Documentary Description
Panorama investigates claims that as much as $23bn (£11.75bn) may
have been lost, stolen or not properly accounted for in Iraq. When the
US goes to war, corporate America goes too. There are contracts for
caterers, tanker drivers, security guards and even interrogators, many
of them through companies with links to the White House. Now more than
70 whistle-blower cases threaten to reveal the scandals behind billions
of dollars worth of waste, theft and corruption during the Iraq war.
A total of $23bn (£11.75bn) is under scrutiny. The US justice
department has imposed gagging orders which prevent the real scale of
the problem emerging. But Panorama’s Jane Corbin has spoken to some of
those involved – with astonishing stories to tell of who got rich and
who got burned.
She hears allegations of mismanagement, fraud and waste; tales of
contractors chosen for their US government connections without a
competitive bidding process; contractors inflating their costs and
double counting to increase their profits and billions supposed to be
used to rebuild the Iraqi military allegedly ending up in the pockets of
some Iraqi government officials.
Even the contract to oversee the expenditure went to a company with
no relevant qualification in accounting. “They are the quintessential
war profiteers,” said a witness to one of the most notorious companies
involved. “They made money out of chaos.”
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