The US State Dept has not managed money well when it comes to Iraq. [Note: $2.1 billion of the money is Iraq funds. The title of this entry originally read "State Dept can't account for 6 billion in Iraq funds" -- that was incorrect, my mistake. $2.1 billion is the Iraq funds number. It does not effect the text. Only the title.]
Here's the [PDF format warning] Office of Inspector General letter.
Fox News notes:
The Office of Inspector General, in a March 20 "management alert" to department leaders, said the department has failed to provide all or some of the files for $6 billion worth of contracts in the last six years.
"The failure to maintain contract files adequately creates significant financial risk and demonstrates a lack of internal control over the Department's contract actions," the memo said.
Adam Kredo (Free Beacon) notes, "The State Department misplaced and lost some $6 billion due to the improper filing of contracts during the past six years, mainly during the tenure of former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, according to a newly released Inspector General report."
They're not able to offer more than that which is sad because it is news. If no one's talking about the real points of this by the time we do the snapshot tonight, I'll go over it. But it's really sad that the media is as uninformed as it is. Neither Fox nor Free Beacon are reporting. They're repeating from a letter.
The letter's accurate, that's not the issue. Again, hopefully some grown ups will enter the conversation before I start dictating the snapshot tonight. If that doesn't happen, I'll do the walk through myself.
We've noted for some time that KRG President Massoud Barzani has increased his international profile, for over a year now we've noted there's a good chance he will become the next president of Iraq. So Shafaq News is reporting an expected -- not surprising -- development, "President of the Iraqi National Congress , Ahmed al-Chalabi announced his support for the candidacy of Kurdistan Region's President , Massoud Barzani as the president of Iraq , considering him as a 'good' president."
On the topic of the next President of Iraq, Alsumaria reports State of Law is having a hissy fit. MP Haider al-Abadi was sent out to denounce the suggesting that Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi should be president. al-Abadi fumes this is a conspiracy. Tareq remains Vice President and remains outside of Iraq due to Nouri's efforts to have Tareq sentenced to death.
Also expected is that the Guardian would be afraid and tiny when it came to Iraq. Why is it Martin Chulov can speak so freely on radio -- especially Australian radio -- but not in the pages of the Guardian?
Because Nouri sued the paper and initially won. The paper won on appeal.
It's been a joke in terms of Iraq ever since when it came to reporting. (The paper was sued over a piece of reporting which was correct.)
So they offer crap like this:
Date: 30 April
No of voters: 18 million
Frontrunner: Nuri al-Maliki
Free and fair factor: 2
Biggest anxiety: full-scale insurgency, spilling over from Syria, makes security parlous across much of the west of the country
What it means for the world: country that cost so many lives appears to be backsliding towards autocracy and instability, rendering democracy almost irrelevant. Would further carnage trigger an American re-engagement?
How's Nouri the front runner? Based on 2013 parliamentary elections? I thought the press told that was bad news for Nouri?
Based on his popularity now?
Nope, he's more unpopular than ever.
Because Shi'ites want to coalesce around him? Motada al-Sadr, just this week, again declared Nouri shouldn't seek a third term.
So they whore a little more each day and then wonder why we don't want to rush to defend them?
They're whores.
That crap has been highlighted by Alsumaria as 'news' that Nouri is expected to win.
You need to think about what you do and the influence it has.
There's no reason to declare a Nouri a front runner. There's no factual basis for the claim.
So stop whoring.
The whoring gets noted in this second Alsumaria article and has State of Law's Haider al-Abadi insisting that they've given no thoughts to any alternative to Nouri. (State of Law is Nouri's coalition.)
Nouri is responsible for more deaths today. NINA notes the military's continued shelling of residential neighborhoods in Falluja -- this happens every day, this bombing -- has left 6 civilians dead and nine more injured. But the Guardian won't report that, they're too damn busy cowering in fear.
Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) counts 102 people dead from yesterday's violence with another sixty-two injured. Today? National Iraqi News Agency reports a Rashad roadside bombing left 1 Iraqi soldier dead and two more injured, a security source tells NINA 6 suspects were killed today in Subaihat, Joint Operations Command announced they killed 15 suspects in Anbar, a Husseiniya roadside bombing left 1 person dead and six more injured, a Ramadi battle left 3 police members and 3 rebels dead (with three more police members left injured), and, late last night, a bombing in Sindej left 1 police member dead and nine more injured.
The following community sites -- plus Ms. magazine's blog, Susan's On the Edge, Jody Watley, Jake Tapper, Antiwar.com, Tavis Smiley and Pacifica Evening News -- updated:
In addition, Ruth's "Benghazi hearing" is not showing up on the links and, yesterday, when noting the updates, I didn't include Mike's "Robert Altman, How I Met Your Mother, American Mas..." because it wasn't on the link list -- Tori caught that and e-mailed (thank you, Tori).
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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