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    September 19, 2011

    Tags: Corruption, Greed, Ms. Sparky, USACE
    Posted in: Democracy, Embassy/State, Iraq, Military

    Ms. Sparky, who always has the best stories about la vida contractor in our wars of terror first, scores again with notice that a former American employee of the US Army Corps of Engineers stationed in Baghdad, Iraq, pleaded guilty to conspiring to receive bribes from Iraqi contractors involved in the US-funded reconstruction efforts.

    According to court documents, Thomas Manok admitted to using his official position to conspire with Iraqi contractors to accept cash bribes in exchange for recommending that the Army Corps of Engineers approve contracts and other requests for payment submitted by the contractors to the US government. In March and April 2010, Manok agreed to receive a $10,000 payment from one such contractor who had been involved in constructing a kindergarten and girls’ school in the Abu Ghraib neighborhood of Baghdad. Manok was to receive an additional bribe payment from the contractor once the contractor’s claim had been approved. Manok also admitted that he intended to conceal the payments from authorities by transferring them, via associates, from Iraq to Armenia.

    I may need to do some rewriting for the second edition of my book. I took the title, We Meant Well, in part from my belief that it was our incompetence that screwed things up, despite good intentions. As more and more information comes out on corruption in the reconstruction era, I may need to revise that– perhaps Some Meant Well, Some Stole Money.



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