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Later last evening on PBS
NewsHour I saw Dr. Rice respond to suggestions of dissent between DoD and
NSA. She smiled and emphatically
stated that she is the coordinator of policy, not the creator of policy nor
does she implement policy. Great comeback/disclaimer. Rumsfeld already has a
slush fund of $9B in the $87B request marked as “not less than”. This has attracted some fodder for
opposition, but the President is likely to get most of what he asked for, this time. And that’s why they asked for $87B to cover 18 months, which gets them past the Nov 04
election season, which would be a terrible time to reappear with another
(expected) request. If you did not
catch it, check video of Lugar and Biden on Meet the Press Sunday. - KWC My guess is that a certain percentage of these monies are to be
used for covert activities. Bill On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 18:42:18 -0700 "Karen Watters Cole"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
writes: I’m filing this one under my Pax Americana folder,
not my Iraq folder. It seems to contradict what I understood to be a transfer
to the NSA staff. Is this because
they think Rice will not be allowed to administer the funds, as an unconfirmed
private advisor to the White House, not a cabinet official accountable to the
Congress? - KWC U.S.
to Create New Agency for Iraqi Contracts
By Sue Pleming, Tuesday, October 14,
2003 @ http://news.findlaw.com/politics/s/20031014/iraqcontractsdc.html WASHINGTON (Reuters)
- Anxious to speed up
work in Iraq, the Pentagon is planning a new office to oversee tens of billions
of dollars in contracts, taking away some power held by the U.S. Agency for
International Development, U.S. officials said Tuesday. USAID, which falls under the auspices of the State
Department, has been responsible for handing out many of the lucrative
reconstruction projects in Iraq along with the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers. The process of rebuilding
Iraq has been criticized for being too slow and for favoring U.S. companies.
USAID says those claims are unfair considering the massive task it faced going
into Iraq, where the security situation is still precarious and U.S. troops
come under daily fire. The new office, which will be based in Baghdad, is expected
to handle most of the $20.3 billion in new reconstruction work requested by
President Bush to Congress in supplemental funding for Iraq, U.S. officials
said. Details of the new office
were still being worked out but it was expected to be up and running next
month. The move underscores tensions and rivalry between the State
and Defense Departments over the rebuilding of Iraq. "It was felt that with so much money involved, it might
be useful to have another body," said one U.S. official, who asked not to
be named. Plans to create the Project
Management Office were first revealed at a conference in London
Monday. It is expected to be headed by retired Admiral David Nash, who is
already in Baghdad. "Things are coming in the direction of the Department
of Defense taking over the (Iraq reconstruction) project," John Shaw,
Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for International Technology Security told
the London conference. Quicker Results Shaw said progress to date had been slow, but he expected
results would now come very quickly with the Department of Defense running the
show. "We are moving out of
that gridlock," Shaw said. USAID spokeswoman Ellen Yount said the new agency would be
an oversight and management office for reconstruction work in Iraq. "We will support any efforts to
bring more efficiency to bear on the reconstruction of Iraq," said Yount. She said USAID still expected to play a
strong role in Iraq as many of the agency's current contracts ran for 12-18
months and most of those had options to extend. "Obviously we have not spent out all the funds and so
there is ongoing work that will take place. We will continue to have a
contracting role," said Yount.
She said USAID was prepared to take on more work if the CPA wanted the
agency to become more involved. "That decision has not been made yet
though," she said. Last month, USAID put out a $1.5 billion tender to rebuild
Iraq's infrastructure when money runs dry for a contract it gave to San
Francisco engineering firm Bechtel.
That new contract is dependent on funding from Congress. Bechtel is USAID's biggest contractor, with a $680 million
contract to rebuild Iraq's shattered infrastructure. Another $350 million is
also in the works for Bechtel's project in Iraq. |
