Here's how the Bush administration treats its scant few real allies.
From the LA Times, 17 February (no link because I refuse to submit to their intrusive registration process - if you're registered, Google the headline):
Poland, Spain Up In Arms Over Loss Of Iraq Contract
By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON - The award of a major contract to equip the new Iraqi army has triggered an uproar in staunch U.S. allies Poland and Spain, where officials are questioning why their nations' experienced arms firms lost out to an American company with little history in such projects.
The $327-million contract to supply everything from canteens to AK-47s was awarded in January to Nour USA, a Virginia-based company whose president is A. Huda Farouki. Farouki is a close friend of Ahmad Chalabi, a controversial member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council who has close ties with some Pentagon officials.
The winning bid was so much lower than those by the Polish and Spanish firms - both for more than $500 million - that officials from the two nations have questioned Nour USA's ability to make good on the contract. Nour USA, formed in May, has no experience in supplying weapons, although it has supplied vehicles and communications equipment in Iraq.
"In this business, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but not by such a huge difference," said Andrzej Spis, deputy chairman of Bumar Group, Poland's state-owned military company whose $558-million bid was not accepted. Bumar has asked the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority for an explanation of why it lost the bid, and board members are debating whether to file a formal protest.
Spanish officials were similarly stunned by the rejection of their bid. In an interview with local media, Spain's secretary of state for defense, Fernando Diez Moreno, called the loss "incomprehensible."
"There is a lot of bad feeling," a Spanish government spokesman said.
...Bumar's loss of the contract has prompted at least one Polish lawmaker to call for a review of a recent, $3.5-billion deal that Poland inked to buy 48 F-16s from the U.S. firm Lockheed Martin.
Contract experts, while not commenting specifically on Nour USA's bid, said an unusually low bid can sometimes be a sign of low-balling - when a bidder submits a money-losing proposal to win the contract in the hopes of convincing the government to increase payments once the deal has been signed.
"People in the business, such as the Poles in this instance, usually can detect low-balling because they know the cost of performance," said Charles Tiefer, a professor of government contracting at the University of Baltimore Law School. "Such allegations deserve very serious investigation."
Silly Europeans. Didn't you know you are WAY down the list when it comes to sharing the spoils of war?
Quit your whining and pony up some more flypaper bait. We'll make you a good deal on some of those snazzy transfer tubes.
Chalabi has "...close ties with some Pentagon officials". Do they give an award for Understatement of the Year?
"Lowball" bids are a classic tactic. Government contracting personnel are required to be on the lookout for them, but when the screws are being ratcheted down from higher up to ensure a specific outcome, there's little to be done - as some at the Army Corps of Engineers were reminded when they tried to halt Halliburton's Iraq fuel importation subcontract to Altanmia.
Henry Waxman is on the case - at least where Halliburton is concerned.
Whichever Democrat moves into the Oval Office next January may not be able to nail Dick Cheney's hide to the wall. But Halliburton is leaving an auditable trail of slime a mile wide.
But wait - the Bushies aren't done screwing Spain just yet. No cronyism here, just another reminder that the administration's "Homeland Security" blather is mostly lip service.
From the (paid subscription only) Defense Daily, 9 February
Coast Guard Budget Lacks Funding For Maritime Patrol Plane
By Calvin Biesecker
The Bush administration's FY '05 budget request sent to Congress last Monday contains no funding for additional Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA), part of a critical Coast Guard program to modernize its assets, according to industry officials.
The Coast Guard, part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), had sought just over $57 million for two CN-235 MPA twin turboprop planes for next year's budget, adding to the three that Congress has already funded. Instead, the White House Office of Management and Budget pared the request down to $5.25 million, enough to provide partial spares, missionization and logistics support for the one aircraft included in the FY '04 appropriation, they said.
...Ironically, the budget cut for the CN-235's, which will be built in Spain by a unit of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., called EADS CASA, came two days before the Spanish prime minister, a strong supporter of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress. During his speech, Jose Maria Aznar mentioned his support for Operation Iraqi Freedom and his relationshiops with both Bush and former President Clinton.
Aznar supported Bush despite significant opposition in Spain to the war against Iraq. Spain has about 1,300 troops performing policing operations and logistics support in Iraq. So far 11 Spaniards have been killed in Iraq.
One industry official called the White House's lack of funding for the CN-235, which is Spain's largest contract with the U.S. government, a "geo-political embarrassment."
I think they know their days are numbered. The giant sucking sound you hear right now is your tax dollars (and your children's) being whisked away at nearly the speed of sound.