K
Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names
Guest
As I recall, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfled, Wolfowitz, Rice, and the rest of
the gang of lying scumsucking shitbags who make up the Bush
administration told us before attacking Iraq that Iraqi oil revenue
would pay for rebuilding the country.
-----------------------------
Increased Iraqi oil revenues stemming from high prices and improved
security are piling up in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York rather
than being spent on needed reconstruction projects, a Washington Times
study of Iraq's spending and revenue figures has shown.
U.S. officials and outside analysts blame the collapse of the
country's political and physical infrastructure for Baghdad's failure
to spend the money on projects considered vital to restoring stability
in the country.
Out of $10 billion budgeted for capital projects in 2007, only 4.4
percent had been spent by August, according to official Iraqi figures
reported this month by the U.S. Government Accountability Office
(GAO). The report cited unofficial figures saying about 24 percent had
been spent.
Meanwhile, some $6 billion to $7 billion from last year's budget is
"being rolled over" and invested in U.S. treasuries, said Yahia Said,
director of Iraq Revenue Watch, part of the private watchdog group
Revenue Watch Institute.
"The government is broken," said Mr. Said, speaking by telephone from
Baghdad. "The country's midlevel bureaucracy has either fled the
country or been purged in de-Ba'athification, [and] a lot of ministers
are politically appointed and not professional."
The result is that orders go out from the ministers in Baghdad, but
there is no structure or staff at the middle level to carry out the
instructions.
"It's like they lost the manual for driving the government," said Mr.
Said, who is working to put that blueprint back together. "They lost
the landing instructions for landing the airplane."
A quarterly report to be released today by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the
U.S. special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, says rising
production and high prices could produce a revenue windfall for Iraq
this year, according to the Associated Press.
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080130/FOREIGN/458073763/1001
the gang of lying scumsucking shitbags who make up the Bush
administration told us before attacking Iraq that Iraqi oil revenue
would pay for rebuilding the country.
-----------------------------
Increased Iraqi oil revenues stemming from high prices and improved
security are piling up in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York rather
than being spent on needed reconstruction projects, a Washington Times
study of Iraq's spending and revenue figures has shown.
U.S. officials and outside analysts blame the collapse of the
country's political and physical infrastructure for Baghdad's failure
to spend the money on projects considered vital to restoring stability
in the country.
Out of $10 billion budgeted for capital projects in 2007, only 4.4
percent had been spent by August, according to official Iraqi figures
reported this month by the U.S. Government Accountability Office
(GAO). The report cited unofficial figures saying about 24 percent had
been spent.
Meanwhile, some $6 billion to $7 billion from last year's budget is
"being rolled over" and invested in U.S. treasuries, said Yahia Said,
director of Iraq Revenue Watch, part of the private watchdog group
Revenue Watch Institute.
"The government is broken," said Mr. Said, speaking by telephone from
Baghdad. "The country's midlevel bureaucracy has either fled the
country or been purged in de-Ba'athification, [and] a lot of ministers
are politically appointed and not professional."
The result is that orders go out from the ministers in Baghdad, but
there is no structure or staff at the middle level to carry out the
instructions.
"It's like they lost the manual for driving the government," said Mr.
Said, who is working to put that blueprint back together. "They lost
the landing instructions for landing the airplane."
A quarterly report to be released today by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the
U.S. special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, says rising
production and high prices could produce a revenue windfall for Iraq
this year, according to the Associated Press.
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080130/FOREIGN/458073763/1001
