TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2010
KLMNO
Pentagon faulted on control of fund
IG: $2.6 billion in Iraqi oil revenue unaccounted for
by Ernesto Londoño
baghdad — Because of poor record-keeping and lax over- sight, the Defense Department cannot account for how it spent $2.6 billion that belonged to the Iraqi government, according to the inspector general for Iraq re- construction.
An audit of a $9.1 billion fund
of Iraqi oil proceeds showed that most American military agencies entrusted with spending the money on reconstruction proj- ects failed to adhere to U.S. rules on how such money must be tracked and spent, the inspector general found. U.S. officials failed to create bank accounts for $8.7 billion in the Development Fund for Iraq, as mandated by the Treasury De- partment, creating “breakdowns in controls [that] left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss,” according to the report, which is scheduled to be released Tuesday. The audit is the latest probe to fault the U.S. government for mismanagement of Iraqi funds in the years following the U.S.- led invasion in March 2003, which led to an insurgency and a years-long occupation. “Weak oversight is directly
correlated to increased numbers of cases of theft and abuse, with the majority of convictions to date being traceable to the 2003- 2004 time-frame where account- ing practices were weakest,” Stu- art W. Bowen Jr., the special in- spector general for Iraq recon- struction, said in an e-mail. The report also said the U.S.
military continues to hold at least $34.3 million of the fund, even though it was required to
return it to the Iraqi government in December 2007. In a written response to a draft of the audit, the Pentagon vowed to act on the inspector general’s three recommendations to strengthen accounting mecha- nisms and dispose of the Iraqi money not yet relinquished. The Defense Department comptroller promised to report back to the inspector general’s office by November on progress made. “We look forward to seeing real results,” Bowen said. The alleged mismanagement of the fund has angered Iraqi of- ficials, who have raised the possi- bility of taking legal action against the United States, Bowen said.
American officials with the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led occupation adminis- tration, took control in 2003 of $20 billion of Iraqi government funds and obtained permission through a U.N. Security Council resolution to use the money for humanitarian assistance and re- construction. After the June 2004 dissolu- tion of the CPA, the Iraqi govern- ment agreed to let the U.S. mili- tary control the remaining funds. It revoked the authority on Dec. 31, 2007. The inspector general in 2005 criticized the CPA’s management of an $8.8 billion fund that be- longed to the Iraqi government. A criminal probe conducted by the inspector general then led to the conviction of eight U.S. offi- cials on bribery, fraud and mon- ey-laundering charges. The latest audit does not in- clude allegations of criminal con- duct. The United States also has spent more than $50 billion in taxpayer money for reconstruc- tion projects in Iraq.
londonoe@washpost.com
THE FED PAGE H
IN SESSION Perry Bacon Jr.
e fell just short of winning the White House in 2004. Four years later, he was rumored to be a leading contender to be secretary of state, until President-elect Barack Obama stunned everyone by tapping his former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. But even as Sen. John F. Kerry
(D-Mass.) announced last week that he had failed in his latest political endeavor, pushing through a bill to combat climate change, he predicted eventual success, invoking a Massachusetts colleague and presidential contender. “I just want to say to all of you on a personal level that, you know, I watched Ted Kennedy over 26 years fight to get tough things passed,” Kerry said at a news conference Thursday. “And in 1970, he began that effort to pass health-care reform. We just got it this year. This is not going to take that long. This is not going to take close to that long.” Rather than take up a bill seeking to limit greenhouse-gas emissions, a long-held Democratic goal and campaign priority of Obama’s, Democrats will try to pass legislation over the next few weeks that would raise liability caps for companies such as BP after oil spills. The measure would also offer some incentives for Americans to buy more-energy-efficient products for their homes. The retrenchment comes after months of internal debate among Democrats, much of it led by Kerry. Last summer, the House pushed through a bill based on the principle of “cap and trade”; it set up emissions limits for companies that produce greenhouse gases, along with permits for emissions they could trade with one another. But that legislation, which barely passed in the House, had even more opposition in the Senate, where Republicans and Democratic lawmakers such as
Afghan intelligence contracts apply some limits A
fter more than eight years of fighting in Afghanistan, the United States and its
NATO coalition partners continue to hire private contractors to support their intelligence and counterintelligence analyses and operations in that country. Earlier this month, NATO’s
International Security Assistance Force issued two solicitations for intelligence help, one to supply individuals with 14 specialties as part of a “multi-faceted intelligence operations support program” and the other to supply a 28-person team to work in Kabul inside the intelligence and operations division of the Afghan combined forces command. The Washington Post series
Top Secret America highlighted the enormous increase in contracting for intelligence assistance since Sept. 11, 2001. Last week, James Clapper, President Obama’s nominee to be director of national intelligence, told senators during his confirmation hearing, “Intelligence . . . now drives everything, so it’s not surprising in my view that we have so many contractors.” Clapper, however, said that standards are lacking and raised the question: “Should there be limits on the number of full-time- equivalent contractors who are embedded in the intelligence community?” The Afghan intelligence
contracts come as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is seeking to cut Pentagon spending and reduce contracting by 13 percent, according to the Post series. In addition, Gates has investigations underway into past intelligence contracting. Reflecting congressional concerns that contractors are taking over inherently governmental functions, both of the solicitations issued last week say the contracted employees cannot be used “in direct support of combat operations [or] used to conduct source operations.” In addition, contractors will “not direct or supervise government personnel . . . [or] conduct or directly participate in interrogations under any
WALTER PINCUS Fine Print
circumstances.” These limitations reflect language attached recently to defense authorization legislation by Congress. A senior officer at Central Command said he could not comment on specific contracts but emphasized the importance of having contractors when “we need a certain high level of knowledge and familiarity with a culture in which most service intel types don’t have a strong enough background.” Anthony H. Cordesman, an
intelligence and national security expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the need for contractors arises because retention of military and civilians employed within the intelligence community is bad, in part because government pay runs “60 percent to 100 percent lower than the contract base.” He said coupling that with normal turbulence caused by military reassignments leaves the Pentagon “heavily dependent on contractors, particularly for specialized skills.” What types of work will
contractors do under the newly issued solicitations?
Employees working under the broader contract — to support Afghan intelligence — will “support and augment, not replace government military and civilian personnel.” Its counterintelligence support specialists will “interview walk-in sources, conduct screenings” and assist force protection programs, working out of secure bases and installations. Senior counterintelligence support specialists will ensure flow of information between brigades and higher echelons, as the solicitation notes. A “screener project lead” will assist in the screening of Afghan
The people speak Americans want an efficient government, a report by the Center for American Progress says. B3
and third-country nationals for access to coalition military bases and recommend “access or denial of access.” A “reachback intelligence analyst” is to support analysis and dissemination “of Afghanistan measures of stability” and will work at Central Command headquarters. Staying in touch with analytic teams in Afghanistan, this person is to meld assessments done in provinces and districts using daily human intelligence, signals and other forms of intelligence, including products from “high value individual targeting.” Others working under this
contract will handle strategic debriefing of senior officials and design and develop multimedia exploitation of intelligence imagery and electronic intercepts at operational and strategic levels for senior officials. In addition, there are to be signal intelligence ground and aerial specialists, as well as managers to support collection by human spies as well as satellites and manned and unmanned aircraft. The solicitation for the
28-person team specifies that 15 individuals are to work in human intelligence, helping prepare packages to support spy operations and review plans for recruitment of new agents. Ten of the group will be counterintelligence support specialists, including a senior person who will brief senior government officials. Together they will work on “areas critical to detecting, deterring, neutralizing and exploiting” intelligence and insurgent activities against coalition forces. Rounding out the group are counterintelligence/human intelligence special advisers who serve as program managers. “We never built up the
structure we needed in intel and really did not start creating an effective structure until the summer of 2009,” Cordesman says, adding, “We now have a far more sophisticated effort looking at the civil side of Afghanistan, threat networks, interface with Pakistan . . . and only now are creating the capabilities for a population-centric fight.”
pincusw@washpost.com
Rules for tweets?
GSA is in negotiations with one of its unions over proposed social media policy. B3
S
A15
Kerry’s lonely push on climate change
ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWS Despite failed attempts to get the bill through Congress, Sen. John F. Kerry predicted eventual success.
Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) argued that it could raise energy prices or hurt local industries such as coal. And the phrase “cap and trade” was so sharply attacked by Republicans that Drew Westen, a professor of psychology at Emory University who has advised Democrats on language, urged them to avoid it. So, in October, at the urging of Democratic leaders, Kerry started up a group, along with Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), to write a climate bill that could weave a coalition of 60 votes. Kerry is chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a post usually focused on issues of war and diplomacy. But he had long worked on the environmental issues, attending climate conferences since 1992. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, had struggled to move the legislation forward in 2008. According to his office, Kerry
held 300 meetings or phone calls with senators of both parties on the legislation, along with dozens of talks with industry and environmental groups and Obama administration officials. He led near-weekly meetings this spring and summer to win over Senate Democrats. His passion for the topic was such that a Politico article quoted Rockefeller and an unidentified senator casting Kerry as overzealous, while Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) publicly praised Kerry, saying, “No one has worked harder on any piece of legislation in my entire legislative career than Senator Kerry has worked on this.” (In a meeting with senators last week before announcing that the climate change bill was dead, Kerry said, “If I’m being too aggressive, I apologize.” But he emphasized the importance of the issue.) The months of work didn’t move many of his colleagues. Graham, the only Republican who had been on board,
withdrew his support, arguing that Congress should pass a more pared-down bill. Democrats such as Rockefeller
never backed the bill, either — even as Kerry modified it. The bill at first capped emissions from a whole set of industries but was modified to cap emissions only for electric companies. And while Obama called for some kind of legislation in the wake of the gulf spill, his administration didn’t press for a climate bill as strongly as it did on health care. “I always knew this was difficult, and I was always knew once health care took as long as it did, this was going to be exceedingly difficult,” Kerry said in an interview. “Health care stole the legislative session; there is only so much time, and there is only so much will to do a very complicated, difficult political lift.” But, he added, climate change
legislation “will happen; it has to happen for the country. . . . The question is when and how. That’s what we’re working on.”
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