Iraq Scams, Another Downed Chopper and Other News

   From BBC:

Five charged over US Iraq 'scam'

The group are alleged to have run the scam for two years

A US court has charged three reserve army officers and two civilians with using millions of dollars of Iraq reconstruction money for personal gain.

The group are accused of directing at least $8m (£4m) to a construction firm run by a US businessman in return for luxuries such as cars and jewellery.

The officers were responsible for supervising how some $26bn was spent on reconstruction projects in Iraq.

One man has already been jailed and another awaits sentence over the scam.

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BBC:

US helicopter crash kills seven

The US military has lost dozens of helicopters over Iraq

A US Sea Knight helicopter has gone down near Baghdad, killing all seven crewmembers and passengers on board, the US military has said.

It said the cause of the crash - the fifth such incident this year - was being investigated.

It come three days after the US said ground fire apparently caused the four previous helicopter losses, which claimed 20 lives.

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BBC

Bremer quizzed over cash for Iraq

The former head of the US-led civilian administration in Iraq has defended his decision to send billions of dollars in cash to Baghdad in 2003 and 2004.

Paul Bremer told a Congressional committee investigating allegations of waste and fraud that he had done his best to kick-start Iraq's economy.

The funds came from Iraqi oil revenue and previously frozen assets.

Much of the money went missing and critics say there was no system to track how it was used.

 

Technorati tags: Iraq, U.S. Chopper, Bremer

 

News Hounds Blast Neil Cavuto

   I really love the people over at News Hounds, the people who watch FoxNews so that we don't have to!

   Here is a piece from them, just for you!

The Original

Memo to Neil Cavuto: Go to Iraq and Show Us All the Good Things You Claim the "Liberal Media" is Ignoring

Reported by Melanie - February 7, 2007

The first segment today (February 7, 2007) on Fox's "business news" show, Your World w/Neil Cavuto, was essentially a repeat of segments Cavuto has been airing several times a week for the last few months: The "liberal media" is, (1) trying to bring down poor George by not reporting how good the economy really is, or it's (2), demonizing our troops by not reporting all the good things that are happening in Iraq.

Cavuto's guest was Vince Micco, alternatively identified as a sergent in the U.S. Army (Ret.) and as a "counter-intelligence agent." We know Micco as a Republican who ran for Congress last year who Fox practically endorsed.

Cavuto, broadcasting from Pebble Beach, California, opened the show and the segment with:

Well, when a lotta these guys aren't hitting the links, they're hitting the media, wondering why all they hear is bad news about an economy they say is soaring and even an Iraq war a lot of them insist, you know, we aren't losing. The trouble they say is you wouldn't know it reading the day's headlines or looking at the day's images. ... Well, Army Sergeant Vince Micco says it is part of a widespread media agenda to demonize our troops.

A baby-faced Micco came on and said he was in some "pretty volatile areas in Iraq," but nothing affected his sleep after he "got home though, like the media's coverage." For "every bad story that we're force-fed night after night on television or read every day in the paper and the New York Times, there are 99 heartwarming stories about what a blessing the U.S. troops are to the people in Iraq."

Unphased by the huge ratio of bad versus good stories, Cavuto said, "It's not so much that we see these images. I don't even mind that. I think what's causing some consternation in the military is that these are the only images certainly that Americans are subjected to. I don't see a similar zeal on the part of a number of major U.S. newspapers to show good stuff. You know, either helping kids, building schools, building bridges, building hospitals; the kind of stuff that I know guys like you were and are doing."

Of course Micco, who spent a year in Iraq, agreed: "Neil, these children in Iraq love us...I was treated like a movie star...I don't know how many U.S. dollar bills I pulled out of my pocket as a little gift to these kids...that's the legacy we leave in Iraq." Some of the "gullible" people in Iraq who have "nothing better to do," know that "our television cameras are looking for bloodshed and sensationalism and they wait for the cameras to come by before they detonate that roadside bomb or that suicide bomber pulls a cord" because they "know they're going to be on Al Jazeera," and American TV stations.

In closing Cavuto said, "Well, we'll make sure we cover some of those good images. Sergeant, thank you very much."

Comment: On October 3, 2006 Cavuto aired a segment featuring a wounded Iraq war veteran who complained that there weren't enough jobs available for returning vets. At the end of that segment the guest urged Cavuto to do more "good news" stories about Iraq and Cavuto said he would. It didn't happen. Now again today, Cavuto promises to cover "those good images." I'll be watching. In the meantime Neil, you're "the media." Why don't you gather all the resources News Corp. can muster and get yourself a contingent of Humvees and get your ass over to Iraq and spend a week in country visiting all those hospitals and schools and bridges that we're building. If you're so pissed off about this, do it yourself!

 

 

Technorati tags: News Hounds, Neil Cavuto, Iraq