Government, Inc.

Oh beautiful, for smoggy skies, insecticided grain
For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain.
America, America, man sheds his waste on thee
And hides the pines behind billboard signs
from sea to oily sea!
--George Carlin, fr. Class Clown (1972)
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I'm just going to run this piece from Robert O'Harrow Jr's "Government Inc." blog at the WaPo.

Bribery Abroad

This just in from the Department of Justice:

"A U.S. Army Major pleaded guilty today to bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery arising out of his activities as a Contracting Officer in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait in 2005 and 2006, Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division and Matthew Friedrich, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division announced.

"The Justice folks said James Momon Jr. accepted some good money -- about $5.8 million -- in returned for awarding contracts to firms supplying bottled water and other stuff to the U.S. bases in Kuwait.

"The punishment: Momon must pay back the bribe amounts as restitution. He also faces many years in prison. Sound familiar?

"Momon took over duties at Camp Arifjan from Major John C. Cockerham, who served as a Contracting Officer in Kuwait in 2004 and 2005. Major Cockerham was arrested on July 22, 2007, for bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy arising out of his activities at Camp Arifjan. Cockerham solicited and received more than $9 million in bribes from DOD contractors in exchange for contracts and BPA calls for bottled water and other goods and services. Cockerham's wife, Melissa Cockerham, and sister, Carolyn Blake, were also charged for their roles in the conspiracy to commit bribery and to launder the funds. John and Melissa Cockerham pleaded guilty on Jan. 31, 2008, and their pleas were unsealed on June 24, 2008 in U.S. District Court in San Antonio, Texas. Carolyn Blake's trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 27, 2008."
Details from Justice here.

In addition, "Sometime this year, U.S. spending on contractors in Iraq will reach $100 billion, a telling marker of the Bush administration's use of private corporations to support the war effort, according to a story today in the New York Times."

We have written previously on the suspect 2006 death of 41-yr-old chief logistics officer and whistle blower Lt. Col. Marshall Gutierrez at Camp Arifjan here.

A Few Smart Bad Apples?

Lt. Col. Marshall Gutierrez (deceased)

The Army Times reports today on audits scheduled to begin next week into possible contract fraud at Camp Arifjan, a large logistics and staging facility, in Kuwait. A previous audit describes Kuwait as "an environment ripe for misconduct and malfeasance" (Army Reviews Iraq Contracts for Fraud.)

Next week,

"This team of 10 auditors, criminal investigators and acquisition experts are starting with a sampling of the roughly 6,000 contracts worth $2.8 billion issued by an Army office in Kuwait that service officials have identified as a hub of corruption.

"The office, located at Camp Arifjan, buys gear and supplies to support U.S. troops as they move in and out of Iraq. The pace of that operation has exploded since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003."

This comes in the wake of the recent suspicious death of Lt. Colonel Marshall Gutierrez at Camp Arifjan, a whistleblower who accused Kuwait-based Public Warehousing of rampant overcharging. In what sounds like a set up job, Gutierrez was then charged with extortion of $3,500 by Public Warehousing, ending up in confinement at Camp Victory in Kuwait awaiting a court martial, and then, dead (The Wall Street Journal featured the story 10-21/22/07, "Inside the Greed Zone.")

Publicly traded Public Warehousing is one of the largest transport companies in the world, according to the Journal, and with more than $6 billion in U.S. contracts, "is designated a prime vendor for virtually all food served to U.S. forces in Iraq and Kuwait."

"Investigators suspect the military wound up paying inflated prices for everything from preserved milk to lobster tails. . ." Are soldiers eating lobster tails?

The Journal article mentions a "party house" run by one Saudi catering company, Tamimi Global, where bribes reportedly occur. We wonder if there is linkage to the bin Laden family. If there were, it would point up what a pathetic board game this entire Iraq venture is.

By way of explanation, The Army Times article says, "(s)igns of trouble include contracts continually awarded to vendors without the usual competition and awards that were competed but went to the bidder with the highest price rather than the lowest. A mismatch between the original product to be purchased and what was actually delivered is another red flag."

Cui bono?

--Lisa