When Gen. David Petraeus was tasked with training and equipping Iraqi forces in 2004, he made it clear that he had little patience for bureaucracy. He wanted to get Iraqis prepared and ready to work independently, and getting lost in paperwork and accounting would only get in the way of more important goals. There was also no time, Petraeus said, for formal tracking systems to be put in place before distributing weapons to Iraqis.
Given the circumstances, this may sound fairly reasonable, but the approach was not without costs. We already know, for example, that this lax policy led to the military losing track of 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces. As it turns out, it also led to a vast system of fraud, waste, and abuse.
Several federal agencies are investigating a widening network of criminal cases involving the purchase and delivery of billions of dollars of weapons, supplies and other materiel to Iraqi and American forces, according to American officials. The officials said it amounted to the largest ring of fraud and kickbacks uncovered in the conflict here.
The inquiry has already led to several indictments of Americans, with more expected, the officials said. One of the investigations involves a senior American officer who worked closely with Gen. David H. Petraeus in setting up the logistics operation to supply the Iraqi forces when General Petraeus was in charge of training and equipping those forces in 2004 and 2005, American officials said Monday.
According to the NYT report, there are, so far, 73 criminal investigations underway involving “contractors, government employees, local nationals and American military personnel.” To date, 20 Americans (civilian and military) have been charged in federal court as a result of the corruption investigation, which apparently has uncovered more than $15 million in bribes on contracts valued at more than $5 billion.
The details are still a little unclear, but the most provocative revelation from the story involves Lt. Col. Levonda Joey Selph, a close Petraeus aide, who is now under investigation in the scandal.
Selph’s operation moved everything from AK-47s, armored vehicles and plastic explosives to boots and Army uniforms, according to officials who were involved in it. Her former colleagues recall Colonel Selph as a courageous officer who was willing to take substantial personal risks to carry out her mission and was unfailingly loyal to General Petraeus and his directives to move quickly in setting up the logistics operation.
“She was kind of like the Pony Express of the Iraqi security forces,” said Victoria Wayne, who was then deputy director of logistics for the overall Iraqi reconstruction program.
Still, Colonel Selph also ran into serious problems with a company she oversaw that failed to live up to a contract it had signed to carry out part of that logistics mission.
It is not clear exactly what Colonel Selph is being investigated for. Colonel Selph, reached by telephone twice on Monday, said she would speak to reporters later but did not answer further messages left for her.
There’s no indication that Petraeus has done anything improper, though the investigation exploring his decisions (and their consequences) may undermine his credibility a bit at a crucial time.
The good news is, several years after the fact, officials are now taking corruption seriously. The bad news, as Spencer Ackerman explained, is that it may very well be too late.
Corruption is a way of life in the new Iraq. Transparency International, an anti-corruption watchdog, labeled the country the second-most-corrupt business environment on the planet in 2005. Just yesterday, McClatchy reported that any Iraqi doing business in Anbar Province — including Iraqi contractors with the U.S. — pays an “insurgent tax” to militant groups who partially finance their fight against the U.S. through shakedowns. All that raises doubt about how much good a new anti-corruption effort can accomplish at this point.
When drawing up lists of the administration’s colossal failures and mistakes in Iraq, let’s not forget to put this right up near the top.