Posted on 02/23/2005 12:50:25 PM PST by Jim Robinson
Newly released documents from the Bush administration show that a former member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle has resurfaced inside the new Iraqi government, bringing charges of corruption, bribery and bid-rigging.
As a result, millions of U.S. aid dollars and billions in Iraqi government funds have disappeared in an ongoing scandal that is poised to engulf Baghdad and Washington. Worse still, a leading candidate for the top elected post in Iraq has also been implicated in the report as having taken "payoffs" in order to rig a major government cell phone contract.
According to a May 2004 U.S. Defense Department report to the inspector general, a former financier and close associate of Saddam Hussein, Nadhmi Auchi, has "engaged in unlawful activities" such as bribing "foreign governments and individuals prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom to turn opinion against the American-led mission to remove Saddam Hussein."
In addition, the report noted that Auchi arranged "for significant theft from the UN Oil-for-Food Program to smuggle weapons and dual-use technology into Iraq in violation of UN and other International Export Control Regimes."
Today, according to the official DOD report, Auchi has organized "an elaborate scheme to take over and control the post-war cellular phone system in Iraq."
According to John A. Shaw, the former deputy undersecretary for international technology security, Auchi not only helped Saddam prior to the war but also worked closely with the French bank BNP Paribas after combat ended, in order to acquire contracts inside Iraq.
"Auchi is the single largest principle shareholder in BNP Paribas," stated Shaw during an exclusive interview.
BNP Parabas has been linked to the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal, with potentially billions of dollars missing, or misused by Saddam though the French bank.
Shaw was very clear that Auchi, a kingmaker in present-day Iraq, used his powers against the U.S.
"From the outset Auchi kept out U.S. companies and U.S. technology," said Shaw of the bidding process for the Iraqi cell contracts.
"There is a gold rush out there [Iraq]. The opportunity is there. There is so much money floating around that the Iraqi minister of communications went to London, passed $20 million to Auchi to have him start the process."
Shaw was not the only official to notice millions of dollars being passed out like so much candy at a party. The May 2004 Defense report supports Shaw's allegations of corruption.
"Bribes amounting to between $18 and $21 million were allegedly allocated among six people," noted the May 2004 report.
"It was reported by the CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] Baghdad in late April [2004] that financial controls in the MOC [Ministry of Communications] were 'few to non-existent.' In that context, all the records of the cellular tender appear to have disappeared."
The May 2004 report also implicated leading Iraqi Governing Council member Ibrahim al-Jafferi. According to the report, "there remain numerous allegations of payoffs and kickbacks from the winning consortia to a variety of decision makers" including Ibrahim al-Jafferi.
The report noted, "a second source reported a payment of $3 million made to al-Jafferi, and a matching amount to Haider al-Abadi [the Iraqi minister of communications]."
Ibrahim al-Jafferi is currently the leading spokesman for the Islamic Daawa Party and a potential candidate for the Iraqi prime minister job. He is the preferred candidate on the Shia list that won the election.
The implication of al-Jafferi's involvement in the rigged cellular bidding may put a quick end to his rapid rise to power and dash hopes inside Washington for a smooth change inside Iraq to self-governance.
The May 2004 report was followed more recently by a January 2005 audit report released by the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction.
The January 2005 report noted that hundreds of millions of U.S. aid dollars were missing and "the CPA provided less than adequate controls for approximately $8.8 billion" in U.S. funds provided for Iraq.
The May 2004 DOD report also noted that Iraqi communications contracts have been awarded to French and Chinese companies that either were implicated in the ongoing Oil-for-Food scandal or provided Saddam's Iraq with weapons in violation of the U.N. sanctions imposed by the world body.
The May 2004 report noted that a principle supplier of Iraqi communications hardware for the current cellular contract is "Huawei, a Chinese company that operated in Iraq under Saddam Hussein."
Huawei supplied Saddam with a secure air defense network. The Chinese-built air defense system, NATO code-named "Tiger Song," was sold to Iraq in violation of a U.N. embargo on arms exports.
The U.S. bombed the Chinese fiber optic network prior to and during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Huawei also supplied a sophisticated fiber optic command and control network to the Taliban in Afghanistan prior to the U.S. invasion.
Another major supplier of equipment for the Iraqi cellular system is French-based Alcatel. The French communications company has already been linked to BNP Paribas. Alcatel profited from U.S. and Iraqi money supplied to rebuild the war-torn country.
"The winners in the Iraqi cellular license tender were Saddam's most senior financiers, their Egyptian and Iraqi supporters, the bank BNP Paribas, European cellular corporations - particularly Alcatel and Chinese telecom interests such as Huawei," states the May 2004 Defense Department report.
"If the French had provided a couple of divisions to take Baghdad they could not have gotten more," concluded John Shaw with disgust.
Charles Smith will be on:
The Jerry Hughes Show on Friday, 2/25/05, at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Show information at http://www.cilamerica.com.
The Charlie Smith Show on the American Freedom Network on Monday, 2/28/05, at 11 a.m. Eastern time. Show information at http://www.americanewsnet.com.
LOS ANGELES - The Pentagon is investigating allegations that a Defense Department official attempted to alter a contract proposal in Iraq to benefit friends and colleagues, a newspaper reported for its Thursday editions. John Shaw, the deputy undersecretary for international technology security, tried to turn a small communications proposal into a contract to create an Iraq-wide commercial cellular network, sources told the Los Angeles Times.
He then allegedly pressured officials in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad to grant a noncompetitive bid to a mobile phone consortium called Guardian Net, which included Shaw's friends and telecommunications giants Lucent and Qualcomm.
His efforts on behalf of the consortium led to a dispute that has delayed the contract and angered some officials, who say a better communications infrastructure could have improved coordination between U.S. and Iraqi forces and prevented numerous deaths, the paper reported.
Shaw defended his support of the consortium, saying he was backing the best available technology.
"Hey, we won the war," he told the newspaper. "Is it not in our interests to have the most advanced system that we possibly can that can then become the dominant standard in the region?"
Shaw was supporting the adoption of CDMA-type cell phone technology, which was rejected last year in favor of a European platform. He maintained that competition for commercial licenses was rigged.
According to e-mails obtained by the newspaper, Shaw allegedly tried to get around the bidding process by creating a new consortium - Guardian Net - with a small business owned by native Alaskans.
Native Alaskan-owned businesses can be awarded large government contracts without having to go through the standard competitive bidding process.
The Pentagon's inspector general began an investigation after two officials quit, saying Shaw had pressured them to change the contract.
Shaw said he has been friends with one of Guardian Net's directors, Don DeMarino, for decades. Another board member is Julian Walker, who is under contract with Shaw's office to perform research.
Shaw told the newspaper he does not have any financial ties to Guardian Net and has no agreement for future employment. Criminal charges could result if Shaw does have financial ties to the consortium.
John Shaw, the deputy undersecretary for international technology security, tried to turn a small communications proposal into a contract to create an Iraq-wide commercial cellular network, sources told the Los Angeles Times.
He then allegedly pressured officials in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad to grant a noncompetitive bid to a mobile phone consortium called Guardian Net, which included Shaw's friends and telecommunications giants Lucent and Qualcomm. His efforts on behalf of the consortium led to a dispute that has delayed the contract and angered some officials, who say a better communications infrastructure could have improved coordination between U.S. and Iraqi forces and prevented numerous deaths, the paper reported.
Lucent?
See this thread : Squeeze here
Lucent awarded $25 million reconstruction subcontract Bechtel National, Inc has recently awarded Lucent Technologies a $25 million subcontract to carry out emergency repair and rehabilitation on Iraq's communications network.
(Thanks to Jack Shaw?)
Alleged Violations Could Cost Lucent Millions
By Tom Becker
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Lucent Technologies Inc.'s (LU) alleged violation of a federal statute could cost the company millions of dollars and land some of its employees in jail.
The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating whether Lucent violated a provision of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 by bribing a Saudi Arabian official with money, gifts and free use of private jets to make business decisions in Lucent's favor. The alleged bribes are valued at roughly $15 million.
Any employee found guilty of violating the statute could face up to five years in prison and the telecommunications-maker could be forced to shell out millions to cover a large fine, a spokesman with the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Lucent denies the allegations, which were originally made in a lawsuit filed by National Group for Communications and Computers Ltd., a Saudi telecommunications company, and said it is cooperating with the Justice Department and SEC investigations.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was penned to discourage U.S. businesses from bribing foreign officials to steer business their way. Along with bribery, entities can be charged with failing to properly book the payments made to foreign officials and for failing to have adequate controls in place to prevent such acts, legal experts said.
Two of the biggest cases under the act involved General Electric Co. (GE), which paid $69 million in penalties in 1992 after an employee was found to have bribed a former Israeli general, and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), which paid $24.8 million in 1995 after an executive was found to have bribed an Egyptian politician to win a contract. The Justice Department is currently investigating whether Exxon Mobil Corp.
(XOM), formerly known as Mobil Oil Corp., participated in a scheme to route $78 million to Swiss bank accounts belonging to Kazakhstan's president and others.
A former Mobil vice president, J. Bryan Williams, recently pleaded guilty to tax evasion after he neglected to pay taxes on $2 million he allegedly received in association with the scheme.
"This is not slap-on-the-wrist type stuff," said Robert N. Kaplan, a partner with the law firm of Kaplan & Fox, which has defended entities accused of violating the act. "When the government investigates you for violating this act, it's serious business and it comes with serious penalties."
The Securities and Exchange Commission can levy its own fines and place restrictions on the violating businesses. The fines are typically smaller than the Justice Department fines. Only violations pursued by the Justice Department can result in jail time.
Kaplan said Lucent's best bet is to cooperate with the federal investigations. Fines are generally smaller in cases where settlements are reached.
The attorney said a typical defense is for an entity to claim it didn't know it was actually bribing anyone when it made the payments.
"You'll hear companies say we hired this consultant because he is a guy who knows his way around and said he could help put us in a position to get business but we had no idea he was just putting money into some official's bank account," Kaplan said.
In addition to the federal investigations, Lucent executives may wind up defending themselves from derivative actions for their role in the alleged violation, Kaplan said. In a derivative action, a shareholder can sue officers and directors of a corporation on behalf of the company for failing to instill proper controls to prevent the violations. The shareholder can seek to recover monetary damages from the officers and directors.
-By Tom Becker; Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2020
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
08-25-03 1715ET
1 posted on 09/04/2003 4:14:30 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Shaw sent his report to the inspector general's office, which turned it over for further investigation to the FBI. An FBI official confirmed that the agency had received the report and had just begun looking into the allegations of bribery. -----"Official: Pentagon Deputy Used Unauthorized Probes to Secure Lucrative Contracts," By: T. Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times, July 07, 2004, http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-probe7jul07,1,7195550.story?coll=la-iraq-complete
this couldn't be the Sunni Saudis trying to get a little dirt in on Shi'a Ibrahim al-Jafferi before the Iraqis select their next PM, could it?
OK, now that we're thoroughly confused...
Shaw justified his investigations under a special agreement with the Pentagon inspector general, Joseph E. Schmitz. The August agreement created a temporary office headed by Shaw called the International Armament and Technology Trade Directorate. Its mission was to cooperate with the inspector general on issues related to the transfer of sensitive U.S. technologies or arms to foreign countries.
Shaw frequently cited the agreement in his dealings with reporters and the military, telling them it allowed him to "wear an IG hat" to conduct investigations. In a recent letter to the inspector general, he said the agreement gave him "broad investigatory authority."
That contention is the subject of dispute, however. The agreement states that Shaw "may recommend" that the inspector general initiate audits, evaluations, investigations and inquiries, but it does not appear to give him investigative powers.
"Jack Shaw was never authorized to do any kind of investigation or auditing on his own," said one source close to Schmitz. "The agreement was not for that. He's trying to cram more authority into that agreement than it gives him."
Schmitz canceled the agreement two weeks after Shaw was first accused of tampering with the emergency phone network contract. Schmitz declined to comment, but in his letter canceling the arrangement, he praised Shaw for "outstanding leadership." ---------- "Official: Pentagon Deputy Used Unauthorized Probes to Secure Lucrative Contracts," By: T. Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times , July 07, 2004
Of course, the LA Times can have its own agenda going on, too.
Pulled this from a "subjective" piece by journalist, author,Wayne Madsen.
I wonder who this was?
Also wonder how Ford managed to become President before Nixon there--sounds like Chevy Chase helped Yahoo write that paragraph and managed to trip backward in time :-)
If Shaw started in the Nixon administration, what department was he with and who did he work with? I wonder if he was linked to the leakers in the administration. A fuller background on Shaw's activities in previous administrations would be useful.
Would that fit with the Lebanon/Patrick Lang interest in the Iraqi political situation?--which I guess could be transposed into the broader question, how does that fit into Iran and Syria's interests in the situation?
self-ping, 2005 topic.
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