State Department

As President Requests Additional $46B for Iraq War, Senators Demand Greater Accountability for Taxpayer Dollars

October 23, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. State Department’s inability to account for $1.2 billion in funding awarded to DynCorp International to train Iraqi police underscores the need for an independent commission to oversee and investigate wartime contracting, said Senators Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Jim Webb (D-VA) today.    » read more »

10/23/2007 -- WASHINGTON – In response to reports that Blackwater USA – the embattled private security firm providing protection for State Department officials in Iraq and Afghanistan – may have relied on information from the Bush Administration to evade payroll taxes, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) called on the Small Business Administration (SBA) to explain its potential involvement.    » read more »

October 22, 2007 -- New documents suggest that Blackwater may have engaged in significant tax evasion, failing to withhold and pay millions of dollars in Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and related taxes, and sought to conceal its conduct from Congress and law enforcement officials.

In a letter to Eric Prince, the Chairman of the Prince Group, which owns Blackwater, House Oversight Committee Chairman Waxman writes:    » read more »

Sustained growth requires enhanced economic policy coordination

17 October 2007 -- Washington -- The finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven (G7) countries must address a growing credit crisis and other challenges that experts say could cause a downturn in the global economy.

Those officials are scheduled to meet in Washington on the eve of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank sessions October 19-20. The G7 comprises Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.    » read more »

17 October 2007 -- The New York Times says U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is pressing for private security firms working for the U.S. government in Iraq to fall under a single authority, most likely that of the U.S. military.

A story published in Wednesday's edition of the newspaper says the idea is facing resistance from the State Department, which uses about 2,500 private security guards to protect American diplomats in Baghdad. About 800 of them are employed by Blackwater USA, which was involved in a deadly shooting in the Iraqi capital last month.    » read more »

Calls on Prince to testify, Release details of Iraq contract

October 15, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) called on Chairman Joseph Lieberman and Ranking Member Susan Collins of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to ask Erik Prince, the head of Blackwater, to testify before the Committee and provide details of the company’s contract in Iraq.    » read more »

October 12, 2007 -- H.Res. 734 expresses the sense of the House that the State Department has abused its classification authority by withholding from Congress and the American people information about the extent of corruption in the Maliki government.    » read more »

October 12, 2007 -- House Chairmen Waxman, Lantos, Skelton, and Obey write the Secretary of State to express their concern about endemic corruption in Iraq and the refusal of State Department officials to answer basic questions about the impact of corruption within the Maliki government on the chances of success in Iraq.

Letter to Secretary Rice (pdf file)

Source: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Former vice president honored for helping draw attention to climate change

12 October 2007 -- Washington -- By winning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore joins a roster of prominent U.S. politicians and activists recognized by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. He shares the prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international body of scientists from more than 100 countries.    » read more »

14 October 2007 -- The chairman of the American security company Blackwater USA is defending his company's guards, who are under investigation over a September shooting incident in which 17 Iraqis were killed.

The Iraqi government accuses Blackwater guards of a deliberate, unprovoked shooting spree that killed 17 people in Baghdad on September 16.

But Blackwater chairman Erik Prince says, according to incident reports he has seen, the guards were responding to small arms fire while escorting a diplomatic convoy.    » read more »

October 11, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressing his concerns about the growing number of systematic sexual assaults against women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since armed conflicts erupted again there six weeks ago. Obama asked Secretary Rice to answer a series of questions about the situation in the DRC and what the United States government is doing to help curb this violence against women.    » read more »

11 October 2007 -- A U.S. rights group is suing the private security firm, Blackwater, on behalf of victims of a deadly shooting last month in Baghdad.

The Center for Constitutional Rights said Thursday it is filing the suit in a U.S. court for one survivor and the families of three of those who died. The suit accuses Blackwater of murder and war crimes, and it seeks unspecified damages.

Blackwater has not commented on the lawsuit. It has said in the past that its guards were lawfully responding to an attack on a U.S. diplomatic convey they were escorting in the Iraqi capital.    » read more »

11 October 2007 -- The United Nations is urging the United States to ensure that American private contractors who commit offenses in Iraq are prosecuted.

The U.N. Assistance Mission to Iraq is making the call in its new report on the human rights situation in that country Thursday. The mission noted several fatal incidents involving private security firms in the period between April and June of this year.

The report calls on the U.S. to establish mechanisms to hold contractors accountable when such incidents do not appear to be justified.    » read more »

October 09, 2007 -- Documents obtained by the Oversight Committee depict widespread defects in fire detection systems, fire service mains, fire sprinklers, fire-proof construction materials, and electrical wiring throughout the Iraq Embassy complex.

Other documents implicate the Managing Partner of First Kuwaiti, the prime contractor, in an illegal kickback scheme to obtain subcontracts under the Army’s multi-billion logistical support contract.

Letter to Secretary Rice (pdf)    » read more »

09 October 2007 -- The United States is appealing to Turkey and Iraq to work together against terrorism following recent attacks in Turkey attributed to the Iraq-based Kurdish extremist group, the PKK. The Turkish government says it has approved all necessary measures, including a possible incursion into Iraq to deal with the issue.

The prospect of a large-scale Turkish incursion into the relatively-peaceful Kurdish region of northern Iraq is an alarming scenario for the Bush administration.    » read more »