This is oddly refreshing....according to Reuters, Shays is incensed that an ongoing UN audit about the 8.8 Billion in missing Iraqi reconstruction money is running into a roadblock seemingly designed to protect Halliburton...
Did somebody in Accounting forget a Republican Congressman's campaign fund check?
"This is a self-inflicted wound, a needless failure to meet transparency obligations," Rep. Christopher Shays, a Republican from Connecticut, told a U.S. House of Representatives panel
Story:
http://tinyurl.com/79kjt
The hearing was called to look at U.S. management of Iraqi funds after the 2003 invasion. An audit by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found the U.S.-led authority there could not properly account for $8.8 billion of Iraq's money.
Texas-based Halliburton -- run by Vice President Dick Cheney until the 2000 race for the White House -- was paid about $1.7 billion out of these funds to bring in fuel for Iraqis under a sole source deal its unit Kellogg Brown and Root had with the U.S. military.
U.N. auditors asked for a full accounting of Iraqi money given to KBR and documents were finally handed over after much wrangling but portions detailing potential overcharges by KBR were blocked out.
Defense Department officials at the hearing, who were chastised for not preparing written testimony, said lawyers had advised them the KBR information was proprietary and could not be released to the public.
The Connecticut legislator: "Sometimes, lawyers can get you out of jail but can make you look as guilty as hell in the process."
He added: "It really ticks me off. It seems senseless."
Congressman, Welcome back to the reality based United States