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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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September 9th,
2009 - Feds Scour Bank Records of Retired Army Colonel |
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Feds Scour Bank
Records of Retired Army Colonel By Richard Lardner Associated Press September 9, 2009 Washington - Federal
investigators are searching for suspicious transactions in the personal bank
records of a retired Army colonel who ran the contracting office in Baghdad
during the early stages of Iraq's $125 billion reconstruction. The focus on Anthony B. Bell
opens a window into the scope of a long-running inquiry of fraud and
corruption that's gathering steam even as U.S. forces are beginning to leave
the country. While contracting procedures
and oversight in Iraq have improved dramatically in recent years, that hasn't
slowed investigators trying to piece together the scale of corruption that
undermined the largest nation-building effort in U.S. history. Bell is suspected by
investigators of being a key figure in a loosely connected network of U.S.
officials who allegedly steered contracts to companies that paid them
millions of dollars in return. According to federal court
records, the special inspector general's office was told by an anonymous
source in 2004 that Bell had allegedly accepted kickbacks on reconstruction
contracts. The records do not specify the contracts or give the amounts of
the payments. In a telephone interview
with The Associated Press, Bell said he has no problem with the investigators
looking through his records. "I will gladly go to court with them
anytime they want to bring me to court," he said. As chief of the U.S.-led
Coalition Provisional Authority's contracting office from June 2003 to March
2004, Bell managed a critical arm of the U.S. presence in Iraq. The office
awarded scores of contracts quickly to get the country back on its feet. At
the time, there was almost no oversight on how huge sums of cash were being
spent, according to the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq
Reconstruction. That office, known as SIGIR,
is involved in the current investigation along with the Justice Department,
the Army Criminal Investigation Command and the Air Force Office of Special
Investigations. So far, there have been 46
convictions, including 16 involving military personnel, for criminal
misconduct stemming from Iraq's rebuilding, which has been aided by $50
billion in U.S. tax dollars. A spokesman for the inspector
general for Iraq reconstruction declined to comment because the investigation
is still open. In late June, a U.S.
magistrate cleared the way for investigators to examine Bell's financial
records. Bell had initially resisted a subpoena for his records because the
document had the incorrect account number and home address. Bell is also alleged to have
received a multimillion-dollar payment from John Cockerham, an Army
contracting officer who was stationed in Kuwait and other overseas locations.
Cockerham hatched a bribery scheme that prosecutors say netted him $9.5
million that was stashed in bank accounts and safe deposit boxes. Cockerham was indicted in
August 2007 and pleaded guilty less than a year later to bribery, conspiracy
and money laundering charges. He has not yet been sentenced. The New York Times reported
in February that Bell's name appeared in a private notebook kept by
Cockerham. In the interview with the
AP, Bell denied accepting any bribes or payoffs from Cockerham. He did,
however, offer a possible explanation for why his name might appear in
Cockerham's notebook: After leaving Iraq in 2004, Bell took over an Army
contracting office at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. In December 2005, following
a long tour in Kuwait, Cockerham was assigned to Bell's office. Bell said he
contacted Cockerham and Cockerham's former supervisors before he arrived to
find out more about him just as anyone would do with a new employee. Calls to Cockerham's
attorney were not returned. Federal agents have also
examined the financial records of Ronald W. Hirtle, an Air Force lieutenant colonel
who was a contracting officer in the Baghdad office from February through
June 2004. Hirtle's tenure briefly overlapped with Bell's. In an interview, Hirtle said
the agents found nothing improper. Hirtle also said the investigators urged
him to take a lie-detector test. According to Hirtle, he took it and passed. No charges have been filed
against Hirtle, who retired from the military in July after a 20-year career.
He denied any wrongdoing and said he didn't witness any improper behavior
while in Iraq. Hirtle, an Air Force major
when he was sent to Baghdad, said he spoke to Bell only a handful of times
while he was stationed there. His entanglement in the investigation appears
to be connected to an $8.2 million warehouse construction contract he signed
in May 2004 with a company in Kuwait called American Logistics Services. The company, which later
become Lee Dynamics International, paid tens of thousands of dollars in
bribes to U.S. contracting officials in order to win work, according to
documents filed in federal court. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gjWN_iGyXagIT58NeuECY5VfattgD9AJVME80 |