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A Daily Chronicle of Bush Administration Distortion October 16, 2003
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SPECIAL AFTERNOON MIS-LEAD: Additional Money for Iraq Not Needed Until Spring, According to New Study



As Congress is preparing to vote on the administration's emergency $87 billion request, a new study is challenging the immediate need for the funding.

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld asserted two weeks ago that "the funds the president requested are vital to our success in the global war on terror and to our ability to finish the job in Iraq."1 But that position is being undermined by a Congressional Research Service (CRS) study that has found that Iraq military operations have sufficient funds until May of next year.

The CRS study released yesterday suggests that the recently-passed $368.2 billion 2004 Defense funding bill plus the emergency funding Congress passed at the start of the war provides the Army alone with $37 billion in funding for personnel and operations and maintenance, enough to fund operations through early May.2

President Bush requested the money in September, saying, "We have conducted a thorough assessment of our military and reconstruction needs in Iraq."3 But even prior to the CRS survey's conclusions, Republican aides said that the administration inflated its budget request in part to avoid having to ask for additional funds the following year -- during the election season.4

Bush continues to lobby members personally for passage of the request as it was submitted. Pressure from Congress to scale back or convert portions of the request from a grant to a loan have been met with anger. "I'm not here to debate you," Bush said, in cutting off a Republican senator during a recent meeting to discuss the issue.5

Sources:
1. Defense Department Briefing, Federal News Service,10/2/03.
2. "Availability of Army Funds Without Immediate Supplemental Appropriations," Congressional Research Service, 10/15/03.
3. Presidential Speech, 9/7/03.
4. "In GOP, Concern Over Iraq Price Tag; Some Doubt Need For $20.3 Billion For Rebuilding," Washington Post, 9/26/03, p. A01.
5. "Campaign on Iraq Aid Heats Up", Los Angeles Times, 10/16/03.



Six in Ten Iraqis Unemployed, but U. S. Subcontractors Hire Cheap Migrant Laborers



Even though seven million Iraqis are unemployed1, U.S. sub-contractors are rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure with cheap migrant labor from South Asia.2 The use of Asian laborers is at odds with President Bush's emphasis on the importance of Iraqis taking on the job themselves.

Bush has said the key to "rebuilding a democratic and prosperous Iraq is the Iraqi people themselves."3 Paul Bremer, the Bush appointee overseeing post-war Iraq, likewise has talked of the need to turn around the country's 60 percent unemployment rate and "to fix a very sick economy."4

However, the head of the Iraqi Jobless Association, Kasem Hadi, is critical of the Bush Administration's lack of progress. "Following four rounds of talks with [Bremer's] representatives, we made no progress regarding the unemployment crisis,"5 Hadi says.

Meanwhile, U.S. Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, one of Bremer's colleagues, has raised questions about the reliability of foreign workers. "You find [them] in out-of-the-way corners taking 15 minute naps," she notes.6

At the same time, officials of the Iraqi Governing Council are concerned that large American contractors, including Halliburton and Bechtel, may be inflating the cost of the reconstruction projects. The Iraqi governors told members of the U.S. Congress that Iraqi companies could be doing the work at 10 percent of the cost.7

Sources:
1. "Iraq: 7 Million Jobless Persons," Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, InfoProd, 8/27/03.
2. "Contractors in Iraq Accused of Importing Labour and Exporting Profit," Financial Times/UK, 10/14/03.
3. Presidential Radio Address, 7/23/03.
4. Interview of Paul Bremer by Tom Brokaw, NBC Nightly News, 7/14/03.
5. "Iraq: 7 Million Jobless Persons," Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, InfoProd, 8/27/03.
6. "Contractors in Iraq Accused of Importing Labour and Exporting Profit," Financial Times/UK, 10/14/03.
7. Letter to OMB Director Joshua Bolten from Rep. Henry Waxman, 9/30/03.


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