Archive: iraq
Loophole and Money
Nothing like a Washington Mystery (No, not the identity of Eliot Spitzer's ephemeral companion, Kristen. She was identified yesterday). I'm talking about the identity of the government insider who altered a Justice Department proposal last year requiring U.S. contractors abroad to report waste, fraud or abuse they encounter while...
By Robert O'Harrow | March 14, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (2)
Castles Made of Sand
Rock Lives -- even in the Defense Department. In a contracting notice posted Jan. 10, the DoD said it wants to hire a "Professional Celebrity Rock Music Band" to tour in Kuwait and Afghanistan next month. Wanna-be guitar heroes take note: the band needs to be able to play...
By Robert O'Harrow | January 30, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (67)
Blackwater and Malpractice
Blackwater has filed a $30 million malpractice suit against the high-powered team of lawyers the firm hired to defend against a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the families of the Fallujah Four, according to a story Friday by the Legal Times. The complaint accused the lawyers at Wiley Rein...
By Robert O'Harrow | January 27, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (75)
Sand, Maintenance and Money
Here's another glum contracting item from over there. The Government Accountability Office has found problems with a contract for maintenance of military vehicles -- problems that auditors believe have serious possible consequences for both troops in Iraq and taxpayers here. In a Jan. 22 letter to Congress, the GAO said...
By Robert O'Harrow | January 25, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
A Fire Risk
In a rush to build the massive $736 million embassy compound in Baghdad, the State Department and its contractors bungled a wide array of safety basics, including fire protection systems. "This is serious enough to get someone killed," a State Department official is quoted as saying in the exclusive...
By Robert O'Harrow | January 17, 2008; 06:58 AM ET | Comments (4)
Blackwater: Proxy War Over Procurement
The Blackwater USA hearing on the Hill yesterday was electric. As Blackwater founder Erik Prince prepared to testify, dozens of people lined up to get inside the grand hearing room. The media swarmed. Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee postured. One of the most interesting things,...
By Robert O'Harrow | October 3, 2007; 05:46 AM ET | Comments (43)
Private Armies, Public Debate Redux
One of the most intense contracting stories of our time -- because it includes bullets, guns and money -- remains Blackwater USA's role in Iraq. Today, my colleagues Steve Fainaru and Sudarsan Raghavan report on more incredible details about the recent street battles fought between the quasi-military, US-based security...
By Robert O'Harrow | September 28, 2007; 06:20 AM ET | Comments (9)
Billions And Billions
So it turns out that $6 billion worth of contracts to provide support for American warfighters in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq -- twice as much as previously known -- are under review by a criminal investigator for evidence of fraud, waste and abuse. Those details emerged at a House...
By Robert O'Harrow | September 21, 2007; 07:02 AM ET | Comments (10)
Private Armies, Public Debate
Talk about a juicy contracting lead. "In the wake of a deadly shootout in downtown Baghdad, the Iraqi government on Monday said it had revoked the license of Blackwater USA, a prominent American private security company, setting up a confrontation with the U.S. government over who has the authority...
By Robert O'Harrow | September 18, 2007; 10:19 AM ET | Comments (18)
Halliburton, Questions and Fuel for Debate
For four years, the no-bid contract awarded to Halliburton has been a magnet for controversy. The deal allowed the company to become the government's leading contractor in Iraq, and questions were raised over why it received the contract without competition. Then came the questions about money, which mounted as...
By Robert O'Harrow | August 10, 2007; 07:32 AM ET | Comments (10)
War And Money
Consider the following stories as food for thought. From the perspective of accountability, one can only assume there's much more here that has yet to be said. Megan Scully of CongressDaily wrote this story that appeared in GovernmentExecutive.com on Tuesday: "The cost of military operations and diplomatic efforts in...
By Robert O'Harrow | August 2, 2007; 05:32 AM ET | Comments (6)
Tale Of Two Cities
In some sad way, the story by my colleague Dana Hedgpeth last week did not come as a surprise. She reported that a major power plant in Baghdad was not functioning after the U.S. government paid millions to get it up and running, according to a July 18 report...
By Robert O'Harrow | July 25, 2007; 06:04 AM ET | Comments (2)
