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Iraq Weapons Are a Focus of Criminal
Investigations
By JAMES GLANZ and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: August 28, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/world/middleeast/28military.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
BAGHDAD, Aug. 27 — 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 matériel 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.
There is no indication that investigators have
uncovered any wrongdoing by General Petraeus, the
top commander in Iraq, who through a spokesman
declined comment on any legal proceedings.
This article is based on interviews with more than a
dozen federal investigators, Congressional, law
enforcement and military officials, and specialists
in contracting and logistics, in Iraq and
Washington, who have direct knowledge of the
inquiries. Many spoke on condition of anonymity
because there are continuing criminal
investigations.
The inquiries are being pursued by the Army Criminal
Investigation Command, the Department of Justice,
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, among other
agencies.
Over the past year, inquiries by federal oversight
agencies have found serious discrepancies in
military records of where thousands of weapons
intended for Iraqi security forces actually ended
up. None of those agencies concluded that weapons
found their way to insurgents or militias.
In their public reports, those agencies did not
raise the possibility of criminal wrongdoing, and
General Petraeus has said that the imperative to
provide weapons to Iraqi security forces was more
important than maintaining impeccable records.
In an interview on Aug. 18, General Petraeus said
that with ill-equipped Iraqi security forces
confronting soaring violence across the country in
2004 and 2005, he made a decision not to wait for
formal tracking systems to be put in place before
distributing the weapons.
“We made a decision to arm guys who wanted to fight
for their country,” General Petraeus said.
But now, American officials said, part of the
criminal investigation is focused on Lt. Col.
Levonda Joey Selph, who reported directly to General
Petraeus and worked closely with him in setting up
the logistics operation for what were then the
fledgling Iraqi security forces.
That 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.
The enormous expenditures of American and Iraqi
money on the Iraq reconstruction program, at least
$40 billion over all, have been criticized for
reasons that go well beyond the corruption cases
that have been uncovered so far. Weak oversight,
poor planning and seemingly endless security
problems have contributed to many of the program’s
failures.
The investigation into contracts for matériel to
Iraqi soldiers and police officers is part of an
even larger series of criminal cases. As of Aug. 23,
there were a total of 73 criminal investigations
related to contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and
Afghanistan, Col. Dan Baggio, an Army spokesman said
Monday. Twenty civilians and military personnel have
been charged in federal court as a result of the
inquiries, he said. The inquiries involve contracts
valued at more than $5 billion, and Colonel Baggio
said the charges so far involve more than $15
million in bribes.
Just last week, an Army major, his wife and his
sister were indicted on charges that they accepted
up to $9.6 million in bribes for Defense Department
contracts in Iraq and Kuwait.
Investigations span the gamut from low-level
officials submitting false claims for amounts less
than $2,500 to more serious cases involving,
conspiracy, bribery, product substitution and
bid-rigging or double-billing involving large dollar
amounts or more senior contracting officials, Army
criminal investigators said. The investigations
involve contractors, government employees, local
nationals and American military personnel.
Questions about whether the American military could
account for the weaponry and other equipment
purchased to outfit the Iraqi security forces were
raised as early as May of last year, when Senator
John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia and then the
chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
sent a request to an independent federal oversight
agency to investigate the matter.
But federal officials say the inquiry has moved far
beyond the initial investigation of hundreds of
thousands of improperly tracked assault rifles and
semiautomatic pistols that grew out of Senator
Warner’s query. In fact, Senator Warner said in a
statement to The New York Times that he was outraged
when he was briefed recently on the initial findings
of the investigations.
“When I was briefed on the recent developments, I
felt so strongly that I asked the Secretary of the
Army to brief the Armed Services Committee right
away, which he did in early August,” Senator Warner
said in a statement.
An Army spokesman declined to comment on the
briefing by the secretary of the Army, Pete Geren.
In a sign of the seriousness of the scandal, the
Defense Department Inspector General, Claude M.
Kicklighter, will lead an 18-person team to Iraq
early next month to investigate contracting
practices, said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press
secretary.
Mr. Morrell said Mr. Kicklighter, a retired
three-star Army general, would stay in Iraq
indefinitely to investigate contracting abuses, and
was empowered to fix problems on the spot or take
action if his team identified potential criminal
activity.
Congressional officials who have been briefed on the
Defense Department inspector general’s inquiry said
Monday that one focus would be on weapons, munitions
and explosives. In addition, Mr. Geren, the Army
secretary, is expected to announce later this week
the creation of a panel of senior contracting and
logistics specialists to address any systemic
problems they identify.
Senator Warner’s request last May for an independent
federal oversight agency to investigate the
accountability of weapons and equipment given to
Iraqi security forces underscored concern about the
issue.
That federal agency, the Special Inspector General
for Iraq Reconstruction, responded with a report in
October 2006 that found serious discrepancies in
American military records of where thousands of the
weapons actually ended up. The military did not take
the routine step of recording serial numbers for the
weapons, the inspector general found, making it
difficult to determine whether any of the weapons
had ended up in the wrong hands.
In July 2007, the Government Accountability Office
found even larger discrepancies, reporting that the
American military “cannot fully account for about
110,000 AK-47 rifles, 90,000 pistols, 80 items of
body armor, and 115,000 helmets reported as issued
to Iraqi security forces as of Sept. 22, 2005.”
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