BARACK
OBAMA IS NOTHING BUT BUSH’S THIRD TERM ON STEROIDS!
WAR,
WAR, WAR, ENDLESS WAR TO PROTECT THE BORDERS OF MUSLIM DICTATORS WHILE OUR OWN
BORDERS ARE LEFT WIDE OPEN TO THE NARCOMEX DRUG CARTELS AND MEXICAN INVADERS!
CA
ALONE PUTS OUT $22 BILLION PER YEAR IN WELFARE TO ILLEGALS!
WHAT
WOULD $51 BILLION HAVE DONE IF SPEND ON EDUCATION GRANTS TO LEGALS IN OUR
BORDERS???????
WHO
BENEFITS FROM THE OBAMA WAR MACHINE?
TRY
OBAMA DONOR, SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN! ONE OF THE MOST CORRUPT POLITICIANS IN
HISTORY! AS BUSH’S WAR PROFITEER SHE RAKED IN MILLIONS AND WENT OUT AND BOUGHT
HERSELF ANOTHER MANSION, HER $16 MILLION S.F. PLACE ONLY MILES FROM HER S.F.
HOTEL WHERE SHE HIRES ILLEGALS BECAUSE THEY WORK “CHEAP” COMPARED TO A LEGAL!
WE
CAN’T FIX OUR NATION UNTIL WE RID OURSELVES OF THESE CORRUPT POLITICIANS!
Auditors say billions likely wasted in Iraq work
by ROBERT BURNS | Associated Press – 6
hrs ago
WASHINGTON (AP) —
After years of following the paper trail of $51 billion in U.S. taxpayer
dollars provided to rebuild a broken Iraq,
the U.S. government can say with certainty that too much was wasted. But it
can't say how much.
In what it called its
final audit report, the Office of the Special
Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Funds on Friday spelled out a
range of accounting weaknesses that put "billions of American taxpayer
dollars at risk of waste and misappropriation" in the largest reconstruction project of its kind in U.S.
history.
"The precise
amount lost to fraud and waste can never be known," the report said.
The auditors found
huge problems accounting for the huge sums, but one small example of failure
stood out: A contractor got away with charging $80 for a pipe fitting that its
competitor was selling for $1.41. Why? The company's billing documents were
reviewed sloppily by U.S. contracting officers or were not reviewed at all.
With dry
understatement, the inspector general said that while he couldn't pinpoint the
amount wasted, it "could be substantial."
Asked why the exact
amount squandered can never be determined, the inspector general's office referred
The Associated Press to a report it did in February 2009 titled "Hard
Lessons," in which it said the auditors — much like the reconstruction managers themselves — faced
personnel shortages and other hazards.
"Given the
vicissitudes of the reconstruction effort — which was dogged from the start by
persistent violence, shifting goals, constantly changing contracting practices
and undermined by a lack of unity of effort — a complete accounting of all
reconstruction expenditures is impossible to achieve," the report
concluded.
In that same report,
the inspector general, Stuart Bowen,
recalled what then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld asked when they met
shortly after Bowen started in January 2004: "Why did you take this job?
It's an impossible task."
By law, Bowen's
office reports to both the secretary of defense and the secretary of state. It
goes out of business in 2013.
Bowen's office has
spent more than $200 million tracking the reconstruction funds, and in addition
to producing numerous reports, his office has investigated criminal fraud that
has resulted in 87 indictments, 71 convictions and $176 million in fines and
other penalties. These include civilians and military members accused of
kickbacks, bribery, bid-rigging, fraud, embezzlement and outright theft of
government property and funds.
Much, however,
apparently got overlooked. Example: A $35 million Pentagon project was started
in December 2006 to establish the Baghdad airport as an international economic
gateway, and the inspector general found that by the end of 2010 about half the
money was "at risk of being wasted" unless someone else completed the
work.
Of the $51 billion
that Congress approved for Iraq reconstruction, about $20 billion was for
rebuilding Iraqi security forces and about $20 billion was for rebuilding the
country's basic infrastructure. The programs were run mainly by the Defense
Department, the State Department and the
U.S. Agency for International Development.
A key weakness found
by Bowen's inspectors was inadequate reviewing of contractors' invoices.
In some cases
invoices were checked months after they had been paid because there were too
few government contracting officers. Bowen found a case in which the State
Department had only one contracting officer in Iraq to validate more than $2.5
billion in spending on a DynCorp contract for Iraqi police training.
"As a result,
invoices were not properly reviewed, and the $2.5 billion in U.S. funds were
vulnerable to fraud and waste," the report said. "We found this lack
of control to be especially disturbing since earlier reviews of the DynCorp
contract had found similar weaknesses."
In that case, the
State Department eventually reconciled all of the old invoices and as of July
2009 had recovered more than $60 million.
The report touched on
a problem that cropped up in virtually every major aspect of the U.S. war
effort in Iraq, namely, the consequences of fighting an insurgency that proved
more resilient than the Pentagon had foreseen. That not only made
reconstruction more difficult, dangerous and costly, but also left the U.S.
military unprepared for the grind of multiple troop deployments, the tactics of
an adaptable insurgency and the complexity of battlefield wounds. It also left
the U.S. government short of the expertise it needed to monitor contractors.
Although
the audit was labeled as final, a spokesman for Bowen's office, Christopher M.
Griffith, said several more will be done to provide additional details on what
the U.S. got for its reconstruction dollars and what was wasted.
BARACK
OBAMA IS NOTHING BUT BUSH’S THIRD TERM ON STEROIDS!
WAR,
WAR, WAR, ENDLESS WAR TO PROTECT THE BORDERS OF MUSLIM DICTATORS WHILE OUR OWN
BORDERS ARE LEFT WIDE OPEN TO THE NARCOMEX DRUG CARTELS AND MEXICAN INVADERS!
Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington’s “Ten Most
Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2007
4. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA):
As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on military
construction, Feinstein reviewed military construction government contracts,
some of which were ultimately awarded to URS Corporation and Perini, companies
then owned by Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum. While the Pentagon ultimately
awards military contracts, there is a reason for the review process. The
Senate's subcommittee on Military Construction's approval carries weight. Sen.
Feinstein, therefore, likely had influence over the decision making
process. Senator Feinstein also attempted to undermine ethics reform in
2007, arguing in favor of a perk that allows members of Congress to book
multiple airline flights and then cancel them without financial penalty.
Judicial Watch’s investigation into this matter is ongoing.
*
“WHY HASN’T SHE
EXPRESSED OUTRAGE ABOUT SOME OF THE POTENTIAL CONFLICTS WITH PEOPLE IN OR CLOSE
TO THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION?... COULD IT BE THAT SHE HERSELF HAS SOME
ENTANGLEMENTS?”
"Why hasn't she expressed outrage about
some of the potential conflicts with people in or close to the Bush
administration?" Lewis said. "Could it be that she herself has some
entanglements?"
Blum's firms win
multimillion-dollar defense contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan Phillip Matier,
Andrew Ross Sunday, April 27, 2003 When it comes to scoring mega-military-related
contracts, Sen. Dianne Feinstein's multimillionaire husband, Richard Blum, is
right in the thick of things.
First up: a contract announced last week
between the Army and URS Corp., the San Francisco planning and engineering company
that specializes in defense work -- and that happens to be partly owned by
Blum's investment firm. The contract -- which could grow to $600 million -- is
to help with troop mobilization, weapons systems training and anti-terrorism
methods. That's on top of a $3.1 billion Army contract that URS snared back in
February for weapons systems and homeland defense. Next up: Perini Corp., which
qualified earlier this month for as much as $100 million of defense work in
Iraq and elsewhere. The Massachusetts-based company is already busy building
barracks and other facilities for the new Afghan army -- a separate contract
worth $28 million. Blum's investment firm controls about 20 percent of Perini's
shares, with the majority held by a group of investors led by company chairman
Ron Tutor. Some of Perini's stock is also held by Tutor's West Coast
construction company, Tutor-Saliba -- the firm that built the Los Angeles
subway system, rebuilt the Oakland Coliseum and put BART into San Francisco
International Airport. Tutor-Saliba also oversaw construction of SFO's new
international terminal - - work that is under investigation by the city
attorney's office for alleged overbilling. But it's Blum's ties to URS -- in
which he controls about a quarter of the stock -- that are certain to raise the
most questions. In July, URS acquired defense contractor EG&G (the
technical services branch that won the $600 million contract) from the Carlyle
Group investment firm. That's the outfit that boasts ex-President George H.W.
Bush, former Secretary of State James Baker and ex-British Prime Minister John
Major as advisers. In exchange, Carlyle received cash and a chunk of URS stock
worth a total of $500 million. What's more, a top Carlyle manager now sits
alongside Blum on URS' board of directors. Celia Wexler, research director for
Common Cause in Washington, D.C., says all the defense and homeland security
deals involving Blum-connected companies raise concern of political hanky-panky
-- especially with talk of the United States spending $100 billion to rebuild
Iraq. "You don't want this process to be tainted by the possibility that
there is any favoritism involved -- whether it's to the husband of a powerful
Democratic senator or someone close to the Bush administration," Wexler
said. "In the end, you want a process that is competitive, accountable and
open. It's the only way there will be confidence the process is not larded by
cronyism or inside deals." Both Blum and Feinstein -- along with
representatives of both URS and Perini -- said all the deals have been on the
up and up. "Sen. Feinstein has no say or involvement whatsoever in how
(Defense Department) contracts are awarded," said Blum spokesman Owen
Blicksilver. He added that URS -- with 27,000 employees worldwide -- is "a
big public company that bids on dozens of public contracts . . . and as a
matter of policy, the board of directors -- of which Mr. Blum is a member -- is
never told what the company is bidding on." As for Blum's Perini
involvement, Blicksilver said that Blum doesn't serve on the board and that the
company represents less than 1 percent of his overall investments. "So his
benefit from any contract to Perini is (minuscule)," Blicksilver said.
Feinstein spokesman Howard Gantman similarly dismissed any ethics concerns,
saying none of the contracts is voted on by the Senate. "We have checked
with the Ethics Committee to make sure there is no conflict of interest, and
have been told there are no conflicts," Gantman said. By the way, we
questioned the office of Rep. Henry Waxman, the Los Angeles Democrat and House
Government Reform Committee member whose protest recently halted the awarding
of a defense contract to Vice President Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton.
"That's a fundamentally different situation," said Waxman's chief of
staff, Phil Schiliro. His boss objected to a Halliburton subsidiary being
awarded a no-bid contract to repair Iraqi oil fields because the firm had just
paid $2 million to settle a claim that it had overcharged the government on an
earlier contract, Schiliro said. "The government didn't allow any other
bidders to compete for the contract, and gave Kellogg Brown & Root (the
Halliburton subsidiary) the kind of contract it had just abused," Schiliro
said. Charles Lewis, executive of the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity
watchdog group in Washington, says that "regardless of whether there is a
direct conflict of interest, it's useful to know that the spouse of a sitting
senator is getting richer because of what's going on in the world."
“WHY HASN’T SHE EXPRESSED
OUTRAGE ABOUT SOME OF THE POTENTIAL CONFLICTS WITH PEOPLE IN OR CLOSE TO THE
BUSH ADMINISTRATION?... COULD IT BE THAT SHE HERSELF HAS SOME ENTANGLEMENTS?”
"Why hasn't she expressed outrage about some of the potential conflicts
with people in or close to the Bush administration?" Lewis said.
"Could it be that she herself has some entanglements?"
March 1, 2006 The Democrats' Daddy
Warbucks
Feinstein family war profits, part
II
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband,
Richard Blum, could well be called the Democrats' Daddy Warbucks. He's scored
bundles from war contracts. He has recently purchased a $16.5 million crib in
San Francisco and along with his wife has handed hundreds of thousands of
dollars over to fellow Democrats. Since the 2000 election cycle, Blum has
contributed over $75,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Committee, and thousands
more to individual Democrats, including John Kerry, Robert Byrd, Joe Lieberman,
Ted Kennedy, and Barbara Boxer. Richard Blum's history as an entrepreneur began
at the ripe age of 23 when he began to work for the San Francisco brokerage
firm Sutro & Company. Blum quickly climbed the ranks and became a partner
by the age of 30. According the San Francisco Chronicle, "Blum proved that
he had an eye for fixer-upper properties when he led a partnership that
acquired the struggling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for $8
million – then sold it to Mattel Inc. four years later for $40 million."
In 1975, Blum went out on his own and formed a brokerage agency. Today, Blum's
lofty firm, Blum Capital, holds positions in more than 20 companies, including
real estate giants, credit bureaus, and yes, even military contractors. Blum
sees himself as an altruistic capitalist, claims one of his ex-employees:
"He likes to go after companies that are down and out, and bring their
stock back to life. He thinks he's doing good." Blum shares a large stake
in Perini, a civil construction company that is happily employed in Iraq and
Afghanistan. But not all of Blum's war profits come from Perini. In 1975, his
venture capital firm went after fledging construction and design company URS
when the business was about to be bought out by another corporation. Since
then, Blum has increased his stock in URS, capitalizing on its recent military
contracts. Unlike Blum's dabbling with Barnum & Bailey, his current profits
aren't so safe for child consumption. Here are the basics to date: Blum
currently holds over 111,000 shares of stock in URS Corporation, which is now
one of the top defense contractors in the United States. Blum is an acting
director of URS, which bought EG&G, a leading provider of technical
services and management to the U.S. military, from The Carlyle Group in 2002.
Carlyle's trusty advisers, past and present, include former President George
H.W. Bush, James Baker, and ex-SEC Commissioner Arthur Levitt, among other
prominent neoconservatives and Washington power brokers. URS and Blum have
since banked on the Iraq war, scoring a phat $600 million contract through
EG&G. As a result, URS has seen its stock price more than triple since the
war began in March 2003. Blum has cashed in over $2 million on this venture
alone and another $100 million for his investment firm. "As part of
EG&G's sale price," reports the San Francisco Chronicle, "Carlyle
acquired a 21.74 percent stake in URS – second only to the 23.7 percent of
shares controlled by Blum Capital." The Carlyle Group has long been
accused of exploiting its political connections to turn a profit. And if
Carlyle can come under the microscope for its government ties and war
profiteering, as it did in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, than surely Blum's
URS ought to be subject to the same scrutiny.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
“WE MUST PROTECT BUSH’S FILTHY
SAUDIS BED PARTNERS! IT MEANS MONEY IN MY PIMP’S POCKETS!” --- Senator Dianne
Feinstein, Whore.
The Byrne Report Hawk Tale By Peter
Byrne ON JAN. 18,
California senator Dianne Feinstein
introduced Dr. Condoleezza Rice at a Senate nomination hearing for Secretary of
State in terms so saccharine that molasses seemed to ooze out of her mouth. She
was a precocious child, Feinstein purred. She has skill, judgment and poise.
She loves football. Bush loves her. "The problems we face abroad are
complex and sizable. If Dr. Rice's past performance is any indication, though,
we can rest easy." That very same day, Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum,
took advantage of a spike in the price of his URS Corporation stock. He sold a
third of his holdings in the defense contractor for $57 million, according to
filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. With Rice confirmed,
the business of death and occupation looks rosy as hell for Feinstein,
who--let's get real--benefits tremendously from sharing community property with
Blum. URS' largest customer is the U.S. Army, which accounted for 17 percent
($587 million) of its cash revenue in 2004. In 2001, URS enjoyed a mere $169
million in defense contracts. Now, its war contracts total more than $2
billion. According to its annual report, the San Francisco based URS
anticipates that profits will rocket up in 2005, because "operations in
the Middle East are expected to generate increased work related to the
development of weapons systems, the training of military pilots and the
maintenance, upgrade and repair of military vehicles."
Provided, of course, that our hawkish
leadership remains as poised and lovable as the new Secretary of State.
Feinstein, who sits on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, is an advocate
of first-strike warfare, even though it flouts international law and the standards
of common decency. Interestingly, her Financial Disclosure Report for 2003 was
more than three times the size of her 2002 disclosure (Feinstein's 2003
disclosure numbers 133 pages, compared to Sen. Barbara Boxer's six-page
report). The Feinstein-Blum portfolio is crammed with multimillion dollar
investments in the military-industrial-financial complex and corporations that
heavily exploit Third World peoples.
The senator has a lot to lose
should the neoconservative war machine falter. Hubby holds a controlling
interest in another engineering firm, Perini Corporation of Framingham, Mass.
Perini ranks No. 6 by dollar amount in war-related government contracts in the
Middle East. According to its annual report, "Perini proudly supports the
U.S. government with global rapid response capabilities for defense,
reconstruction and security." Perini builds military facilities and roads
in Afghanistan, electrical infrastructure in Iraq and U.S. embassies around the
world. After the Senate, Feinstein included, approved Bush's war plans in 2002,
Perini's defense contract awards soared from negligible to $2.52 billion. But,
as with many of the sole-source, open-ended contracts awarded to politically
connected firms, there are problems with accountability. Last summer,
Department of Defense auditors determined that Perini could not adequately
justify its costs in Iraq as fair and reasonable. That's government-speak for:
They're gouging the #!$% out of us. Perini is heavily engaged in military and
municipal public works projects inside the United States; at least two are also
under investigation for contract fraud. For example, the city of San Francisco
has sued general contractor Perini--which was in a joint venture with the
Tutor-Saliba construction firm--for $100 million in cost overruns at a San
Francisco International Airport project. The lawsuit alleges that the joint
venture engaged in "a sophisticated pattern of fraud," including
inflating costs, fabricating delays and setting up minority front companies to
exploit affirmative-action preferences. The attorney general of Massachusetts
is looking into alleged false claims made by a Perini joint venture in the
"Big Dig" urban highway construction boondoggle in Boston. Ron Tutor,
owner of Tutor-Saliba and CEO of Perini, bought into the latter company, along
with Blum, as it teetered on the edge of solvency in the mid- 1990s due to a
bad real estate investment. It rebounded, thanks to the firm's sudden ability
to obtain lucrative U.S. military and government contracts, which, of course,
had nothing to do with the fact that Blum's powerful wife has her hands on the
military's purse strings. Remarkably, Perini grossed $1.37 billion in 2003, up
27 percent from the previous year, before the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Perini attributes its rocketing profits to "increased volume of work in
Iraq and Afghanistan." As a risk factor, the firm notes that continued
demand for its military services depends upon "the political situation in
Iraq," which, logically, means that it desires the bloody war and useless
occupation to continue indefinitely--a wish that hawktails with the foreign
policy positions of Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld and Feinstein. I almost forgot: Perini
Corp. is the nation's most active builder of Indian-fronted casinos. That
explains a few things about Sen. Feinstein and the politics of gambling, soon
to be revealed in greater detail in this space.
MEXICO
BANKRUPTS CALIFORNIA HOSPITALS - MEX
CONSULATES URGE LOOTING OF LEGALS
While
the Obama Administration halts deportations to work on its secret
amnesty
plan, hospitals across the U.S. are getting stuck with the exorbitant tab of
medically treating illegal immigrants and some are finally demanding compensation
from the federal government.
*
The
Feinstein-Boxer LA RAZA Welfare State: (you're paying for it stupid gringo!)
SENS.
FEINSTEIN and BOXER, TWO OF THE MOST CORRUPT AND SELF-SERVING POLITICIANS IN
AMERICAN HISTORY HAVE THREE (3) TIMES ATTEMPTED A “SPECIAL AMNESTY” FOR 1.5
MILLION ILLEGAL FARM WORKERS DESPITE THE FACT THAT ONE-THIRD OF ALL FARM
WORKERS END UP ON WELFARE.
THEY DO SO ON BEHALF
OF THEIR GREEDY BIG AG BIZ DONORS!
Jose Herria emigrated illegally from Mexico to Stockton, Calif., in 1997 to work as a fruit picker. He brought with him his wife, Felipa, and three children, 19, 12 and 8 -- all illegals. When Felipa gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Flor, the family had what is referred to as an "anchor baby" -- an American citizen by birth who provided the entire Silverio clan a ticket to remain in the U.S. permanently.
*
DETROIT IN MELTDOWN WHILE OBAMA RED
CARPETS AROUND SERVICING BANKSTERS, LA RAZA ILLEGALS and MUSLIM DICTATORS!
OBAMA WANTS TO HAND MUSLIM DICTATORS
MORE THAN $250 MILLION WHILE DETROIT ROTS!
*
OBAMA
FUNDS LA RAZA
BARACK OBAMA and the RISE and FUNDING
of the MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA “The Race”
No comments:
Post a Comment