[Mb-civic] Annals of Outrage

[Michael Butler]

AlterNet
Annals of Outrage
By Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation
Posted on January 19, 2005, Printed on January 19, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/21018/

In 2004 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Inspector
Generals (IG) in various departments of the federal government issued
reports revealing fraud, mismanagement and corruption. Here is my list of
the Bush administration's Ten Most Outrageous Scandals thus far uncovered by
government investigators:

1. Halliburton's Corruption. Nine different reports compiled by the GAO, the
Coalition Provisional Authority's IG and the Defense Contract Audit Agency
faulted Halliburton's performance in Iraq, where it has been awarded more
than $10 billion in U.S. contracts. The government investigators cited,
among other things, significant cost overruns, the overcharging of the
Defense Department (and taxpayers) by $61 million, illegal kickbacks,
failure to police subcontractors' billing and unauthorized expenses at the
Kuwait Hilton Hotel. The list of abuses will likely get longer in 2005, as
multiple criminal investigations into Halliburton's work pick up steam.

2. Iraq's Decline. In June 2004 the GAO provided a bleak assessment of Iraq
after 14 months of U.S. military occupation, documenting that in critical
areas like security, electricity and the judicial system Iraq is worse off
now than it was before the war.

3. Abu Ghraib Prison Torture. In late August Maj. Gen. George Fay released
an official Army report charging that U.S. military personnel committed
torture and that civilian contractors and military intelligence
interrogators played a greater role in abusing prisoners than previously
thought. The Fay report blamed "a lack of discipline on the part of leaders
and soldiers" and a "failure or lack of leadership" by senior military
commanders in Iraq.

4. The CIA's Pre-9/11 Intelligence Failures. Early this month The New York
Times and The Washington Post reported that the CIA's IG will soon release a
report criticizing the CIA's senior leadership for failing to "direct more
resources to counterterrorism and inadequately analyz[ing] the threat from
al Qaeda" before the Sept.11, 2001, terrorist attacks. For the first time, a
government report will hold senior CIA officials accountable, singling out
George Tenet and at least 11 others for "not liv[ing] up to the standards of
professional conduct required of them," says the Post.

5. HHS' Deceptive Ad Campaign. In May the GAO concluded that the Health and
Human Services Department conducted a secret propaganda campaign that
illegally spent taxpayer money to produce and distribute videos touting the
administration's Medicare prescription drug law. And this January, the GAO
said that the Office of National Drug Control Policy ads warning of the
dangers of drug abuse (aired just before last year's Super Bowl) were a form
of "covert propaganda" because they promoted their policies without
identifying their origin. The ads, said one GAO official, were "paid
announcements" at taxpayer expense that shamelessly sought to blur the lines
between government propaganda and a legitimate, independent news feature.

6. HHS' Scully Scandal. In September the GAO found that HHS had illegally
paid the salary of former Medicare chief Thomas Scully, who threatened to
fire veteran Medicare actuary Richard Foster if he told Congress that the
administration's Medicare prescription drug legislation would cost $100
billion more than the White House figure. According to The Washington Post,
"A 1998 federal law prohibits an agency from paying a federal official who
prevents another employee from communicating with Congress."

7. Government-wide Accounting Problems. In December the GAO reported that
the federal government's accounting practices are unreliable and might not
meet widely accepted accounting standards. The report gives the lie to GOP
claims that it is a sound steward of taxpayer money.

8. Sex Education Misinformation. A report that comes to us thanks to Rep.
Henry Waxman revealed that most of the government-funded abstinence-only sex
education programs were giving students false information. One curriculum
rejects "the popular claim that condoms help prevent the spread of STDs
[sexually transmitted diseases]" because it "is not supported by the data."

9. CAPPS II's Failures. In February the GAO uncovered significant gaps in
privacy protections in the administration's passenger profiling program
developed by the Transportation Security Administration. The Computer
Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II) stored personal
information in passengers' profiles, provided inadequate appeals procedures
and failed to safeguard the accuracy of its databases.

10. The Real Costs of War. In July the GAO criticized the administration for
underestimating by $12.3 billion the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
This is part of a pattern of deception by the administration, which has
repeatedly hidden the real costs of the Iraq invasion and occupation from
Congress and the public.

What's in store for 2005? We anticipate scandals to come. But it should be
noted that the GAO may face White House-proposed budget cuts and that the
Bush administration has developed a hostile policy toward nonpartisan IGs in
various federal agencies. Instead of shooting the messenger, the Bush
approach is defunding the investigator.
© 2005 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
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