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werD

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Posts posted by werD

    The Terrorist are winning.....

    in General Politics

    Terrorists best weapon?

     

    George W. Bush. He has done more to help the terrorists win than anyone else (see patriot act, phone tapping etc etc etc etc...terrorists want us to not be a free nation and that is exactly what bush is pushing us towards.)

     

     

    Bush's new slogan should be, "How many freedoms are you willing to scarifice so that my good ol buddies pockets will get richer."

    More Iraq coverup

    in General Politics

    those numbers are soo corrupted its crazy

     

    some studies say 100k (two years ago) others say under 20k have died

     

    either way its digusting and horrific

    but hey, Bush wanted to make some money for his friends and try and make a legacy for himself

    More Iraq coverup

    in General Politics

    Audit Finds U.S. Hid Cost of Iraq Projects

     

    By JAMES GLANZ, The New York Times

     

    BAGHDAD, Iraq (July 30) - The State Department agency in charge of $1.4 billion in reconstruction money in Iraq used an accounting shell game to hide ballooning cost overruns on its projects there and knowingly withheld information on schedule delays from Congress, a federal audit released late Friday has found.

     

    The agency hid construction overruns by listing them as overhead or administrative costs, according to the audit, written by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent office that reports to Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department.

     

    Called the United States Agency for International Development, or A.I.D., the agency administers foreign aid projects around the world. It has been working in Iraq on reconstruction since shortly after the 2003 invasion.

     

    The report by the inspector general's office does not give a full accounting of all projects financed by the agency's $1.4 billion budget, but cites several examples.

     

    The findings appeared in an audit of a children's hospital in Basra, but they referred to the wider reconstruction activities of the development agency in Iraq. American and Iraqi officials reported this week that the State Department planned to drop Bechtel, its contractor on that project, as signs of budget and scheduling problems began to surface.

     

    The United States Embassy in Baghdad referred questions about the audit to the State Department in Washington, where a spokesman, Justin Higgins, said Saturday, "We have not yet had a chance to fully review this report, but certainly will consider it carefully, as we do all the findings of the inspector general."

     

    Bechtel has said that because of the deteriorating security in Basra, the hospital project could not be completed as envisioned. But Mr. Higgins said: "Despite the challenges, we are committed to completing this project so that sick children in Basra can receive the medical help they need. The necessary funding is now in place to ensure that will happen."

     

    In March 2005, A.I.D. asked the Iraq Reconstruction and Management Office at the United States Embassy in Baghdad for permission to downsize some projects to ease widespread financing problems. In its request, it said that it had to "absorb greatly increased construction costs" at the Basra hospital and that it would make a modest shift of priorities and reduce "contractor overhead" on the project.

     

    The embassy office approved the request. But the audit found that the agency interpreted the document as permission to change reporting of costs across its program.

     

     

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    Referring to the embassy office's approval, the inspector general wrote, "The memorandum was not intended to give U.S.A.I.D. blanket permission to change the reporting of all indirect costs."

     

    The hospital's construction budget was $50 million. By April of this year, Bechtel had told the aid agency that because of escalating costs for security and other problems, the project would actually cost $98 million to complete. But in an official report to Congress that month, the agency "was reporting the hospital project cost as $50 million," the inspector general wrote in his report.

     

    The rest was reclassified as overhead, or "indirect costs." According to a contracting officer at the agency who was cited in the report, the agency "did not report these costs so it could stay within the $50 million authorization."

     

    "We find the entire agreement unclear," the inspector general wrote of the A.I.D. request approved by the embassy. "The document states that hospital project cost increases would be offset by reducing contractor overhead allocated to the project, but project reports for the period show no effort to reduce overhead."

     

    The report said it suspected that other unreported costs on the hospital could drive the tab even higher. In another case cited in the report, a power station project in Musayyib, the direct construction cost cited by the development agency was $6.6 million, while the overhead cost was $27.6 million.

     

    One result is that the project's overhead, a figure that normally runs to a maximum of 30 percent, was a stunning 418 percent.

     

    The figures were even adjusted in the opposite direction when that helped the agency balance its books, the inspector general found. On an electricity project at the Baghdad South power station, direct construction costs were reported by the agency as $164.3 million and indirect or overhead costs as $1.4 million.

     

    That is just 0.8 percent overhead in a country where security costs are often staggering. A contracting officer told the inspector general that the agency adjusted the figures "to stay within the authorization for each project."

     

    The overall effect, the report said, was a "serious misstatement of hospital project costs." The true cost could rise as high as $169.5 million, even after accounting for at least $30 million pledged for medical equipment by a charitable organization.

     

    The inspector general also found that the agency had not reported known schedule delays to Congress. On March 26, 2006, Bechtel informed the agency that the hospital project was 273 days behind, the inspector general wrote. But in its April report to Congress on the status of all projects, "U.S.A.I.D. reported no problems with the project schedule."

     

    In a letter responding to the inspector general's findings, Joseph A. Saloom, the newly appointed director of the reconstruction office at the United States Embassy, said he would take steps to improve the reporting of the costs of reconstruction projects in Iraq. Mr. Saloom took little exception to the main findings.

     

    In the letter, Mr. Saloom said his office had been given new powers by the American ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, to request clear financing information on American reconstruction projects. Mr. Saloom wrote that he agreed with the inspector general's conclusion that this shift would help "preclude surprises such as occurred on the Basra hospital project."

     

    "The U.S. Mission agrees that accurate monitoring of projects requires allocating indirect costs in a systematic way that reflects accurately the true indirect costs attributable to specific activities and projects, such as a Basra children's hospital," Mr. Saloom wrote.

     

     

    07-30-06 09:06 EDT

     

    Its an AOL article so the link wont work for most.

    Article

    Japan vs. North Korea

    in General Politics

    Funny

     

    North Korea having the "balls" to finally test long range missles.

    Iran publically telling people about their nuclear capabilites.

     

    Yet Iraq and their WMDS (which were not there, only a few non-working, non-usable ones from before 1990) was the most important threat.

    Supreme Court Blocks Guantanamo Trials

    in General Politics

    I needed a good laugh....any historian that portrays bush as being a good president should be checked into a mental institution.

     

    President bush has failed us NUMEROUS TIMES.

     

    He did nothing to improve education.

    He failed horribly in handling Katrina.

    He failed at properly running the Iraq war. (dealing with the insurgency)

    He split the nation apart like no other president before him.

    He has done nothing postive for the economy, lucky for us the American will and busniess sense can withstand an idiot like Bush.

     

    I could go on for hours.

    wiretapping...again.

    in General Politics

    man...if i had time i would find the daily show clip where they talk about this

     

     

    too bad i dont....he hits it right on the spot when he says, "The goverment is only tracking all calls not eavesdropping in on them. So they will know you called the lame bondage hot line for 45 minutes, just not what was said".

     

    America the free is now past tense.

    50,000 violent deaths

    in Political War Talk

    · Edited by werD

    Yup. Saddam was good for Iraq. The mustard gas being used on the Kurds was only to keep the people in line. Saddam really is a nice guy. Yup. Bush is the evil one.

     

    People need to focus in and start understanding how ZD posts. He doesn't do anything but bait and switch.

     

    lets break it down

     

    Yup. Saddam was good for Iraq.

    First there is always some kind of smart alec, scarcastic remark that usually isnt called for, but it makes ZD giggle so he adds it in.

     

    The mustard gas being used on the Kurds was only to keep the people in line.

    Then he goes and tries for the shock. By tieing in the gasing of Kurds to the incompetence of Bush and Co in their planning of the Iraq war. Somehow killing a couple hunderd kurds is A HUGE CRIME TO HUMAINTY but 50k people dieing is only "collertal damage".

     

    to keep the people in line.

    Now that ZD has you think about mustard gas and dieing Kurds he tries to portray Saddam as some kind of anarchist. Its really shifty and would never be accepted in any school as a logical agruement but ZD tries to slip it in. Saddam killing those kurds does not mean that Iraq was in chaos or that the govermnet was in ruins or anything like that. It means saddam was a bad person, a evil human being. The worst? not even close, just look at that african country were mass murder is happening (wait don't bush doesnt want you to see that!!) However saddam ran a fully fuctioning goverment that may have been supressive to its people, but the country was far from civil war.

     

    Saddam really is a nice guy.

    Here is just another quick smart alec remark to draw attention away from the terrible logic that ZD provided in his main point. (tieing the gassing of kurds to a goverment that can't control its people)

    Of course we know ZD does not think Saddam is a "really nice guy", but he adds that in there just to push other peoples buttons.

     

    Yup. Bush is the evil one.

    Now Zd goes for the last part where he tries and mocks the imaginary person that is calling bush evil. For some reason no matter how many times people tell him this he just doesn't understand it. People disagreeing with how bush handles things or thinking that his horribly mismanged the country, war, economy, everything does not mean i think bush is evil. Of couse ZD will try and always spin it that way bcuz in his mind it makes me or other "non-bush groupies" look like fools. Let me make it a point that i said in his mind.

     

     

    Anywayz there is ZDs usual random spinning mish mosh broken down for everyone. One can only wonder how long he will keep it up. (i guess his new thing is 500WMDS this 500WMDS that. 500WMDS means we should make bush our new god. Too bad those 500WMDS is just another ploy to boost poll ratings and to try and justify an unjustifable war)

    Hundreds of WMD found in Iraq

    in General Politics

    what a pathetic ploy to try and bloster poll numbers before the midterm elections

     

    this is getting down right laughable at what conseratives will do, SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN

     

    lol...non-working WMDs, ya sure that is what we invaded for

    wiretapping...again.

    in General Politics

    i hope people see that we are HELPING the terrorists do their job. The real crazy muslim extremeists see our "freedoms" of self expression, free speech, freedom of religion, etc etc as a horrible sin. As we slowing give away our freedoms (like privacy, and innocent until proven gulity) we are doing nothing but helping the terrorists.

     

    It is sad that conservatives cannot see this.

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