Posted on 12/15/2005 5:49:57 PM PST by Former Military Chick
WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - A U.S. Army officer was arrested on Thursday for stealing between $80,000 and $100,000 in funds from the U.S. governing administration in Iraq and using the money to install a deck and hot hub in her New Jersey home.
The U.S. Justice Department said Army Reserve Lt. Col. Debra Harrison, 47, who served with the Coalition Provisional Authority, was arrested on charges involving bribery, money laundering and fraud.
Harrison is the second army officer and the fourth person charged in the past few weeks in connection with the scheme.
The Justice Department said Harrison was on active duty for the U.S. Army in 2003 and 2004, and was responsible for developing contract solicitations and ordering contracts for reconstruction efforts for the Coalition Provisional Authority -- South Central Region.
According to court papers, Harrison and her co-conspirators accepted money and gifts in return for using their official positions to rig contract bids.
An affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court in New Jersey said she used the money to add a deck and put in a hot tub at her home in Trenton, New Jersey, accepted a Cadillac Escalade worth about $50,000 and a $6,000 airline ticket from a contractor in return for rigging the bids.
Harrison was also accused of laundering funds from the CPA.
In the affidavit, Harrison was also charged with numerous firearms charges, including conspiring to embezzle and possess pistols, automatic machine guns and grenade launchers bought with CPA funds.
She is charged along with her co-conspirators of using the CPA funds to buy dozens of firearms and related military-grade hardware in North Carolina for their own use.
If convicted, Harrison faces up to 30 years in prison.
Harrison is the second army officer and the fourth person charged in the past few weeks in connection with the scheme.
If proven true, justice should be swift.
This gals in a heap of trouble
You know that the Army is just cringing over the negative PR from this.
This lady is toast - no jam or butter - just toast, burnt black.
And very much deservedly so.
What a POS.
LVM
** ADVANCE FOR MONDAY, DEC. 12 ** Lt. Col. Debra Harrison is photographed at her home in Trenton, N.J., Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2005. Harrison, who was ambushed twice during her 17-month deployment in Iraq, was wounded when a bullet hit a windshield and sprayed shards of glass into her face. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
http://iraq-kill-maim.org/ik47/iraq-kill47.htm
(bottom pic in left column)
Just trying to make here governor elect proud!
Trenton? I wonder is she is a state employee?
Oooh. A hot hub! Is that the latest thing?
Seriously, if this is true, I hope the she gets her just desserts. Despicable.
Leg iron time. She is a disgrace.
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Army reservist Debra Harrison says she came home from Iraq a "walking zombie."
"I was so numb. I don't remember much, I was so exhausted. I was just physically and mentally drained."
In civilian life, she's an accountant for the city of Trenton, N.J.
In Iraq, the lieutenant colonel worked with the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. civilian agency that ran Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
She was ambushed twice during her 17-month deployment, which ended last year.
On Feb. 6, 2004, she was driving from Baghdad to Karbala when insurgents ambushed her convoy with automatic rifles. A bullet hit the windshield, spraying shards of glass into her face.
She hit the accelerator, reaching speeds over 100 mph. She pulled over to switch drivers only when they were out of danger.
A nerve in her upper lip was severed and she will always have a little knot there, but she feels extraordinarily lucky to be alive.
Harrison returned to duty the day after the ambush, despite the reservations of Spanish forces who worked alongside her.
"I went off on them. I told them if they were afraid to go out, they could stay back, but I had a mission to complete," she says. "We just weren't going to let something like that stop us. It was a matter of principle."
Harrison, 48, didn't tell her husband about the shooting right away. He was upset when he found out late.
When she escaped a second ambush a few months later without injury, she told him immediately. But first, she asked him to promise to stay calm.
Harrison, who serves with a civil affairs unit in Norristown, Pa., she's now mulling her future in the military. Her husband doesn't want her back in Iraq.
Article's URL: http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103-12112005-582746.html
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Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press
Well now I wonder how much she has taken off of the city?
Trenton better audit her books, LOL.
Here's the indictment:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/December/05_crm_671.html
Still trying to figure this.
Remember "Law & Order" before you judge anyone. Especially a decorated soldier. An indictment only means there is enough evidence to investigate. There are no charges filed. Evidence to investigate could mean the people already charged are co-workers. Please hold off on any judgement until the facts are out.
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