Iraq Has Brownies Too!

Used Car Dealer Cattan Pisses Away More Than a Billion!

[via Raw Story] Please don't think that the Brownie phenomenon, discussed here and here, is contained within U.S. borders. It has been reported that Bu$hco's choice for chief weapons procuror, Ziad Cattan, "was a Polish Iraqi used-car dealer with no weapons-dealing experience until U.S. authorities turned him into one of the most powerful men in Iraq last year — the chief of procurement for the Defense Ministry, responsible for equipping the fledgling Iraqi army." Are you surprised then that Iraq was defrauded of over $1 billion in the resulting scandal?

As U.S. advisors looked on, Cattan embarked on a massive spending spree, paying hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraqi funds for secret, no-bid contracts, according to interviews with more than a dozen senior American, coalition and Iraqi officials, and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The money flowed, often in bricks of cash, through the hands of middlemen who were friends of Cattan and took a percentage of the proceeds. Although much of the material purchased has proved useful, U.S. advisors said, the contracts also paid for equipment that was shoddy, overpriced or never delivered. The questionable purchases — including aging Russian helicopters and underpowered Polish transport vehicles — have slowed the development of the Iraqi army and hindered its ability to replace American troops, U.S. and Iraqi officials say. [emphasis supplied.]

Perhaps Mr. Cattan, now under investigation, is a good judge of horse flesh.

tags: michael brown ziad cattan impeach bush iraq

Comments

[HelenWheels]

Again Bubba Shrub displays his love of cronyism and disregard of actual on-the-job experience or even a shred of expertise. I wish I could get hired into one of those cushy high-paying gigs. Then again, it seems a prerequisite is that you have to actually run a business into the ground to be considered. I haven't really done that, unless you include the lemonade stand I had when I was 9 years old that ran at a loss.

[Neil Shakespeare]

Pirates, pirates, pirates.

[actor212]

I trade you $1 billion dollar and two pile of dung for your Yugo.

[cruelanimal]

THIS WEEKEND ONLY LEE LEE!! CRAZY CATTAN'S HUMVEE BLOWOUT OUT OUT!! RUSSIAN COPTERS TERS TERS!! POLISH TROOP TRUCKS UCKS UCKS!! NO PRICE TOO LOW OOO OOO!! NO POLICY TOO DUMB UMM UMM!! NO PAYMENTS TILL ILL ILL!! THE TROOPS I MEAN CASH COWS COME HOME OME OME!!