T-Room

The Best in Alt News

August 30, 2011

$30 billion stolen by US military contractors

Wartime Contracting Commission warns of huge risk from unsustainable projects

“ARLINGTON, VA, June 3, 2011 – U.S.-funded projects that the Iraqi and Afghan governments can’t operate or pay for on their own threaten to create billions of dollars of new waste of American taxpayers’ money, according to a special report released today by the federal Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The report notes that “Potential waste from unsustainable projects exceeds $11 billion for just one program in Afghanistan, facilities construction for the national security forces.” The report points to other examples like a large power plant the Afghan government can’t afford to operate and an Iraqi water-treatment plant that is shut down much of the time and produces murky water when it does run.

Sustainability is a serious concern, the report says, because the U.S. military will be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, and the drawdown of U.S. troops from Afghanistan begins in July. Yet many of the programs and projects carried out under federal contracts in the countries lack plans for staffing, technical support, and funding for the long term.

Read the rest of release by clicking on the headline and look for the report on Wednesday at the same location.

August 19, 2011

10 Lobbyists per Member of Congress Fighting Effective Finance Regulations

First, read this expose by Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone wrote earlier this week about how regulators at the SEC destroyed thousands of records thereby impeding investigations into these obvious crimes –

Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes? A whistleblower claims that over the past two decades, the agency has destroyed records of thousands of investigations, whitewashing the files of some of the nation’s worst financial criminals by Matt Taibbi

Then take a minute to read this article about how the lobbyists from the big firms have already paid $11.2 million and counting for access and influence to the new UNCONSTITUTIONAL Congressional Super Committee –

Wall Street firms donated $11.2 million to members of debt ‘super committee’

And lastly, if the above two articles haven’t convinced you of the sickening buy off of your members of congress to look out for you and your pocketbook, well, read this little ditty how a former VP w/Goldman Sachs literally changed his name to work for Congressman Darrell Issa –

Exclusive: Goldman Sachs VP Changed His Name, Now Advances Goldman Lobbying Interests As Top Staffer To Darrell Issa