Arthur Brennan and James Mattil had gone before Senate Democrats on Monday, May 12, to talk about the corruption within Iraq’s government. Brennan served a brief stint in Baghdad serving as the State Department’s Office of Accountability and Transparency. He had served as that role around 2007.
Mattil worked as the department’s chief of state. Both Brennan and Mattil blasted the administration of President George W. Bush. The testimony by both Brennan and Mattil could add more solid standing to a report released by the Pentagon back in March 11, 2008. While the Pentagon had reported that while Iraq has made gains, they are still limited.
It said that the improvements in Iraq’s security forces could break down at any given time. The Pentagon report cited as corruption as the main factor that is hurting Iraq’s security situation. In turn, it has hurt Iraq’s reconstruction.
Also back in March, two days prior before the Pentagon’s report, Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan and Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia asked for a congressional investigation into Iraq’s oil revenues. It would be to see if Iraq could use the revenues to pay for the rest of its reconstruction. Reconstruction has continued on ever since 2003.
While Iraq has money in banks across the world, it has done little to pay for its reconstruction. So far, most of the costs have come out from the pockets of US taxpayers.
The issue of Iraq’s oil revenues does raise questions.
Back in March, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz released a study saying that the cost of Iraq is at least $12 billion a month.
Corruption could be blamed for the security situation, which in turn is blamed for the pains of reconstruction, which has come out of the pockets of US taxpayers.
The two former employees of the US State Department have said that the Bush administration ignored the corruption within Iraq’s government. They explained that the Bush administration did now want to hurt its relationship with Iraq. In front of Senate Democrats, the two former employees said that the Bush administration had withheld information that could be embarrassing and damaging. Brennan also alleges that the policies contradict the anti-corruption mission but also contributed to the corruption itself.
In short, Brennan accuses the Bush administration of letting the corruption fester. He also said that the office he worked in became nothing but a fancy title.
Mattil said that the office was understaffed. All warnings and recommendations that were given ended up being brushed away. Brennan alleges that other members in the office did nothing but watch movies and go on their computers.
This hearing comes before the preparation of a new war spending bill. Bush had demanded a clean war spending bill. However, House Democrats had defied Bush’s demand and attached several other things. One would be the expansion of the GI Bill by Democratic Senator Jim Webb of Virginia.
It is highly likely that this will come up as an issue to be tied with Iraq. So far, the issue of Iraq has been the main platform of presumed GOP nominee Senator John McCain of Arizona.