The ultra-conservative Washington Times reports today on one of the rare Bush-appointed heroes in Iraq — and why the administration is doing whatever it can to undermine him.
There is a battle going on between Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction (SIGIR), and bureaucrats responsible for thousands of rebuilding contracts in Iraq.
But it’s an undeclared war. As is his mission, Mr. Bowen simply puts out a series of reports detailing failings in the reconstruction effort. The bureaucrats, who don’t dare publicly speak against an IG who has wide support in Congress, fire back by issuing a stream of press releases recounting accomplishments in Iraq.
Privately, Bush administration officials tell us that Mr. Bowen’s quarterly reports and audits are too negative and that he glosses over what they have been able to achieve in the face of an extremist enemy who will kill anyone, at any time, to stop a project.
When the Times refers to “bureaucrats” who are at war with Bowen, they’re referring to Bush administration officials who wish Bowen was never tapped for the job in the first place.
But he was. In fact, if you haven’t already heard the background, it’s an interesting story.
The president chose Bowen to lead the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction in January 2004. At the time, it seemed like a typical set-up job for the Bush gang: the president needed to respond to criticism about corruption and mismanagement, but instead of asking an independent voice to begin serious oversight, Bush chose Bowen, a loyal friend, senior member of Bush’s gubernatorial campaign team in 1994, a Bush attorney during the Florida recount debacle in 2000, and an associate counsel in Bush’s White House. For Dems hoping for a strong, independent voice to exercise real oversight of Iraqi reconstruction, Bowen’s resume offered little encouragement.
But Bowen surprised everyone — including, presumably, the White House. Bowen has not only taken his job as inspector general seriously, he’s been the leading figure in exposing fraud and corruption in Iraq. The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Bowen “has become one of the most prominent and credible critics of how the administration has handled the occupation of Iraq,” and considering his record, it’s a more-than-fair description. The guy even took on Halliburton.
Today’s article in the Times said Bowen has “wide support in Congress,” but that’s not quite the whole story. Congressional Republicans, taking marching orders from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, quietly made it easier to circumvent Bowen and his tenacious efforts by putting new Iraq spending where Bowen couldn’t see it.
By law, Mr. Bowen can oversee only relief and reconstruction funds. Because the new money technically comes from a different source, Mr. Bowen, who has 55 auditors on the ground in Iraq, will be barred from overseeing how the new money is spent. Instead, the funds will be overseen by the State Department’s inspector general office, which has a much smaller staff in Iraq and warned in testimony to Congress in the fall that it lacked the resources to continue oversight activities in Iraq.
When the secret change that allows more corruption came to light, everyone naturally asked how and why this measure was included in the Pentagon spending bill. In fact, the WSJ reported that a group of senators, upon learning about the provision that would circumvent Bowen, offered an amendment that would have kept his oversight duties in place. For reasons that are not altogether clear, sponsors of the amendment were denied the chance to bring their measure to the floor for a vote.
So, who wanted the change? Who else? “Republican Appropriations Committee aides say legislators shifted the Iraq money to the foreign operations accounts at the request of the White House,” the WSJ reported.
As Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) put it at the time, “This is nothing more than a transparent attempt to shut down the only effective oversight of this massive reconstruction program which has been plagued by mismanagement and fraud.”
And now we hear that administration officials have “an undeclared war” going on against Bowen. I know who I hope wins.