-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: August 28, 2007 7:38:30 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Where Was Gen. Petraeus When Weapons Worth Billion$
"Disappeared" in Iraq?
Iraq Weapons Are a Focus of Criminal Investigations
By JAMES GLANZ and ERIC SCHMITT
New York Times, August 28, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/world/middleeast/28military.html?
ei=5065&en=b439102b6d2b8b9a&ex=1188878400&partner=MYWAY&pagewa
nted=print
BAGHDAD, Aug. 27 — Several federal agencies are investigating a
widening network of criminal cases involving the purchase and
delivery of billions of dollars of weapons, supplies and other
matériel to Iraqi and American forces, according to American
officials. The officials said it amounted to the largest ring of
fraud and kickbacks uncovered in the conflict here.
The inquiry has already led to several indictments of Americans,
with more expected, the officials said. One of the investigations
involves a senior American officer who worked closely with Gen.
David H. Petraeus in setting up the logistics operation to supply
the Iraqi forces when General Petraeus was in charge of training
and equipping those forces in 2004 and 2005, American officials
said Monday.
There is no indication that investigators have uncovered any
wrongdoing by General Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, who
through a spokesman declined comment on any legal proceedings.
This article is based on interviews with more than a dozen federal
investigators, Congressional, law enforcement and military
officials, and specialists in contracting and logistics, in Iraq
and Washington, who have direct knowledge of the inquiries. Many
spoke on condition of anonymity because there are continuing
criminal investigations.
The inquiries are being pursued by the Army Criminal Investigation
Command, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, among other agencies.
Over the past year, inquiries by federal oversight agencies have
found serious discrepancies in military records of where thousands
of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces actually ended up.
None of those agencies concluded that weapons found their way to
insurgents or militias.
In their public reports, those agencies did not raise the
possibility of criminal wrongdoing, and General Petraeus has said
that the imperative to provide weapons to Iraqi security forces was
more important than maintaining impeccable records.
In an interview on Aug. 18, General Petraeus said that with ill-
equipped Iraqi security forces confronting soaring violence across
the country in 2004 and 2005, he made a decision not to wait for
formal tracking systems to be put in place before distributing the
weapons.
“We made a decision to arm guys who wanted to fight for their
country,” General Petraeus said.
But now, American officials said, part of the criminal
investigation is focused on Lt. Col. Levonda Joey Selph, who
reported directly to General Petraeus and worked closely with him
in setting up the logistics operation for what were then the
fledgling Iraqi security forces.
That operation moved everything from AK-47s, armored vehicles and
plastic explosives to boots and Army uniforms, according to
officials who were involved in it. Her former colleagues recall
Colonel Selph as a courageous officer who was willing to take
substantial personal risks to carry out her mission and was
unfailingly loyal to General Petraeus and his directives to move
quickly in setting up the logistics operation.
“She was kind of like the Pony Express of the Iraqi security
forces,” said Victoria Wayne, who was then deputy director of
logistics for the overall Iraqi reconstruction program.
Still, Colonel Selph also ran into serious problems with a company
she oversaw that failed to live up to a contract it had signed to
carry out part of that logistics mission.
It is not clear exactly what Colonel Selph is being investigated
for. Colonel Selph, reached by telephone twice on Monday, said she
would speak to reporters later but did not answer further messages
left for her.
The enormous expenditures of American and Iraqi money on the Iraq
reconstruction program, at least $40 billion over all, have been
criticized for reasons that go well beyond the corruption cases
that have been uncovered so far. Weak oversight, poor planning and
seemingly endless security problems have contributed to many of the
program’s failures.
The investigation into contracts for matériel to Iraqi soldiers and
police officers is part of an even larger series of criminal cases.
As of Aug. 23, there were a total of 73 criminal investigations
related to contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, Col. Dan
Baggio, an Army spokesman said Monday. Twenty civilians and
military personnel have been charged in federal court as a result
of the inquiries, he said. The inquiries involve contracts valued
at more than $5 billion, and Colonel Baggio said the charges so far
involve more than $15 million in bribes.
Just last week, an Army major, his wife and his sister were
indicted on charges that they accepted up to $9.6 million in bribes
for Defense Department contracts in Iraq and Kuwait.
Investigations span the gamut from low-level officials submitting
false claims for amounts less than $2,500 to more serious cases
involving, conspiracy, bribery, product substitution and bid-
rigging or double-billing involving large dollar amounts or more
senior contracting officials, Army criminal investigators said. The
investigations involve contractors, government employees, local
nationals and American military personnel.
Questions about whether the American military could account for the
weaponry and other equipment purchased to outfit the Iraqi security
forces were raised as early as May of last year, when Senator John
W. Warner, Republican of Virginia and then the chairman of the
Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a request to an independent
federal oversight agency to investigate the matter.
But federal officials say the inquiry has moved far beyond the
initial investigation of hundreds of thousands of improperly
tracked assault rifles and semiautomatic pistols that grew out of
Senator Warner’s query. In fact, Senator Warner said in a statement
to The New York Times that he was outraged when he was briefed
recently on the initial findings of the investigations.
“When I was briefed on the recent developments, I felt so strongly
that I asked the Secretary of the Army to brief the Armed Services
Committee right away, which he did in early August,” Senator Warner
said in a statement.
An Army spokesman declined to comment on the briefing by the
secretary of the Army, Pete Geren. In a sign of the seriousness of
the scandal, the Defense Department Inspector General, Claude M.
Kicklighter, will lead an 18-person team to Iraq early next month
to investigate contracting practices, said Geoff Morrell, the
Pentagon press secretary.
Mr. Morrell said Mr. Kicklighter, a retired three-star Army
general, would stay in Iraq indefinitely to investigate contracting
abuses, and was empowered to fix problems on the spot or take
action if his team identified potential criminal activity.
Congressional officials who have been briefed on the Defense
Department inspector general’s inquiry said Monday that one focus
would be on weapons, munitions and explosives. In addition, Mr.
Geren, the Army secretary, is expected to announce later this week
the creation of a panel of senior contracting and logistics
specialists to address any systemic problems they identify.
Senator Warner’s request last May for an independent federal
oversight agency to investigate the accountability of weapons and
equipment given to Iraqi security forces underscored concern about
the issue.
That federal agency, the Special Inspector General for Iraq
Reconstruction, responded with a report in October 2006 that found
serious discrepancies in American military records of where
thousands of the weapons actually ended up. The military did not
take the routine step of recording serial numbers for the weapons,
the inspector general found, making it difficult to determine
whether any of the weapons had ended up in the wrong hands.
In July 2007, the Government Accountability Office found even
larger discrepancies, reporting that the American military “cannot
fully account for about 110,000 AK-47 rifles, 90,000 pistols, 80
items of body armor, and 115,000 helmets reported as issued to
Iraqi security forces as of Sept. 22, 2005.”
James Glanz reported from Baghdad, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.
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