thedrifter
08-12-08, 09:08 AM
Military says special cash fund buys a lot of goodwill in Iraq
By Dana Hedgpeth and Sarah Cohen
The Washington Post
In the five-year struggle to finish the war in Iraq, military leaders and their troops have said a particular weapon is among its most effective:
American cash.
Soldiers walk the streets carrying thousands of dollars to pay Iraqis for doorways battered in U.S. raids and limbs lost during firefights. Sheiks appeal to commanders to use larger pools of money for new schools, health clinics, water-treatment plants and generators, knowing that the military can bypass Iraqi and U.S. bureaucratic hurdles.
Army documents show that $48,000 was spent on 6,000 pairs of children's shoes; an additional $50,000 bought 625 sheep for people described in records as "starving poor locals" in a Baghdad neighborhood.
Soldiers ordered $100,000 worth of dolls and $500,000 in action figures made to look like Iraqi Security Forces. About $14,250 was spent on "I Love Iraq" T-shirts. More than $75,000 sent a delegation to a women's and civil-rights conference in Cairo. And $12,800 was spent for two pools to cool bears and tigers at Zawra Park Zoo in Baghdad.
The money comes from the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP), which, so far, has spent at least $2.8 billion in U.S. funds. It is not tied to international standards of redevelopment or normal government-purchasing rules. Instead, it is governed by broad guidelines packaged into a field manual called "Money as a Weapon System."
The program is intended for short-term, small-scale "urgent humanitarian relief and reconstruction." But as the broader $50 billion effort to rebuild Iraq with big infrastructure projects runs dry, CERP is by default taking on more importance as a reconstruction program, something it may not be equipped to do in a coordinated, nationwide way.
A review by The Washington Post reveals a program that has evolved beyond its original goals. It often has been used for large projects that can take years to complete, is largely divorced from other reconstruction efforts and lacks the structure needed for overseers to know how well the program works.
About $1 billion so far has gone to 605 projects that exceed the Army's definition of "small scale," or more than $500,000 each. And $880 million was spent on projects that took longer than 6 months, considered the definition of "short term" by many commanders.
Government auditors also have found problems with record keeping. In one case, the Army couldn't fully account for $135 million in CERP payments. Auditors and other experts complain that they are unable to judge whether CERP is effective.
Soldiers and their commanders say the program works because there is little red tape, allowing them to fill immediate needs.
On Capitol Hill and in the Pentagon, the program has become a "sacred cow," as one government auditor calls it. Few will openly criticize it for fear of alienating the troops.
CERP recently was given $1.2 billion — to be split between Iraq and Afghanistan — according to a July report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. That brings the program's total to $3.5 billion.
But after reports last week that the Iraqi government is running a budget surplus of up to $50 billion, two U.S. senators — John Warner, R-Va., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee — have asked the secretary of defense to review CERP and said they want Iraq to shoulder more of the rebuilding costs.
Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who is vice chief of staff for the U.S. Army and in 2006 served as commanding general of the Multi-National Corps — Iraq, said he and commanders in the field have all seen violent incidents in certain areas decline when CERP spending goes up.
He said CERP is, in fact, a reconstruction program in addition to being a counterinsurgency weapon. After the initial invasion, Chiarelli said, "you've then got somebody coming around to a commander, handing him a bag of $25,000 cash and saying to go rebuild Iraq."
Quick influx of cash
At the start of the U.S. occupation, many of Iraq's villages experienced few results from the large-scale rebuilding efforts managed from Baghdad. But a quick influx of cash from soldiers to fix urgent problems brought goodwill, military leaders and experts said.
"You can't shoot yourself out of an insurgency," said Marine Col. John Koenig, who oversaw $160 million worth of CERP projects in Anbar province last year. "A rifle only gets you so far. CERP allows you to develop our answer to al-Qaida."
The program gives military leaders the flexibility to move quickly in an unstable, cash-only war zone. One litmus test, according to the field manual, which covers CERP and other military spending programs: "Would use of funds embarrass (the Defense Department) if shown on '60 Minutes'?" There are some restrictions, but by design, officers have broad discretion for small purchases.
Since the beginning of the program, CERP money has also been used to help compensate for the damage of war. The military calls these "condolence" payments and says they are "symbolic gestures" to families of Iraqis killed or injured in the war. The military is quick to say it is not accepting blame and is not trying to place a value on life.
Maj. Dana Hyatt, a fifth-grade social-studies teacher in Connecticut who served in Haditha two years ago as a Marine reservist, said he was permitted to pay $500 for the loss of a leg or an arm. He paid up to $2,500 for a death — a value that was written in the regulations.
Once a week, usually Tuesday afternoons, he walked from the military's operating base to the main intersection near the Euphrates River to hear Iraqis' stories. He'd spend the next day squaring the complaints with hospital and military records. On Thursdays, Hyatt and three armed Marines returned with banded stacks of U.S. cash in plastic Ziploc bags.
"We'd set up shop," said Hyatt, who was a civil-affairs officer for the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. "They knew I was the money guy." He gave $100 to a father who said his young son had fallen off a curb and broke his leg when U.S. planes swooped in low.
So far, nearly $50 million in condolence payments has gone to the families of killed and injured Iraqis. Property damage has brought smaller payments.
After spending more than $270 million in CERP money on schools, hospitals and health clinics, the U.S. government cannot say how many are in use and how many have been abandoned or attacked again, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Redevelopment experts say the military is ill-equipped to check in on how CERP projects are sustained.
"We're Army guys," said Strickland, who helped distribute CERP money in Ramadi. "We're not civil engineers. We're not economists. We can't gut-check a lot of these programs."
Ellie
By Dana Hedgpeth and Sarah Cohen
The Washington Post
In the five-year struggle to finish the war in Iraq, military leaders and their troops have said a particular weapon is among its most effective:
American cash.
Soldiers walk the streets carrying thousands of dollars to pay Iraqis for doorways battered in U.S. raids and limbs lost during firefights. Sheiks appeal to commanders to use larger pools of money for new schools, health clinics, water-treatment plants and generators, knowing that the military can bypass Iraqi and U.S. bureaucratic hurdles.
Army documents show that $48,000 was spent on 6,000 pairs of children's shoes; an additional $50,000 bought 625 sheep for people described in records as "starving poor locals" in a Baghdad neighborhood.
Soldiers ordered $100,000 worth of dolls and $500,000 in action figures made to look like Iraqi Security Forces. About $14,250 was spent on "I Love Iraq" T-shirts. More than $75,000 sent a delegation to a women's and civil-rights conference in Cairo. And $12,800 was spent for two pools to cool bears and tigers at Zawra Park Zoo in Baghdad.
The money comes from the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP), which, so far, has spent at least $2.8 billion in U.S. funds. It is not tied to international standards of redevelopment or normal government-purchasing rules. Instead, it is governed by broad guidelines packaged into a field manual called "Money as a Weapon System."
The program is intended for short-term, small-scale "urgent humanitarian relief and reconstruction." But as the broader $50 billion effort to rebuild Iraq with big infrastructure projects runs dry, CERP is by default taking on more importance as a reconstruction program, something it may not be equipped to do in a coordinated, nationwide way.
A review by The Washington Post reveals a program that has evolved beyond its original goals. It often has been used for large projects that can take years to complete, is largely divorced from other reconstruction efforts and lacks the structure needed for overseers to know how well the program works.
About $1 billion so far has gone to 605 projects that exceed the Army's definition of "small scale," or more than $500,000 each. And $880 million was spent on projects that took longer than 6 months, considered the definition of "short term" by many commanders.
Government auditors also have found problems with record keeping. In one case, the Army couldn't fully account for $135 million in CERP payments. Auditors and other experts complain that they are unable to judge whether CERP is effective.
Soldiers and their commanders say the program works because there is little red tape, allowing them to fill immediate needs.
On Capitol Hill and in the Pentagon, the program has become a "sacred cow," as one government auditor calls it. Few will openly criticize it for fear of alienating the troops.
CERP recently was given $1.2 billion — to be split between Iraq and Afghanistan — according to a July report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. That brings the program's total to $3.5 billion.
But after reports last week that the Iraqi government is running a budget surplus of up to $50 billion, two U.S. senators — John Warner, R-Va., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee — have asked the secretary of defense to review CERP and said they want Iraq to shoulder more of the rebuilding costs.
Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who is vice chief of staff for the U.S. Army and in 2006 served as commanding general of the Multi-National Corps — Iraq, said he and commanders in the field have all seen violent incidents in certain areas decline when CERP spending goes up.
He said CERP is, in fact, a reconstruction program in addition to being a counterinsurgency weapon. After the initial invasion, Chiarelli said, "you've then got somebody coming around to a commander, handing him a bag of $25,000 cash and saying to go rebuild Iraq."
Quick influx of cash
At the start of the U.S. occupation, many of Iraq's villages experienced few results from the large-scale rebuilding efforts managed from Baghdad. But a quick influx of cash from soldiers to fix urgent problems brought goodwill, military leaders and experts said.
"You can't shoot yourself out of an insurgency," said Marine Col. John Koenig, who oversaw $160 million worth of CERP projects in Anbar province last year. "A rifle only gets you so far. CERP allows you to develop our answer to al-Qaida."
The program gives military leaders the flexibility to move quickly in an unstable, cash-only war zone. One litmus test, according to the field manual, which covers CERP and other military spending programs: "Would use of funds embarrass (the Defense Department) if shown on '60 Minutes'?" There are some restrictions, but by design, officers have broad discretion for small purchases.
Since the beginning of the program, CERP money has also been used to help compensate for the damage of war. The military calls these "condolence" payments and says they are "symbolic gestures" to families of Iraqis killed or injured in the war. The military is quick to say it is not accepting blame and is not trying to place a value on life.
Maj. Dana Hyatt, a fifth-grade social-studies teacher in Connecticut who served in Haditha two years ago as a Marine reservist, said he was permitted to pay $500 for the loss of a leg or an arm. He paid up to $2,500 for a death — a value that was written in the regulations.
Once a week, usually Tuesday afternoons, he walked from the military's operating base to the main intersection near the Euphrates River to hear Iraqis' stories. He'd spend the next day squaring the complaints with hospital and military records. On Thursdays, Hyatt and three armed Marines returned with banded stacks of U.S. cash in plastic Ziploc bags.
"We'd set up shop," said Hyatt, who was a civil-affairs officer for the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. "They knew I was the money guy." He gave $100 to a father who said his young son had fallen off a curb and broke his leg when U.S. planes swooped in low.
So far, nearly $50 million in condolence payments has gone to the families of killed and injured Iraqis. Property damage has brought smaller payments.
After spending more than $270 million in CERP money on schools, hospitals and health clinics, the U.S. government cannot say how many are in use and how many have been abandoned or attacked again, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Redevelopment experts say the military is ill-equipped to check in on how CERP projects are sustained.
"We're Army guys," said Strickland, who helped distribute CERP money in Ramadi. "We're not civil engineers. We're not economists. We can't gut-check a lot of these programs."
Ellie