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Former Bush Iraq Chief to Dems: Bring. It. On.
C'mon, everybody: Let's get ready to rumble!
We've just confirmed that the former Bush-appointed leader of the U.S. rebuilding effort in Iraq will face his longtime critic before a panel of the Democratic-led Congress to answer questions about his leadership.
L. Paul Bremer, onetime head of the former Coalition Provisional Authority, responded positively to an invitation extended ten days ago to testify along with his chief critic, Iraq audit and investigation chief Stuart Bowen, before Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-CA) Government Reform Committee.
"He's confirmed," a Waxman spokesman told me this afternoon, referring to Bremer, who stepped down in June 2004. President Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom six months later, despite a long series of scathing reports by Bowen about mismanagement, waste, fraud and abuse among Bremer's staff.
It will be the first time Bremer and Bowen will testify together before Congress, according to Bowen spokeswoman Christine Belisle. Get your popcorn ready.
I. Can't. Wait.
That another son of a bitch who belongs behind bars.
January 30, 2007 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yippee! I hope, I hope, I hope the hearings are televised on C-Span. Maybe, just maybe, Rep. Waxman can convince the media to shine some light on the missing $9 billion in cash and make the public understand why they should care about corruption in Iraq.
I can just imagine it:
Rep. Waxman: Mr. Bowen, could you summarize your report on how Mr. Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority managed the disbursement of $9 billion in cash of pre-war Iraqi oil revenue?
Stuart Bowen: Yes, sir. Mr. Bremer called me from his yacht in the Mediterranean and told me he didn't have a frigging clue as to how the $9 billion in cash was disbursed. He said he couldn't care less if the money ended up fueling the insurgency or financing the next three Republican election campaigns, either.
Rep. Waxman: Mr.Bremer?
L. Paul Bremer: I had other, more important, matters on my mind than worrying about a lousy $9 billion in cash. For God's sakes, man, we had to ensure foreign investors were permanently exempted from paying Iraqi taxes. If an Iraqi with an honest face showed up at our office with a wheelbarrow, we assumed he was entitled to fill it, end of story.
January 30, 2007 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
As someone has pointed out, this present corrupt Republican machine has been built over a long period of years, not just the past six.
I think the Democrats are over their heads on this one. But I'll believe they're serious when I see some real convictions with some real time done in some real prisons and some real brakes put on Pentagon, CIA, FBI and other agencies free wheeling spying on Americans.
You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
January 30, 2007 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dennis,
It won't happen overnight. That is why this is only the beginning.
January 30, 2007 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Questions for L. Paul Bremer:
How did you come to hire Northstar instead of a big four or other reputable accounting firm?
Per a 2/17/05 MSNBC story:
"...Iraq’s U.S. administrator, Paul Bremer, pledged last year to hire a certified public accounting firm to ensure proper controls. But the United States gave the contract not to an accounting firm but to a tiny consulting company, Northstar — which NBC News found is headquartered at a private home near San Diego...
Northstar’s president says the Pentagon knew Northstar was not a certified public accounting firm and that four experienced employees went to Iraq and did a good job. However, one audit notes that a single Northstar employee maintained spreadsheets tracking billions of dollars..."
January 30, 2007 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
It will be an unholy mess to clean up the mess, however, I don't underestimate the power or a good question and an even better subpeona.
I would love, just love to hear about how Mr. Bremmer decided to put hundreds of thousands of armed and trained military onto the streets without prospects for employment.
I would love to hear about the de-Baathification to the point of friggin janitors! Where are the people with civil service experience supposed to come from? Teachers? Professors? Police?
I would love to hear how the rebuilding that should have created a massive job pool for the Iraqi people became a blank check for American company profits.
We should take notes and follow the trail... right up to the White House. Bremmer came in with the agenda of the vice-president clearly laid out for him... we need to find out what that was.
January 30, 2007 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Waxman v. Bremer? This could be better than Bears v. Colts!!! Stock up on the popcorn...
January 30, 2007 8:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder if Bremer will wear his Medal of Freedom to the hearing...
January 30, 2007 9:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps instead of questioning him, they should turn him upside down and shake him to see if a billion or two falls out of his pockets.
January 30, 2007 9:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow that pic looks amazingly like Tom Delay's mug shot. Should do a separated-at-birth graphic when all the contracting profiteering finally comes out.
January 31, 2007 6:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bremer's bound to lie (when does he not?), and could well wind up in jail, where he belongs.
January 31, 2007 8:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
This war was mostly lost thanks to Paul Bremer, and he embodies the war profiteering that has been Bush's real agenda with a war he's just as soon leave to someone else to clean up. They just want to swindle the American Treasury and give it to coorporate buddies. Bremer has explaining to do, meanwhile small earthquakes have been detected in Arlington Cemetary in the area around President Truman's grave since Bremer assumed leadership of the Colition Provisional Authority. Many believe it is Truman rolling over in his grave. No bid contracts, as well as war time tax cuts should be crimes, and you can bet they are doing nothing to win this war for US.
February 6, 2007 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Bremer's bound to lie (when does he not?)"
Remember Bremer's famous, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we got him"? After watching a hanging of Saddam that can easily be argued to have been an illusion, does anybody still believe without question that Iraqis found Saddam, Iraqis tried Saddam, Iraqis sentenced Saddam to death and Iraqis hanged Saddam? The President and Mr.Bremer surely hope the masses do believe, and believe without question.
Consider for a moment the worldwide reporting of the bombing of Saddam 4/7/03, and the glee of the Pentagon that put the bomb squad on live feed the next day. They knew they got their target, spot on! Though I doubt the crew knew that they had just been tasked to violate Executive Order 12333, Rumsfeld knew it. So did Bush 41. They were both at the White House when it was signed during the Reagan Admininstration! That E.O. included a ban on targeted political assassinations. "W" wanted Saddam killed, no doubt. But no sooner had the bombs scored a direct hit than somebody realized Saddam needed to be very much alive.
A liar, Bremer? If so, he was the perfect man in charge of putting together the Iraqi Governing Council and throwing approximately $400 million to Chalabi and family to administer the court that gave us the "Spide Hole Saddam" show. (Any idea what happened to the five body doubles?) Methinks the Congressional Medal of Freedom went to Bremer, Franks and Tenet for carrying out a HUGE illusion to save the President from being charged with violating E.O. 12333 along with giving the misinformation upon which the invasion of Iraq was premised.
Somebody please, write the book: Saddam Redux!
February 6, 2007 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
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May 1, 2007 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
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May 6, 2007 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good work!
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