Published: June 27, 2008 10:27 pm            

GUEST EDITORIAL: Congress needs to follow through

The Democrat-controlled Congress continues to talk out of both sides of its mouth on the billions in public dollars that private contractors in Iraq are raking in.

It rails, it rants, it calls bureaucrats on the carpet. But in the end, it approves Pentagon spending for Iraq that includes huge, and too often unregulated and unjustified, payments to contractors.

The extent to which contractors have profited from the war and have turned influence with such Bush insiders as former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney into untold riches is one of the more sordid aspects of the five-year occupation.

Estimates are that private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan took in about $44 billion from 2003 to 2007. No one seems to know if that was money well-spent or a wholesale looting. This administration ought not leave office before Congress not only gets the truth but imposes consequences on profiteers.

At this juncture, it appears the behemoth contractors are running the Pentagon.

When a Pentagon official refused to sign off on a billion-dollar payment to KBR, a former Halliburton subsidiary, the bureaucrat was canned and KBR got its check. The Army denies any connection, but the circumstantial evidence is strong.

Yes, KBR is among a mere few who can provide large-scale logistical support for the military. But that ought not mean the Pentagon opens the vault and walks away. Congress must close the door and hold the revelers accountable.

—— The Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester

        

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