Pentagon relies on bribing tribal sheiks to fix Iraq's electric grid

The LA Times reports on Sunday that the tribal sheiks, whom the Pentagon pays to fix Iraq's electricity grid, are actually profiting each time power lines come under attack:

Contracts with tribal chiefs to protect Iraq's valuable electricity grids have not paid off, according to U.S. auditors.

Iraq's Ministry of Electricity has contractedwith tribal sheiks to protect the electrical transmission lines runningthrough their areas and pays them about $60 to $100 per kilometer,according to the report.

Yet the tactic is not working, auditors said.

Thereport, citing U.S. and U.N. officials, said, "Some tribes that werepaid to protect transmission lines also sold materials from the downedlines and extracted tariffs for access to repair the lines."

In other news, the military announced Sunday that 10 more US soldiers lost their lives in Iraq.  That makes 30 deaths over the last week, and 80 so far for the month of June.

Comments

[granny]

Hard to sort out whether I'm madder or sadder at this stupid "news". How could we be this stupid? How utterly oblivious to reality? OR, are we getting kick-backs, too?

All so pathetic.

[Chief Editor: Todd]

It's just stupidity, nothing else. Many liberals tend to mix the word "conspiracy" with this Administration....and that 9/11 was an inside job. But instances like this show that conspiracies could NEVER happen under this presidency because they would be too stupid to pull it off. This is a presidency that can't even deliver water to Katrina victims....and instead that water did a few trips across the country before getting to its destination in New Orleans. This is a presidency that saw a memo "Bin Laden determined to strike US," but after 9/11 fired Richard Clarke, THE BEST counter-terrorism expert in the US.

It's all about stupidity and incompetence. And each time we even hint that it's a conspiracy, we make them look smart, which we all know is not the case.