US to shut down Iraq reconstruction watchdog: report

[Beet]

NEW YORK (AFP) - A US agency which has exposed corruption and mismanagement in        Iraq reconstruction efforts will be shut down next year.

The New York Times reported on its website that a little-noticed provision in a recent military spending bill signed by        President George W. Bush will close the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction in October 2007.

The move will end an operation that has embarrassed the US government at times by exposing corruption and poor performance among favored contractors for billion-dollar reconstruction missions, like Halliburton and Parsons.

The provision was inserted at the last minute into a large military authorization bill by Republicans in Congress.

"It has generated surprise and some outrage among lawmakers, who say they had no idea it was in the final legislation," the Times said.

-------
More absurdity.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usiraqreconstruction

[Gabu]

Oh, brother.

I wish things like this could still surprise me anymore.

[MODU]

When you consider that the Bechtel and most of Halliburton's contracts are ended or coming to an end, there isn't much to oversee, right? 

[Gabu]

When you consider that the Bechtel and most of Halliburton's contracts are ended or coming to an end, there isn't much to oversee, right? 

If that's all there is to it, why was it stuck in at the last minute such that many of those voting on it didn't even know it was there?

[nlm]

When you consider that the Bechtel and most of Halliburton's contracts are ended or coming to an end, there isn't much to oversee, right? 

If that's all there is to it, why was it stuck in at the last minute such that many of those voting on it didn't even know it was there?

My guess - because Duncan Hunter is going to need a ton of money to run for President over the next 2 year period, and this was part of the terms and conditions for getting that money.

[MODU]

When you consider that the Bechtel and most of Halliburton's contracts are ended or coming to an end, there isn't much to oversee, right? 

If that's all there is to it, why was it stuck in at the last minute such that many of those voting on it didn't even know it was there?

Who knows.  How come they haven't passed the rider legislation yet to avoid such "surprises?" 

[Nym90]

Oh, wonderful. I guess that's always a good solution; if oversight is exposing corruption, just shut down the oversight. Problem solved, right? As long as we don't know about what's going on we can all just stay blissfully ignorant while our tax dollars are wasted.