War & Disaster Profiteering

Brent Wilkes, the founder of defense contractor ADCS Inc., gave more than $840,000 in contributions to 32 House members or candidates, campaign-finance records show. He flew Republican lawmakers on his private jet and hired lobbyists with close ties to those lawmakers. Read More

Cunningham betrayed his friends, his constituents, his colleagues and, certainly most important, the U.S. combat troops he so loudly championed. By steering contracts vital to the Iraq war effort to cronies, he risked putting those troops in greater peril as long as it meant money for him. Read More

Could a defense company stuff a Pentagon contract with enough overhead to hide bribes to a congressman? Easy enough, say veteran Washington insiders. Read More

At the December 2004 Destination Baghdad Expo in Iraq, Iraqex listed itself as Iraq-based, but provided only its Washington telephone and address. Then, in March 2005, it changed its name yet again, to Lincoln Group, a communications and PR firm "providing insight and influence in challenging and hostile environments." And on June 11, along with SYColeman and Science Applications International Corp., Lincoln Group got its JPSE contract. Read More

A grainy video (download here) of private contractors shooting at civilian cars on Iraqi streets poses a difficult question: how should the military security industry be regulated? Do they have a role in peacekeeping or are they part of the problem? Read More

The United Nations released the money to the CPA in 2003. Planeloads of plastic-wrapped hundred-dollar bills began arriving in Iraq via C-17 cargo jets. The Development Fund for Iraq had landed with ery few strings attached. Read More

A 'trophy' video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal. Read More

An Iraqi Kurd who served on the U.S.-appointed Governing Council said that airlifting $1.4 billion in cash to Irbil was an attempt to win the silence of Kurdish leaders after the Coalition Provisional Authority had squandered the rest of the money. Read More

At the outset, the Louis Berger Group Inc., failed to provide adequate oversight and USAID officials were unable to identify the location projects in the field. Officials at contracting companies and nonprofit groups complain that they were directed to build at sites that turned out to be sheer mountain slopes, a dry riverbed and even a graveyard. Read More

Army, Marines claim thousands more protective body armor vests made by Point Blank Body Armor Inc., failed to pass ballistic tests. Read More