike Pence — whose campaign-finance tool is the Principles Exalt a Nation PAC.

Who's profiting from the Iraq war?

The White House has proposed military spending of $647 billion in 2008. Adjusted for inflation, that would be the highest level since World War II -- topping even expenditures during Vietnam and the Reagan years, calculates Hartung. The current request for Iraq-related spending for 2008 is $116 billion, which would raise total Iraq war spending to $567 billion.

Who's getting all that money? Sometimes it can be difficult to tell. "There isn't good visibility on where the money goes," says Steven Kosiak of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. But you can get a snapshot of who's been getting a good chunk of the Iraq-related spending in two ways.

• Talk back: What's your view on companies that profit from the Iraq war?

The first step is to scour a vast database of more than $400 billion in annual government contracts, more than 70% of which are from the Department of Defense. It's called the Federal Procurement Data System. I turned to a private contractor of my own, Eagle Eye, for some (free) expert assistance in navigating the database.

Lockheed Martin Overbills Pentagon to the Tune of $265 Million for F-35 Program

Bush Administration Provokes Russia to withdraw from arms treaty

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree suspending Russia's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty due to "extraordinary circumstances ... which affect the security of the Russian Federation and require immediate measures," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Putin has in the past threatened to freeze his country's compliance with the treaty, accusing the United States and its NATO partners of undermining regional stability with U.S. plans for a missile defense system in former Soviet bloc countries in Eastern Europe.

Under the moratorium, Russia would halt inspections and verifications of its military sites by NATO countries and would no longer limit the number of its conventional weapons, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Angry Reaction To Selection of Lockheed To Replace Canada's Aging Transports

Canada will spend $3.2 billion to acquire 17 C-130Js, as well as on infrastructure, training, and other related project expenses.
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Not only can the C-27J perform most of the same missions of the Lockheed craft at a third of the purchase price and a fifth of the maintenance cost, Giordo added -- it can also be used to replace Canada's aging search-and-rescue aircraft, saving even more money.
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