Bearing Witness To Iraq "Victory Plan"

The Washington Post has a report today that is gathering a fair bit of blogging coverage: even though everyone admits that the year old "Plan for Victory in Iraq" is a failure, just more useless powerpointing, the State Dept. is still churning out progress reports as if it were a runaway success.

The State Department continues every Wednesday to issue a 30-page public report that details exactly how the U.S. government is meeting the goals set forth in the president's now-abandoned plan. The report frames the data around Bush's storied eight pillars, which include such goals as "Defeat the Terrorists and Neutralize the Insurgents" (Pillar 1) and "Increase International Support for Iraq" (Pillar 7).

In many ways, the report is a microcosm of the administration's lost year in Iraq. The reams of details aimed at touting success belie the fact that few of the goals are being met.

The report is often upbeat as it presents some of the most minuscule factoids of the situation in Iraq. The Dec. 13 report noted that on Dec. 7, 40 sheikhs from across Diyala province met "to discuss ways to maintain peace and stability" and that on Dec. 9, U.S. soldiers discovered a factory for making improvised explosive devices in a house in Baqubah.

But the bottom-line graphs tell a story of failure. Under Pillar 5 ("Help Iraq Strengthen Its Economy") the reports show that week after week, the Iraqis cannot meet their goals for crude oil production. Another chart shows that efforts to build a 15-day supply of all refined products, such as diesel and gasoline, are woefully behind schedule, reaching a peak of a four-day supply.

Under Pillar 7, increasing international support, the trends are on the decline. The first report of the year showed that 28 countries, in addition to the United States, contributed 23,000 troops to coalition forces. By last week's report, the number of countries had fallen to 25 -- and the number of troops was down to 16,860, a decrease of more than 25 percent. Italy recently dropped off the list when the last of its troops departed.

One figure has not really budged: the $20 billion apportioned for rebuilding Iraq (under Pillar 4, "Help Iraq Build Government Capacity and Provide Essential Services"). That is because the administration ran out of money for rebuilding Iraq, in part because about 25 percent was diverted to security. The latest report says that all but $4 billion has been disbursed.

A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to reporters about the report, said it still plays an important role because it provides the administration with a single set of numbers about the situation in Iraq. Previously, State and Defense department officials might have arrived at meetings armed with different data, but "now everyone is talking off the same sheet on music," he said.

There is also a classified version of the report, which includes details on counterterrorism operations, given to top policymakers on Fridays

...The twists and turns of American policy are imperfectly reflected in the report. "Operation Together Forward," the effort this summer to bolster security in Baghdad, which was later deemed a disappointment, was the subject of several upbeat reports but then seemed to fade in importance. During the spike in violence in October, the report noted that the Iraqi Ministry of Interior had recalled a police brigade for more training after "possible complicity with sectarian violence," though it brightly added that the training "will improve the professionalism and confidence within the national police."

The report seemed uncertain how to treat the release of a report by the Iraq Study Group, the independent bipartisan panel that criticized the administration's policy and spurred the White House to come up with a new plan. The earliest mention of the study group's report, in the Dec. 13 edition, came under Pillar 3, "Help Iraqis to Forge a National Compact for Democratic Government."

The headline said it all: "Iraqi Leaders Blast Iraq Study Group's Report." The State Department, perhaps in an effort to demonstrate the unity of Iraqi leaders, then devoted a whole page to negative quotes about the panel's recommendations.

Risable enough, and yet another example of an administration that couldn't find its ass with both hands and a map, one would think.

But the real shocker of the story is buried in the middle.

The report is prepared not by State Department officials but by a team of about 10 people hired by a management consulting firm. The firm, BearingPoint, has a $2 million contract to produce the report and to manage the process of running Iraq policy in the administration, the State Department official said.

So what?

Well, that's not the only money being made out of the Iraq occupation by BearingPoint. Here's what the Center for Public Integrity has to say about the company's Iraqi activities:

BearingPoint has worked extensively on homeland security matters over the last two years, including with the Transportation Security Administration on airport security and the Defense Department on identification card technology. BearingPoint also worked with then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, now director of Homeland Security, to develop the Justice Network, a Web-based crime fighting system that links Pennsylvania's criminal justice agencies and offices with federal agencies. The FBI used JNET to quickly identify and locate people thought to be associated with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to BearingPoint.

BearingPoint has also found success in the area of international development, winning three contracts in 2003 for reconstruction projects in Afghanistan and Iraq. As U.S. government agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development increasingly turn to private, for-profit companies, consultants like BearingPoint stand to reap enormous benefits. BearingPoint's first venture into post-war reconstruction occurred in the early 1990s with a USAID contract in El Salvador, the Washington Post reported. It won subsequent contracts in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo, where it has been working since 1999.

...In July 2003, USAID awarded BearingPoint a $9 million initial award to facilitate Iraq's economic recovery. According to USAID, the contract, which can be renewed annually for a maximum of two more years, is worth $79,583,885. The contract was bid on by 10 companies with existing indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts, according to USAID. Under the contract, BearingPoint will support the provisional government's efforts to facilitate Iraq's regional and international economic integration, stimulate trade, increase employment, and create a competitive private sector, according to USAID. BearingPoint will examine Iraq's current laws and policies regulating trade, commerce and investment and provide support to the central bank and the ministries of finance, trade, commerce and industry. BearingPoint might also undertake specific initiatives relating to "credit, micro-finance and small business loans." The firm hired the New Jersey-based engineering firm Louis Berger Group as a subcontractor to oversee the collection and destruction of old Iraqi currency and the introduction of a new one. According to The Star-Ledger, BearingPoint expects to employ more than 30 subcontractors to complete the project.

That contract, the Center says, is now worth a total of $240,162,668 over its three years. That's a sizeable block of cash. BearingPoint is, as one would expect, infested with board-level former government insiders, made campiagn donations to the GOP, talked up GOP bills for Homeland Security expansion programs (and has more than one fraud scandal to its discredit).

So $2 million more to monitor, in part, what is being done to kick-start Iraq's economy is, in effect, being paid (by taxpayers) to monitor itself with no oversight on how well it talks its own work up. Easy money if you can get it, eh?