Three investigations reveal that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has ignored mistakes it made as part of the reconstruction efforts in Iraq, and is repeating them in Afghanistan.
A $300 million power plant in Afghanistan paid for with U.S. tax dollars was an ill-conceived and mismanaged project that the Afghan government can't afford to switch on now that it's almost finished, a watchdog agency has found.
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Even when the plant is completed in March, however, the Afghan government is unlikely to be able to pay the millions of dollars for diesel fuel that's needed to power the plant and maintain it, the auditors concluded. The U.S. Agency for International Development has agreed to pay for the fuel temporarily.
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The special inspector general's office questioned the wisdom of building a diesel and heavy fuel plant that has a "technically sophisticated fueling operation that they (the Afghans) may not have the capacity to sustain."
The audit is the latest to find fault with the USAID's oversight of projects by two U.S.-based contractors, Louis Berger and Black & Veatch.
Last week, the special inspector general's office found while the U.S. has spent more than $732 million to improve Afghanistan's electrical grid since 2002, delays and rising costs have plagued many of the two companies' projects, in part because of a lack of scrutiny by the American government.
In November, another watchdog, the USAID's inspector general, found similar problems with the Kabul project and a plant in Helmand province, in southern Afghanistan.
A diesel-fueled power plant, nearing completion just outside Kabul, demonstrates that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its contractors have failed to learn lessons from identical mistakes in Iraq, despite clearly signposted advice from oversight agencies.
Conclusions gleaned from three independent investigations into U.S.-financed reconstruction of the Afghan electricity sector, as well as IPS interviews with Afghan government officials and contractors, suggest that the power plant - which will cost taxpayers almost three times as much as comparable projects - may never be used.
First the U.S. planners chose to ignore other ongoing reconstruction projects that were cheaper and more likely to succeed, or to pay attention to alternative recommendations from Afghan government officials.
Second, the planners picked expensive technologies that the city of Kabul could not afford to maintain or utilise.
Finally, USAID asked for the plant to be built in record time - by a complex system of multiple contractors - causing costs to soar.
The construction schedule for the plant outside of Kabul was moved forward so that it would be online before the elections in Afghanistan, and provide a symbol of success in the country to which the Bush administration could point before it left office.
With the myriad of wasted, fraud, and malfeasance that have come to define the reconstruction effort in Iraq, it is difficult to understand why Congressional committees charged with oversight have not done their jobs - again.
Sen. Joe Lieberman is just a self-centered fuckwad. Here he is just three months ago talking about 'his' proposal to expand Medicare - the very thing he now opposes (h/t NPR):
It's all about Joe. It hurts my brain to think that he was the Democratic nominee for vice president just nine years ago, and still amazes me that he was not drummed out of the Party after he ran as an independent after losing the Party primary to Ned Lamont (and then actively campaigned for John McCain against Obama).
Collins says she wants to know why warning signs about the alleged shooter, U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, went unheeded.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins says it's apparent that the nation's intelligence sharing efforts remain inadequate. Collins made the remark at a hearing by the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on the Fort Hood shootings, which killed 13 people at the Texas military base.
The hearing opened yesterday, and Collins, the ranking Republican on the committee, said despite all the efforts since 9-11, serious shortcomings in the nation's intelligence sharing system linger. She said it appears that information about the alleged shooter that might have prevented the attacks was not shared, according to Capitol News Service.
"That is our challenge, as we learn more through our investigation, to identify legal barriers, administrative impediments, that may have blocked the sharing of information in this case," Collins said.
I'm not sure who is writing the headlines at MPBN, but Collins didn't open the hearing, Sen. Joe Lieberman did, since he is the chair of the HS&GA Committee.
But what is important to note is how these two are using the shootings a pub grab, hoping to boost their own prominence via the tragedy in Texas.
It's not like they weren't urged to do so by one of their colleagues:
October 15, 2007
The Honorable Joseph I. Lieberman, Chairman
The Honorable Susan Collins, Ranking Member
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chairman Lieberman and Ranking Member Collins:
As you know, on September 16, 2007, personnel from Blackwater USA, a private security contracting firm, killed as many as 17 Iraqi civilians in an incident in Baghdad. This incident, which has damaged the United States' reputation in the eyes of the Iraqi people, has highlighted the need for more oversight of our government's use of contractors in Iraq. I am writing to request that the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hold hearings on the proper role of private security contractors, as well as the September 16 incident.
Earlier this month, Erik Prince, the head of Blackwater, testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. At that hearing, Chairman Waxman decided not to ask Mr. Prince specific questions about the September 16 incident out of deference to a pending FBI investigation. However, in two interviews broadcast yesterday, Mr. Prince provided a detailed accounting of what he believes happened that day, asserting that Blackwater guards were fired upon, despite evidence to the contrary.
On CNN's "Late Edition," Mr. Prince suggested that Blackwater's actions are dictated by the State Department: "[W]e send professionals over there to do a job we do, dictated by the U.S. government, by the State Department who hires us. We recruit, vet, equip, train and deploy them, and then we turn them over to the operational control to the U.S. government. . . . [T]hey dictate the missions, they dictate the vehicles, they provide the weapons, they tell us where to go and what to do."
Mr. Prince also said that he welcomed greater scrutiny of Blackwater's operations. On CBS' "60 Minutes," Mr. Prince said: "We absolutely want more oversight. We welcome the accountability. We want a good name for this industry." Given Mr. Prince's willingness to submit to additional oversight, as well as the importance of these issues to our ongoing effort in Iraq, I request that you invite Mr. Prince to testify before our Committee.
Although the House Oversight Committee shed some light on Blackwater's practices and the State Department's relationship with Blackwater, there are still many issues involving Blackwater that merit further oversight. These issues include: the lack of transparency associated with the hiring and conduct of private security contractors; the lack of accountability over their actions; the State Department's role in covering up previous incidents in which Blackwater guards shot at Iraqi civilians; and the impact of the contractors' behavior on our efforts to win hearts and minds in Iraq and Afghanistan. All of these issues, I believe, merit further investigation by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
In preparation for such a hearing, I believe it would be prudent to request a copy of the contract that Blackwater received from the State Department to conduct its mission. According to press accounts, that contract was awarded without competition from multiple bidders. Moreover, there remain questions about the rules of engagement under which Blackwater contractors operate in Iraq, including a belief that State Department contractors operate under rules of engagement that are more permissive than those under which Defense Department contractors operate.
Given the military's increased reliance on such private security contractors, greater oversight from our Committee would be both timely and important to ensuring that we understand not just what mistakes have been made, but how we can correct them in a way that protects our national interest.
I thank you in advance for your consideration of my request.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
United States Senator
Nor is it clear why Lieberman and Collins haven't called for an investigation into the recent reports that hush money the Blackwater paid in the aftermath.
Perhaps the alleged perpetrators played a role in their decisions - how much easier is it to investigate a Muslim man than an organization that has run amok in an unnecessary invasion that they still support.
Seven members of the Senate Budget Committee threatened during a Tuesday hearing to withhold their support for critical legislation to raise the debt ceiling if the bill calling for the creation of a bipartisan fiscal reform commission were not attached. Six others had previously made such threats, bringing the total to 13 senators drawing a hard line on the committee legislation.
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Congress is under pressure to raise the cap on what the federal government can borrow by mid-December. If the debt ceiling is not raised above its current $12.1 trillion mark by then, the government will exceed its borrowing limits and will be forced to default on the debt. Economists have warned that the inevitable result would be a lowering of the U.S. credit rating, triggering substantial increases in the interest rates the government is already paying.
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But before Tuesday's hearing was over, Sens. Conrad, Gregg, Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) publicly vowed to vote against raising the debt ceiling if a budget reform commission bill doesn't come along with it.
I say attacked since what this group of senators wants to create is a body similar to the Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) used to close military bases, as was recently done to the Brunswick Naval Air Station.
Such a commission, in their eyes, would provide recommendations to Congress for an up or down vote without the opportunity for any amendments, which has never been done in the 70 plus year history of the program. So outside the box is this proposal that a group involved with the Greenspan Commission from the early 1980's submitted a statement to the Budget Committee expressing their concerns, a statement that you can find in full below.
For a reason that was not explained to me, the Senate Budget Committee does NOT have the statement up on their website.
Nancy J. Altman, J.D. (Executive Assistant to Chairman Alan Greenspan, 1982-83)
Merton C. Bernstein, LL.B., Coles Professor of Law Emeritus, Washington University (Principal Consultant to the Commission, 1982-83)
Suzanne M. Blouin (Executive Assistant to Executive Director Robert J. Myers, 1982-83)
Patricia E. Dilley, J.D., LL.M, Professor of Law, University of Florida (Professional Staff to the House Subcommittee on Social Security, 1981-87)
Elizabeth T. Duskin (Senior Staff Adviser to the Commission, 1982-83)
Lori L. Hansen (Technical Adviser to Commission Member Robert M. Ball, 1982-83)
Eric Kingson, Ph.D., Professor of Social Work, Syracuse University (Policy Advisor to the Commission, 1982-83)
Bruce D. Schobel, FSA (Staff Actuary to the Commission)
::
STATEMENT OF
STAFF TO THE 1981-83 NATIONAL COMMISSION
ON SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM
HEARING ON BIPARTISAN PROCESS PROPOSALS
FOR LONG-TERM FISCAL STABILITY
THE BUDGET COMMITTEE
U.S. SENATE
NOVEMBER 10, 2009
Chairman Conrad, Ranking Member Gregg, and Members of the Committee:
This statement represents the views of eight individuals who helped craft and secure the enactment of the Social Security Amendments of 1983. Those amendments, which followed the recommendations of the National Commission on Social Security Reform (the so-called Greenspan commission), eliminated Social Security's then-projected short-range and long-range shortfalls. Our involvement with the Commission's work may provide useful insights into the advisability of using a commission or task force to eliminate, as part of an effort to control the overall federal deficit, the long-range shortfall now being projected for Social Security. Social Security's current projected shortfall, it should be noted, is much less immediate and severe than the shortfall Congress eliminated twenty-six years ago.
Fast-Tracking Social Security Legislation Is Unprecedented
An expedited procedure, which limits debate and prohibits all amendments, would be unprecedented: Since its enactment in 1935, Social Security legislation has always had the benefit of (1) full hearings before the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee; (2) executive sessions which provided all members the opportunity to offer amendments; (3) unlimited debate and opportunity for amendments in the Senate; and (4) debate and amendment in the House of Representatives, consistent with its rules. This was the procedure that was followed in the enactment of the Social Security Amendments of 1983, which eliminated the then-projected Social Security deficit.
We were told that Joe Lieberman was an important element of the Democratic control of the Senate. Most wonks understood that Joe Lieberman was - and is - the most important element to Joe Lieberman.
In calling for an investigation into last week's shootings at Ft. Hood, Lieberman said:
Therefore, if that is true, the murder of these 13 people was a terrorist act and, in fact, it was the most destructive terrorist act to be committed on American soil since 9/11.
I will remind the senator from Connecticut of the Beltway Snipers, which didn't match the death toll of Maj. Nidal M. Hasan's attack, but lasted instead for three full weeks, plunging the area around our nation's capitol into terror, with tarps hanging at gas stations and people too frightened to mow their own lawns.
But don't let that get in the way, Joe. The cameras will surely follow you on this one, and no doubt some of your close colleagues.
DIRIGO BLUE is available as an