Iraq Corruption By "Western Standards"

Oh, this is rich.... "Premier of Iraq Is Quietly Firing Fraud Monitors" (NYTlimes)

"BAGHDAD — The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is systematically dismissing Iraqi oversight officials, who were installed to fight corruption in Iraqi ministries by order of the American occupation administration, which had hoped to bring Western standards of accountability to the notoriously opaque and graft-ridden bureaucracy here."

Western standards! Western standards! You mean like Wall Street robber barons who Ponzi-schemed trash loans, driving the world into a financial abyss? You mean like lobby-ridden D.C. with legislators on the take and worse.... like Alaska's Senator Ted Stevens convicted of 7 counts of fraud but still in office (for now). Those Western standards?

The Iraq crimes.... "One Iraqi former chief investigator recently testified before Congress that $13 billion in reconstruction funds from the United States had been lost to fraud, embezzlement, theft and waste by Iraqi government officials."

This sounds like business as usual, Western standards.

After all, we gave our Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson $700 billion plus dollars to "rescue" our economy. It's estimated he has probably spent half of if, or about $350 billion. Why "estimated?" Because Paulson won't tell anyone how the money was allocated! Even Congress! Western standards.

"...Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who leads an independent oversight office in Washington, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, and who is currently working in Iraq, said he knew of six of the dismissals. He said the inspectors general were vulnerable because once their offices were created, the United States provided little support and training for what was a startling concept for the bureaucracy, which was shaped by the secrecy and corruption of the Saddam Hussein era."

Look, why is anyone surprised that the Bush administration provided little support and training, they can't govern here. After legislating strict oversight for the $700+ billion bailout, that oversight was never made operational.

Secrecy?... you mean like the way Undisclosed Location Cheney and Executive Privilege Bush operate?

Really, what can we expect unless we set the example? Let's just quit throwing good money after bad in Iraq.... let's no longer "occupy" ourselves with their corruption of our billions and concentrate on cleaning up our own act.

No more U.S.-made Baghdad billionaires! Bring our troops home.

AIG'S $85 Billion... Party Time!

What an outrage.... "U.S. Extends $38 Billion In New Loans to AIG." (WaPo)

That's after the $85 billion government rescue in mid-September.

They needed the money because their financial products division had made some risky and complex investments that had gone bad.... thus rewarding bad behavior not just once, but twice.

But, don't try this risky behavior at home, it can only be pulled off by professional corporate criminals with lobbyists in D.C.

And the second infusion came just a day after a House hearing found, among other things, that "AIG is paying one of the executives who led the company into some of its most costly mistakes $1 million a month as a consulting fee to help it unwind his bad investments.

"And just a week after the first bailout, the company treated some of its executives and some high-performing life insurance agents to a weeklong stay at the pricey St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif. Total cost for the spree: $440,000."

In Tuesday night's debate, Barack Obama called for AIG to repay the taxpayers the $440,000 and fire the executives who authorized this despicable boondoggle. But he didn't go far enough.

There seems to be an elephant in the room everyone is missing.... we got into this financial mess due to a lack of oversight. Now we're bailing out those who plunged the country into this financial disaster through their greed with an EQUAL LACK OF OVERSIGHT, still lacking PENALTIES WITH TEETH.

Why should white-collar crimes only amount to a justification for unaccountable corporate welfare? Who is watching the billions being sloshed into the maw of corporate coffers in the wake of their maleficence?

As a start, how about a few perp-walks, and then outfitting the AIG criminal CEO's in suits that aren't the pin-stripe variety.

November 4.