A new Tasmanian Devil?

Or, where paving paradise would be the good news

Remember the Tasmanian Devil from the Buggs Bunny cartoons? Remember how he spun around faster than the eye could see and left a path of destruction behind him? Now we have a corporate version. See Bob Harris' lengthy piece If a Tree Falls in a Forest ... to learn about the destruction of Tasmania. The Corporation, Gunns, is the largest logger of Tasmanian old growth forests. It has initiated a multi-million dollar SLAPP suit (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) to punish protesters, including doctors who give health advisories on the poisons that the workers use to kill off the wildlife. This is the first instance of a SLAPP suit in Australia. An examination of the search results on Lexis Nexis Academic Universe reveals that mostly foreign commercial news sources have covered this story.

Follow the Money

Do the same standards apply to everyone?

Imagine a liberal and/or democratic U.S. Presidential candidate who states during his campaign that she/he will never involve the United States in nation building. Shortly after taking office this liberal President invades a small country and sets up a transitional government to rule until democratic elections. Now imagine this Liberal Democrat fills this provisional government with appointees who have no expertise relating to the country they run, but are all his loyal supporters and political cronies. What do you think would happen if they so badly mis-managed the provisional government that no one could account for over $9 billion? How would the media and Republican politicians react? To quote Bob Harris "The howling and hissing would frighten wildlife."

This is what happened in Iraq, and the Coalition Provisional Authority under Paul Bremmer can not account for the money. The stories that have appeared have not ignited the firestorm in the media one would expect of a scandal of this magnitude. I found the $9 billion figure in The Boston Channel's $9B Goes missing in Iraq. But not all the missing money remains a mystery. The Washington Post reported a federal lawsuit charges that a contractor run by Republicans (one of whom ran for Congress recently) defrauded the Coalition Provisional Authority. Custer-Battles received "$15M to provide security for civilian flights at Baghdad International Airport even though no planes flew during the contract term." One would expect that members of the CPA would know whether the principle airport for the country was operational.

Do the same standards apply to everyone?

One last fact of interest. The Boston Channel story mentions in passing that at an Iraqi ministry the CPA paid for 8,026 guards, but only 602 guards could be confirmed. This happened prior to the U.S. Presidential election. In a briefing that took place Sept. 14, 2004 Marc Grossman, an undersecretary of State, announced the re-allocation of reconstruction funds to security. A transcript of the briefing (Available through commercial databases or the Federal New Service) quotes him stating: "Well, for example, that money gives you 45,000 new Iraqi police officers. It gives you 16,000 new border control officers. It gives you 20 additional Iraqi National Guard brigades. So the numbers there are both substantially increased..." But we discover only after the election that the money did not necessarily buy real guards. More Iraqi Security forces on paper than in reality made the administration look more successful on paper than in reality.

Footnote:
DATE: September 14, 2004 Tuesday
LENGTH: 5261 words
HEADLINE: STATE DEPARTMENT SPECIAL BRIEFING SUBJECT: U.S. RECONSTRUCTION ASSISTANCE TO IRAQ
BRIEFERS: MARC GROSSMAN, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS; ROBIN RAPHEL, COORDINATOR FOR IRAQ ASSISTANCE; AND JOSEPH BOWAB, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY, BUREAU OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, THE STATE DEPARTMENT
LOCATION: STATE DEPARTMENT BRIEFING ROOM, WASHINGTON, D.C.