With
all the breaking stories exposing KBR's policies of corruption, abuse
and fraud leading up to Tuesday's
Senate Appropriations Committee Hearing 
on the misuse of taxpayer money in Iraq, the findings of KBR's gross
mishandling of funds should come as no surprise. We already knew
about KBR's
use of a judicial loophole to avoid prosecution in an alleged rape
case,
and about their scheme
to avoid paying taxes on employee salaries.
And yet, when sifting through the details of KBR's scheming practices
and lining them up one by one, it is astounding that our leadership
has not taken an aggressive role to hold these contractors
accountable for the unending list of ways they have taken advantage
of the American public and have pocketed from this war.

Highlights
from the hearing included findings of ridiculous tactics used by KBR
to take advantage of their “cost-plus” contracts, including using
taxpayer money to individually stamp their logo onto towels supplied
to troops.
Also revealed was the U.S. Government's ineptitude (or perhaps
unwillingness) in accounting for contractor activity: “Administration
efforts to prosecute individuals responsible for the waste or theft
of billions of taxpayer dollars have been grossly insufficient.”
Finally, the most imploring piece of testimony taken from the hearing
resport is that, “the most effective way to fight al-Qaeda and
other insurgents in Iraq is to cut off their funding by implementing
strict accountability measures over all monies.”

It
cannot be stated in any clearer terms that the administration's lack
of oversight over the funding of this costly war is damaging any
chance we have of protecting the American public from the threat of
terrorism. We cannot allow our tax dollars to be funneled to this
machine of corruption and ineptitude any longer, especially with the
knowledge that it undermines our security at home. Click here to call for consequences for the corrosive actions of private contractors in Iraq.