The President's Speech on Iraq Reconstruction
By Rep. Henry A. Waxman
t r u t h o u t | Statement
Wednesday 07 December 2005
The President's claims today are mindboggling. Either he doesn't
understand the facts or simply doesn't want to face them. The reconstruction
of Iraq has been an enormous boondoggle - not an example of "quiet, steady
progress." Halliburton has repeatedly overcharged American taxpayers through
fraud, waste, and abuse. The U.S. officials in charge of the reconstruction
have been incompetent and, in some cases, corrupt. And billions of dollars
have been squandered without increasing oil or electricity production.
Key Facts about the Reconstruction
Lack of Progress.
Massive spending on reconstruction has produced little or no progress in
key sectors like electricity and oil. Despite a $2.2 billion investment in
Iraq's oil infrastructure, production and export levels have actually
dropped below pre-war levels. And despite the $4.4 billion the Bush
Administration spent to boost Iraq's electricity production, it has fallen
far short of its goal of 6000 megawatts of peak output capacity. In fact,
the Administration has conceded, "We'll never meet demand." Iraqis living in
Baghdad typically have just two hours of power followed by four hours
without power throughout the day.
Rampant Overcharges and Lax Oversight.
Large government contractors like Halliburton have repeatedly
overcharged the taxpayer. Auditors at the Defense Contract Audit Agency have
identified over $1.4 billion in unreasonable and unsupported charges by
Halliburton in Iraq. Whistleblowers have testified about $100 bags of
laundry, $45 cases of soda, and brand new $85,000 trucks being abandoned
because of a flat tire. Yet the Administration refuses to take action. Last
month, the Defense Department paid Halliburton $130 million in
reimbursements, profits, and bonuses for billings that the department's own
auditors recommended against paying.
Incompetent Management.
The Bush Administration's management of the reconstruction of Iraq has
been fundamentally incompetent. Billion-dollar contracts were awarded with
little or no competition to favored contractors. Competition for discrete
reconstruction projects was suppressed by dividing Iraq into a handful of
fiefdoms and awarding lucrative monopoly contracts to companies that never
had to compete against each other for specific reconstruction tasks.
Burgeoning Corruption.
Between May 2003 and June 2004, U.S. officials shipped nearly $12
billion in cash to Iraq. As government audits later found, the cash was
spent and disbursed by U.S. officials with virtually no financial controls
or reliable accounting. The Administration cannot account for over $8
billion that was transferred to Iraqi ministries. This unsupervised flood of
cash into Iraq became an open invitation to corruption. A senior U.S.
official already has been charged with accepting hundreds of thousands of
dollars in bribes and kickbacks from a U.S. contractor in exchange for
steering up to $3.5 million in fraudulent contracts his way. Government
investigators have said that there are dozens of other criminal corruption
cases being processed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senator Russ Feingold Responds to President's Speech
By Senator Russ Feingold
t r u t h o u t | Statement
Wednesday 07 December 2005
"The President does not understand that his Iraq policies are preventing
us from succeeding in our larger campaign against global terrorists - Iraq
is not the be-all and end-all of our country's national security. The
President also fails to understand the limited role the U.S. military should
play in Iraq's long-term political and economic reconstruction efforts. Our
brave servicemen and women won a resounding victory in the initial military
operation, and their task is largely over. Maintaining the current U.S.
military presence, without a clear plan and timetable to finish the military
mission in Iraq, isn't a strategy for success in Iraq or for success in the
fight against global terrorism.
Rather than continuing with a media blitz that tries to repackage a
"stay the course" strategy that isn't working, the President and his
administration should give the public a plan, with a timetable, to complete
the military mission in Iraq. We need to get the focus back on the
significant threats the United States faces that are currently being ignored
or inadequately addressed."
Feingold voted against the Iraq resolution in October 2002. In June, he
introduced a resolution that called on the President to provide a flexible,
public timetable for concluding our mission in Iraq - one that is tied to
clear and achievable benchmarks. In August, Feingold suggested December 31,
2006 as a target date to complete the military mission there.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bush Lauds Iraq Progress, Cites Challenges
By Deb Riechmann
The Associated Press
Wednesday 07 December 2005
Trying to build support for Iraq war strategy, President Bush
acknowledged Wednesday that reconstruction has proceeded with "fits and
starts" but spreading economic progress is lifting people's hopes for a
democratic future.
In particular, Bush cited Najaf, 90 miles south of Baghdad, and Mosul in
northern Iraq - once the sites of some of the bloodiest battles of the war -
as two cities where headway is being made, giving Iraqis more of a stake in
their country's future.
"In places like Mosul and Najaf, residents are seeing tangible progress
in their lives," Bush said. "They're gaining a personal stake in a peaceful
future and their confidence in Iraq's democracy is growing. The progress in
these cities is being replicated across much of Iraq. And more of Iraq's
people are seeing the real benefits that a democratic society can bring."
There's still plenty of work left to do in cities like Najaf and Mosul,
he said.
"Like most of Iraq, the reconstruction in Najaf has proceeded with fits
and starts since liberation," Bush said. "It's been uneven. Sustaining
electric power remains a major challenge. ... Security in Najaf has improved
substantially but threats remain. There are still kidnappings and militias
and armed gangs are exerting more influence than they should in a free
society."
Bush's speech was the second in a series of four to answer criticism and
questions about the continuing U.S. presence in Iraq more two and a half
years after the war started.
Bush is shouldering the lowest job approval rating of his presidency,
and the latest series of speeches amount to a public relations campaign to
respond to political pressure that has mounted as U.S. deaths have eclipsed
2,100. He and other administration officials are working to shore up
slumping public support for the war in the run-up to the Dec. 15 vote in
Iraq to create a democratically elected government that will run the country
for the next four years.
While Bush talked about reconstruction projects and the reopening of
schools, markets and hospitals, the upgrading of roads and the growth of
construction jobs in the two cities, he also acknowledged that both cities
still face challenges.
"Iraqis are beginning to see that a free life will be a better life,"
Bush said. "Reconstruction has not always gone as well as we had hoped,
primarily because of the security challenges on the ground. Rebuilding a
nation devastated by a dictator is a large undertaking."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi suggested that Bush was out of touch
with reality in Iraq. "Just because he says thing are improving there,
doesn't make it so," the California Democrat said.
"The president says the security situation on the ground is better. It
is not," Pelosi said. "More of the same in Iraq is not making us safer."
After a caucus meeting on Iraq, she and other Democrats in leadership
sought to project a unified front on the war, even though they disagree over
just when U.S. troops should return home.
In his speech, Bush acknowledged that there's still plenty of work left
to do in cities like Najaf and Mosul.
"Like most of Iraq, the reconstruction in Najaf has proceeded with fits
and starts since liberation," he said. "It's been uneven. Sustaining
electric power remains a major challenge."
"Security in Najaf has improved substantially but threats remain," Bush
added. "There are still kidnappings and militias and armed gangs are
exerting more influence than they should in a free society."
Critics of the administration's reconstruction strategy in Iraq say not
enough has been done since the U.S.-led invasion to reduce unemployment,
step up oil production and keep the lights on.
"There's no doubt there are a lot of good things happening economically,
but to conclude, therefore, that the economy is fundamentally healthy or
that it's improving fast enough to really help us with the war, I think goes
too far," said Michael O'Hanlon, foreign policy analyst at the Brookings
Institution, a liberal think tank in Washington.
The administration also is trumpeting progress on the economic front in
a 35-page booklet titled "Our National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" that it
released a week ago when the president gave the first speech of the series
at the U.S. Naval Academy. There, he highlighted progress in training Iraqi
army and police forces. Democrats dismissed his remarks at the time as a
stay-the-course speech with no real strategy for success
"This is quiet, steady progress," Bush said Wednesday. "It doesn't
always make the headlines and the evening news. But it's real and it's
important and it is unmistakable to those who see it close up."
Senate Democrats were issuing a report Wednesday saying the U.S. faces a
reconstruction gap. While the administration cites the number of new schools
built, roads paved and businesses created, "the simple fact is that basic
needs - jobs, essential services, health care - remain unmet," according to
the report obtained by The Associated Press.
"Iraq's economic progress has fallen significantly short of
administration's goals," the Democratic report said. "Clearly, efforts to
grow Iraq's economy have been challenging because Saddam Hussein left his
nation's economic infrastructure in shambles. However, the Bush
administration has exacerbated the challenge by its poor planning and
policies."
***
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: December 6, 2005 5:27:10 PM PST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Mumia Abu-Jamal - Decision, U.S. Court of Appeals
[PLEASE CIRCULATE]
Dear Friends and Supporters:
Today the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued the
most important decision affecting my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, since the
lower federal court ruling in December 2001. An order was issued this
morning that the court will accept for review the following issues, all of
which are of enormous constitutional significance and go to the very essence
of Mumia's right to a fair trial due process of law, and equal protection of
the law under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S.
Constitution:
a.. Claim 14: Whether appellant was denied his constitutional rights
due to the prosecution's trial summation.
b.. Claim 16: Whether the Commonwealth's use of peremptory challenges
at trial violated appellant's constitutional rights under Batson v.
Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986).
c.. Claim 29: Whether appellant was denied due process during
post-conviction proceedings as a result of alleged judicial bias.
Claim 16 concerns the prosecutorial use of racism in jury selection. The
record establishes beyond question that racism is a major thread that has
run through this case since Mumia's 1981 arrest, and continues to today.
Claim 14 relates to the guilt phase. It includes the prosecutor's argument
that if convicted Mumia would have "appeal after appeal." That comment
effectively lessened the burden of the jurors, and turned the concept of
reasonable doubt and presumption of innocence on its head. Claim 29 is
about the bias and incredible racism of Judge Albert Sabo, the trial judge.
Unfortunately, it is limited to his conduct at the 1995 evidentiary (PCRA)
hearing, rather than his monstrous behavior at trial. This restriction is
because all of the prior attorneys mistakenly did not attack Sabo's
misconduct at trial, an unfortunate oversight and mistake
The court has also issued a briefing schedule. The case is now on the
fast track, as I have been predicting. The opening briefs are due to be
filed by January 17, 2006.
Please post this e-mail and the attached Order on your web sites, and
circulate it.
Today we achieved a great victory in the campaign to win a new trial and
the eventual freedom of Mumia.
Your support, and activism, is badly needed and appreciated.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
=============
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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