Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 20. Juli 2004 / Time Line July 20, 2004
Version 3.007/20/2004
How has the US been spending other people's billions?
By: Simon Tisdall, The Guardian
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1264767,00.html
Henry Waxman is an awkward customer. For 30 years, this California
congressman has probed, badgered and embarrassed US administrations
of every hue. As the senior Democrat on the House of
Representatives' government reform committee, Congress's principal
standing investigative panel, he is a difficult man to ignore.
Right now, Mr Waxman has a question on Iraq. In fact, he has
several - and in typically robust fashion, he is demanding answers.
What he wants to know is whether the Bush administration has been
fiddling with Iraq's oil revenues.
He wrote to the Republican chairman of the reform committee on July
9, suggesting there was a serious case to answer. Subpoenas should
be issued, he said, "to investigate potential mismanagement of the
Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) by the United States". The DFI was
set up after last year's invasion as the depository for Iraq's
multi-billion-dollar oil revenues and was administered, until June
28, by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) - with
notional UN oversight.
In particular, Mr Waxman is curious about "the [Bush]
administration's last-minute 'draw-down' of billions of dollars
from the DFI for unspecified expenses" prior to last month's
transfer of sovereignty. "For example, $1bn [about £550m] was
withdrawn from the DFI during the last month of the CPA's existence
for unspecified 'security' purposes."
The administration provided no information about how these funds
would be spent, Mr Waxman says, and has yet to do so.
He is concerned about apparent attempts by the then CPA chief, Paul
Bremer, to mandate and direct the spending of a further $4.6bn in
Iraqi oil funds after the handover. He is also exercised by the
results of a belated audit of the DFI's accounts that concluded
they were "open to fraudulent acts" and lacked "transparency". In
all, the CPA earmarked more than $6bn of Iraqi funds in the last
two months of its existence.
He wants to know whether CPA officials obstructed the auditors,
KPMG, who were employed by the UN-created International Advisory
and Monitoring Board (IAMB).
And he also asks why the White House has "failed to comply with
numerous IAMB requests [for information about] payments of
approximately $1.5bn in DFI funds to Halliburton" - the Texas-based
oil services company formerly headed by the vice-president, Dick
Cheney. Such matters are plainly extremely sensitive as the US
presidential election approaches - especially for George Bush and
Mr Cheney.
In this context, two facts may be of interest: Halliburton was the
largest single recipient of Iraqi oil funds during the occupation,
according to the Army Corps of Engineers' figures released last
month. And among US politicians, according to the Center for Public
Integrity, Mr Bush has been the largest single recipient of US oil
and gas industry campaign contributions since 1998 - his total
stands at $1,724,579.
07/20/2004
Halliburton Subpoenaed Over Unit's Iran Work
By Matt Daily, Reuters
Houston - A U.S. grand jury issued a subpoena to Halliburton Co.
seeking information about its Cayman Islands unit's work in Iran,
where it is illegal for U.S. companies to operate, Halliburton said
on Monday.
The oilfield services company, formerly headed by Vice President
Dick Cheney, said it understood that the investigation of its
subsidiary's work in Iran had been transferred to the U.S.
Department of Justice from the Treasury Department, which first
initiated an inquiry in 2001.
 |
 |