WTF is this?

[Barb]

Home of the free? What are we funding?

U.S. contractors have made billions from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But now, several are being investigated for slave labor.

Vinnie Tuivaga, a hairdresser from Fiji, was one of the many victims who fell into the trap of modern slavery. Recruited to work in a luxury hotel in Dubai, instead she was trafficked to a military base in Iraq. She was forced to live in a shipping container, paid only a fraction of what was promised, and was unable to leave.

Meanwhile, the contractors kept the difference, lining their pockets with the taxes of ordinary American families.

U.S. tax dollars were never meant to fund slavery.

Over 150,000 people have already signed the petition - will you tell the U.S. Senate to pass the bipartisan End Trafficking in Government Contracting Act and stop taxpayer-funded modern slavery?

WalkFree.org

This isn't the first I heard of this, there were 2 men who testified before congress about Philippine nationals told they were going to well paid positions in Dubai, only to find themselves working on our embassy in Iraq.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evRPwwyno_c]Hearing on US Embassy in Iraq: Mayberry's Opening - YouTube[/ame]

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "An dey wonder why we got a deficit...

U.S. Audit: $200M Wasted on Iraqi Police Training
July 30, 2012 — U.S. auditors have concluded that more than $200 million was wasted on a program to train Iraqi police that Baghdad says is neither needed nor wanted.

The Police Development Program— which was drawn up to be the single largest State Department program in the world — was envisioned as a five-year, multibillion-dollar push to train security forces after the U.S. military left last December. But Iraqi political leaders, anxious to keep their distance from the Americans, were unenthusiastic. A report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, released Monday, found that the American Embassy in Baghdad never got a written commitment from Iraq to participate. Now, facing what the report called Baghdad's "disinterest" in the project, the embassy is gutting what was supposed to be the centerpiece of ongoing U.S. training efforts in Iraq.

According to the report, the embassy plans to turn over the $108 million Baghdad Police College Annex to Iraqis by the end of the year and will stop training at a $98 million site at the U.S. consulate in the southern city of Basra. Additionally, the number of advisers has been cut by nearly 90 percent — from 350 to 36. "A major lesson learned from Iraq is that host country buy-in to proposed programs is essential to the long-term success of relief and reconstruction activities. The PDP experience powerfully underscores that point," auditors wrote in a 41-page summary of their inspection. An advance copy was provided to The Associated Press.

Auditors noted that it "has clearly been difficult" for American diplomats to secure a solid commitment from Iraq's government to participate in the training program. Still, the report concluded, "the decision to embark on a major program absent Iraqi buy-in has been costly" and resulted in "a de facto waste." The findings call into question funding needs at the largest U.S. embassy in the world, as the Obama administration prepares its new spending plan for the 2013 fiscal year that begins Oct 1. While auditors said it's unknown how much the embassy in Baghdad is requesting, additional money for the police program "may not be needed."

Despite years and billions of dollars of training, Iraq's police force remains a vulnerable target for militants. On Sunday, seven police were killed and nine more wounded in bombings and shootings near the former al-Qaida stronghold of Fallujah, about 64 kilometers (40 miles) west of Baghdad. It appeared to be the latest strike by the Sunni insurgency as it seeks to reclaim areas where U.S. troops ousted them. In a July 26 letter responding to a draft of the report, acting Assistant Secretary of State Carol Z. Perez said the embassy will need an unspecified amount of additional funding this year to continue training Iraqi police into 2013. She disputed the finding that the funds have been wasted, noting Iraqis will continue to use the Baghdad Police College Annex for training.

Moreover, Perez said, the embassy has been assured by Principal Deputy Interior Minister Adnan al-Asadi that Iraq is committed to a streamlined version of the training program. U.S. diplomats will continue working with top security officials, she said, "to ensure that our police assistance efforts meet mutual goals and objectives and to sustain senior-level Iraqi commitment to the program." The auditors, however, said those assurances fall far short of a written commitment, and quoted al-Asadi as telling U.S. inspectors that the police training program is "useless."

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See also:

Millions lost in Afghan reconstruction: US watchdog
30 July`12 - Millions of dollars in US funds have been lost due to poor planning and workmanship in projects to help rebuild Afghanistan and billions more could be at risk, according to a US watchdog.

The report by the special inspector general for Afghanistan, John Sopko, warned that handing over security to Afghan forces as the US withdraws its troops would also likely cause the costs of US-funded aid schemes to balloon. "The United States risks wasting billions of dollars if US-funded development programs cannot be sustained, either by the Afghan government or by continued donor support," said the report released on Monday. "As this report to Congress illustrates, a decade of struggle and bloodshed -- and more than $89 billion of US appropriations for Afghan reconstruction -- has not cleared the landscape of serious problems," Sopko wrote. He added that a "significant portion of the US government's $400 million investment in large-scale infrastructure projects in fiscal year 2011 may be wasted, due to weaknesses in planning, coordination and execution."

The report comes as NATO countries, led by the United States, have already started to withdraw the remaining 130,000 troops after more than 10 years of war, with all combat forces due to have left by the end of 2014. And it warns that handing over security to Afghan forces will likely incur greater costs at construction sites. Audits of various projects taking place across the country found significant construction problems and flaws. "The US Army accepted contract construction that is so poor it prevents some multimillion-dollar border police bases from being used as intended," the report noted.

Three police border posts in eastern Nangarhar province were found to have major construction faults, including poorly-built guard towers, unconnected drains and badly-installed heating and ventilation systems. "These problems included the lack of a viable water supply, a poorly constructed septic system, and inadequate sewage," the report said, adding nothing has been repaired as there is no effective quality assurance in place. The basement of one of the buildings was now being used as a chicken coop, it added.

The analysis examines the Afghan Infrastructure Fund, which was authorized by Congress in 2010. Over the past two years, Congress has invested $800 million into the fund, and the State Department has committed about $1 billion of its funds to related infrastructure programs. Following complaints about shoddy workmanship, there had been arrests and charges brought in both the United States and Afghanistan and more than $900,000 had been recovered. Several contracts were also withdrawn when poor contractors were uncovered, leading to the protection of some $50 million in contract funds. Two people had been convicted, one of theft and conspiracy. If US lawmakers approve a request from US President Barack Obama for new reconstruction funding, the United States will have provided nearly $100 billion since the 2002 US-led invasion to rebuilding Afghanistan.

That is several times more than the $35 billion, in 2011 terms, invested in Europe after World War II, the report said. "Using that money effectively to improve security, governance, and socioeconomic development in Afghanistan poses tremendous challenges," Sopko wrote. "In the face of serious uncertainties about project sustainability, the need for sharp and effective oversight grows more critical." Sopko vowed his office would step up its oversight, saying security and sustainability were the biggest challenges for Afghanistan's reconstruction. "Many billions of dollars of US investments in Afghanistan may be wasted without arrangements to ensure that the Afghans have adequate personnel, skills, access to technology, funding, and planning and oversight mechanisms to sustain them," he warned.

Source

 

[Interpol]

Just be patient, everyone, the oil is gonna pay for everything.....

LOL

 

[DGS49]

All "wars" result in several different varieties of "feeding frenzies," so while these examples are appalling, we shouldn't be surprised.

There is a large population of Bastards, comprised mainly of ex-military, ex-government, former elected officials and their hirelings, who have made an art of sucking the Government's enormous teats. They feed on non-competitve government contracts for commodities, services, and "consultants." Because the government is in an "emergency" situation, the normal rules on competitive bidding are waived, and these Bastards prevail on their friends in Congress, regulatory agencies and government procurement offices to get awards of these sometimes-multimillion dollar contracts. And of course the reason why these in-Government folks are so happy to comply is because they hope to be in the same situation themselves within a few years, after they retire from government or military positions.

I spent five years in the '70's in DoD procurement, and I ran into these people occasionally when I had to go to DC on business. I saw million dollar consulting contracts go to people who had recently retired and honestly were only marginally competent anyway. I saw services contracts for work on Navy ships going to companies owned by government retirees, and the "services" could easily have been done by the sailors on the ships in their spare time. I used to walk out of meetings with these blood-suckers and couldn't wait to get back to my hotel so I could take a shower.

And it doesn't matter which Party is in power or who is in office; this is a never-ending tidal wave of taxpayer money being funnelled to an army of people whose whole existence is based on the exploitation of the taxpayer.

It's not for nothing that the real estate market in and around D.C. has never taken a hit. You are all paying for it.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Just be patient, everyone, the oil is gonna pay for everything.....LOL

Iraq was invaded for the Military Industrial Complex and nothing more. That should be clear to more people by now.