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Congress Tells Auditor in Iraq to Close Office

Nov 3, 2006 New York Times, By JAMES GLANZ

Investigations led by a Republican lawyer named Stuart W. Bowen Jr. in Iraq have sent American occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected companies like Halliburton and Parsons, and discovered that the military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi security forces.

And tucked away in a huge military authorization bill that President Bush signed two weeks ago is what some of Mr. Bowen’s supporters believe is his reward for repeatedly embarrassing the administration: a pink slip.

The order comes in the form of an obscure provision that terminates his federal oversight agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, on Oct. 1, 2007. The clause was inserted by the Republican side of the House Armed Services Committee over the objections of Democratic counterparts during a closed-door conference, and it has generated surprise and some outrage among lawmakers who say they had no idea it was in the final legislation.
 
  U.S. lawmakers want to keep Iraq watchdog alive
13 Nov 2006. Reuters, By Andrea Shalal-Esa

Congress is likely to pass legislation to keep alive the federal agency set up to monitor waste and corruption in the reconstruction of Iraq, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan said on Monday.

"I think that's going to happen. There's such bipartisan support for doing it," Levin, who is in line to become chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters.

He predicted the legislation to extend the work of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction would be passed before the Democrats take over Congress in January.

The move would nullify a Republican-backed provision included in a military authorization bill that called for the agency to end its work at the end of 2007.
 
 
 
 
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http://zfacts.com/p/470.html | 01/18/12 07:25 GMT