Except this time, the workers were involved with humanitarian aid to Iraqis, not the sort of "aid" that drove the profit lines of Halliburton.
A local opinion writer for the Buffalo News sees the investigation into embezzlement by the two as a Justice Dept. witchhunt. However, even the writer admits the two were not the best accountants; they left a shaky paper trail for some of the money they were given.
Here's the story: http://www.buffalonews.com/...
Key quotes below the fold.
I have met a lot of people in 31 years in journalism. In terms of openhearted-ness and generosity of spirit, Bowers is at the top of the list.
Going out of her way to help others is what, in the questionable eyes of the U. S. attorney, got her into trouble. The minister’s wife from Clarence and colleague Steve Jabar, whom I also know well, were charged Tuesday with misusing $65,000 of the $350,000 they got from the United Nations in 2004 to start a Baghdad radio station that promotes women’s rights.
The idea that either of them would pocket money raised to promote democracy in Iraq is, to me, like imagining Mother Teresa scooping change out of a tip jar.
Bowers has funneled shoes, clothes and other aid to Iraqi kids for more than a decade. Jabar, a native Iraqi whose father was killed by Saddam Hussein’s thugs, spent recent years risking his life in Iraq. His work as a translator and go-between for U. S. officers earned him a military commendation for "personal efforts that resulted in countless lives being saved."
These are the sort of people our government is going after?
The writer, Esmonde, believes that this is a political witchhunt that has the smell of Bush loyalists still wielding power in Justice. The target of this investigation, Mr. Jabar, was apparently an open critic of Ahmed Chalabi, and for his criticism, he made enemies in Justice.
Of course, one would then imagine that he would be even more careful about expenses and such so as to avoid coming under investigation at all. If you're a target, you know you have to be circumspect.
My greater concern is whether the politicization of the Justice Dept. during the last 8 years still exists to some degree. Esmonde believes it does.
I wrote a diary on this a little while ago in regard to Sen. Schumer's recommendations for US Attorney from Western New York:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
We've been infiltrated so deeply the last 8 years that one wonders how quickly we can turn around political persecutions. It's hard to determine how political these recent charges are, if at all, but the opinion writer in this case is the Buffalo News' top guy on such matters, and he works for a moderate-conservative newspaper. I was much closer to the prior Kurtz case which in my estimation was definitely political persecution.