Mismanagement and Hubris
by Charles C. Hall, Ed.D.

"Those who would give Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin

What is your "favorite" nightmare story out of Iraq? There are so many, it isn't easy to rank them in a rogue's gallery of outrage. The latest mind-boggler seems worse than the preceding one. Therefore the following is not a 1-2-3 list, it's a history of awfulness. I'll begin with one of the latest.

Major John Lee Cockerham *1 from Castor, LA, was behind bars twenty-four hours after attending his son's baptism. He was "accused of orchestrating the largest single bribery scheme against the military since the start of the Iraq war." It was a family affair. His wife and sister used "offshore bank accounts to hide nearly ten million in bribes from companies seeking military contracts." Melissa Cockerham, his "bagman -- er, woman" received shopping bags with hundreds of thousands of dollars from unidentified businessmen.

In 2006, they confessed to taking one million in bribes. They later pled not guilty of taking nine point six million. As the net closed, his sister, Carolyn Blake also accepted blackbag money. Two officers working with Cockerham committed suicide after knowing they would face similar charges. One, Major Gloria Davis shot herself in December 2006, after admitting she took two hundred twenty-five thousand dollars. Most of Cockerham's contracts to shady businessmen were under the $500,000.00 Pentagon auditors' glare. Most of the contracts from this ring of thieves were around $100,000.00.

Col. Byron Young, retired, current director of the Army contracting Agency said, "It was a web of deceit."

One of the first huge blunders was sending L. Paul Bremmer, neocon extrodinaire, as head of the Provisional Govt. He and Bush ordered the Iraqi army to be disbanded -- without pay. They took their guns home and some joined the "terrorists." Bremmer had orders from Cheney to secure only the Oil Ministry -- not the world-famous Iraqi museum, nor the schools, nor the hospitals. Every Arab in the Middle East knew the American invasion was all about oil, even though Cheney said it wasn't. So it goes .....

Air Force general (Ret.) after thirty-four years in the military resigned, took a job with Parsons, an Iraqi contractor, made out like a bandit. He was responsible for getting Parsons an 8 billion dollar contract. His take, per year, was seven hundred seventy thousand for his "expertise. " He oversaw a contract to build the Baghdad Police College. Two years and seventy million dollars later, the place is a pile of junk. *2

He appeared before a congressional committee to explain the failure. Here's part of his testimony:

Congressman Van Halen: "So you won't voluntarily look at this and say what hap- pened?

Robbins: "No sir. I will not," he snapped.

Van Halen: "... we will return to the projects."

Robbins: "No sir, I will not."

Van Halen later stated, "It just shows the contempt they have for us, for the taxpayers, for everyone."

One favored sub-contractor received a $3.4 million deal over an equally-qualified bidder whose bid was for $450,000.00 for the same project -- to supply ice for our troops.

Kellog Brown Root (KBR) supplied water tainted with E.coli to our troops for bathing. KBR billed for phantom meals in the inflated number of 42,042 when only 14,053 meals were served. "They were counting the same people multiple times," one ex-KBR employee said. Early on, KBR was charging three times the going rate for gasoline - $4.50 per gallon as against $1.60. KBR is one of the most despicable contractors in Iraq.

Do the names Scott Custer and Mike Battles ring a bell? These two ex-army officers formed Custer-Battles, a subcontractor to KBR. They had no experience in contracting. It didn't matter. They received a $100 million deal to, of all things, provide security to -- get this -- civilian flights into Baghdad airport. Not one civilian plane landed there during the time of their contract. They also received a bundle of money for expensive electronics and a bombsniffing dog. They took the $100 thousand and shipped it off to secret hands. "I never saw that dog do anything but sleep," one army officer said. "They played football with shrink-wrapped $100 thousand, $100 dollar bills," he said. Companies (sham of course) C-B set up, sent fake, inflated bills for purchases never made. They were told to buy a truck. They went out into the desert, found a beatup deserted cast-off, had a tank haul it back to the airport. It never ran.

The most egregious parts of this entire fiasco concern the meals KBR provided. They served spoiled meat and canned food a year past the expiration date in mess halls cited for "blood all over the floor." One manager said they even were required to dig shrapnel out of food supplies, then served to troops. KBR billed $16 million for food never served. They tripled the cost of ordinary towels. The rape of the US Treasury goes on and on and on.

When auditors tried to account for $23 million dollars, all they could document were $6,306,836.00. Bremmer's office could not document $25 million given to another agent. He had received $200 million and stashed it in various of Saddam's palaces. Much of the time, it was unguarded.

I don't know about you, but I think we're being taken to the cleaners in the name of "support our troops." That would be a legitimate and honorable thing if it were so. But, as one can see, the shysters, crooks, con-men, etc., etc. don't give a hoot about the troops.

So it goes . . . .

P.S. I support Ben Franklin and the troops.

*1 Graftring described as elaborate, DMN, Monday, Sept. 24th.

*2 Taiblir, Matt, The Rolling Stone Magazine for Sept. 6, 2007, pp 62-75