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Contractors and Cash Under Congressional Investigation

February 06, 2007 1:03 PM

Willem Marx Reports:

Marx_millions_nrStacks of cash, some filling entire transport crates, are pictured alongside grinning contractors in Iraq.

The images have been made public today in a report for a congressional oversight committee, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., which is investigating financial improprieties in the Iraq war.

But military contractors sitting alongside millions of dollars in the war-torn Middle Eastern country are nothing new. In fact, they may as well be postcards they were so often sent home in e-mails by Iraq-based contractors.

I should know, as the accompanying photo shows me with $3 million and a submachine gun, crouching inside my bedroom inside Baghdad's Green Zone in the summer of 2005. I hoped it would amuse my friends back home in the U.K., but many of my American colleagues posed alongside the money too.

I was a summer intern for Washington, D.C.-based contractor Lincoln Group between the end of my undergraduate course at Oxford University and a master's degree in journalism at New York University.

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The Lincoln Group was paid tens of millions of dollars for covertly planting stories -- written by American soldiers -- in Iraqi newspapers, and the stacks of cash were necessary to pay off newspaper editors, television executives and security guards around Baghdad.

I had no training with guns and only spent two dangerous months in the Iraqi capital before I left the company and wrote about my experiences for an American magazine.

Cash is king in Iraq. The banking system is decrepit and unreliable, and dollars are the only hard currency with any enduring value.

These types of images no doubt infuriate many who see them. While American taxpayers see grinning contractors who are well paid by badly regulated contracts, Iraqi citizens see foreigners living in luxurious compounds while they struggle without regular electricity.

The Lincoln Group's senior executives have repeatedly denied the veracity of my story since its original publication in "Harper's Magazine," but they have also declined to offer specific corrections.

"Lincoln Group's commitment to client confidentiality has constrained its ability to correct errors in coverage of the firm," wrote Suzanne McKoy, the company's director of human resources, in an e-mail to Harper's editors.

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February 6, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (13)

User Comments

The military grunts should be happy to see what the real fight is all about. The contractors should be counted as "boots on the ground" so this will not look as bad as it is. No wonder the media was "embedded" in a dark place with no light so they could never see the money grab we unleashed upon ourselves. Oh, and paying for propaganda articles is quite an outstanding use of US taxpayers money,isn't it "doughboys and girls"...

Posted by: frodaddy | Feb 6, 2007 1:45:24 PM

Post-war Iraq planning was either 2 things: non-existent or completely botched. Either way, its a complete disaster. Glad to see that US companies, especially ones with ties to the VP (Halliburton) made out like bandits. No coincidence there. Stuart Bowen, who audited the Iraq spending said roughly 25% of the $400B spent there was completely wasted and US taxpayers got nothing from it. THAT IS 25% OF $400 BILLION PEOPLE !!! COMPLETELY WASTED !! I'm sure people who were devastated by Katrina are oh so glad to hear that.

Posted by: Bob | Feb 6, 2007 2:48:39 PM

This is terribly sad. So many returnees have real money problems. I don't doubt the loyalty and courage of soldiers (and most contractors) but the button pushers back in DC are completely out of their depth.

Posted by: rob | Feb 6, 2007 3:35:07 PM

Yes, Katrina homeless Americans get crumbs if they can survive the FEMA fiasco.Let's don't forget about Florida and Colorado,and other AMERICAN states that have suffered terrible times of late. So they have to jump through hoops to get help while the BIG BOYS on the home team loot the country. When do we admit we are "broke"?..in more ways than one here in the good ole U S of Arrogance and Stupidy?

Posted by: Jane Fonder | Feb 6, 2007 5:36:16 PM

Every American gets $1200. 3000 American soldiers and 700,000 Iraqi men, women and children get to come back to life. Sound like a better deal than an open ended war?

Posted by: Michael Thompson | Feb 6, 2007 7:08:21 PM

Well the amount of money is impressive but let's remember that those funds in this story were iraqi funds that were frozen here and then returned to Iraq after Sadaams fall.

As for the references yet again to Katrina.... will it ever stop?
Enough already, if you're dumb enough to live in a basin, expect to get flooded.

Posted by: Kangaroo | Feb 6, 2007 7:57:41 PM

Have we forgotten our values, our unity as a nation, and our loyalty to the US. Greed and corruption have taken over and if we're not careful, it could be the end of democracy as we know it. When this nation no longer takes care of it's own and sells out to Corporate America, our leaders have failed us and this country will slowly slide further into two classes, the super rich and the servants. Which side of the tracks do you want your loved ones to be on when this happens? Let's charge our leaders NOW with stopping this. After all, let's not forget, they work for us!

Posted by: E Mottley | Feb 6, 2007 8:23:57 PM

Will anything ged done...I do not think so...too many folks got paid for turning the other way...to many US company's paid for contracts..this is a fact..I seen it..I heard about it..its a well known in the Middle East for this practice...Kuwait being the biggest spot..company's in Iraq doing the same...come on people wake up ans smell the roses...our government will not do nothing..yes yes they will invistagate and do there reports..but at the end of the day it will all be swept under the carpit...

Posted by: bryan | Feb 7, 2007 3:12:54 AM

This is realiztion of why the war will continue. War is $$$$ for the very people sending in more troops. War is $$$$ for the people that want control of resources. If building homes,the levee and helping people get back to New Orleans is difficult - what is it going to take to rebuild Iraq? Seems everything is going there now including the lives of young men and women. Are we gaining or losing security? But then again, Katrina victims have no resources and contractors are not paid anywhere near what they make in Iraq.

Posted by: elizabeth | Feb 7, 2007 4:21:24 AM

"Contractors and Cash Under Congressional Investigation"
Most of Congress privately knew about this all along. Now 4 years later, when the truth finally finds its way to the public, congress "investigates"?
Too little. Too late.
Reminiscent of the fall of the Roman Senate.
A similar fate awaits ours in due course. And rightfully so.

Posted by: Zach | Feb 9, 2007 10:32:04 AM

The only chance of getting any real leadership or honesty from this govt is to clean house top to bottom and then replace them, but then again, that is just a band-aid solution and the next crop of politicians become just as corrupted as the past. Its the system in place, and who has the power to change that system?? Thats right, the corrupt politicians. What a dirty place we live in.

Posted by: Bob | Feb 9, 2007 3:13:27 PM

Mr. Marx,

Thank you for your honesty and having the guts to tell the world about your experience.

Posted by: Sohraab | Feb 11, 2007 1:50:31 AM

I'm not so sure that 25% of $400 Billion (or $100 billion) was actually "lost." Perhaps the person(s) "finding" $100 billion only wanted the accounting books to be and apparently were "lost" Why don't we ask Bush where the money is, after all, he wants $300 Trillion more. I think it's more than likely that the $100 billion was "found" by someone close to Bush.

Posted by: Linda | Feb 13, 2007 4:51:15 PM

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