-
The Bush administration has yet another way to steal from America. The Associated Press reveals Defense contractors and insurance firms make millions off loose Iraq insurance rules.
A poorly run Pentagon program for providing workman’s compensation for civilian employees in Iraq and Afghanistan has allowed defense contractors and insurance companies to gouge American taxpayers, a House oversight committee said Thursday.
Insurance companies alone have pocketed $600 million in excessive profits over the past five years, says a staff report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, but the Defense Department refuses to adjust its approach for managing the program…
“What makes the situation even worse is the people this program is supposed to benefit – the injured employees working for contractors – have to fight the insurance companies to get their benefits,” committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said at a hearing Thursday. “Delays and denials in paying claims are the rule.”
KBR Inc., one of the largest defense contractors in Iraq, paid the insurance giant AIG $284 million for medical and disability coverage under the Defense Base Act, a reference to the federal law mandating the insurance. Due to the way KBR’s contract is structured, this premium, along with an $8 million markup for KBR, gets billed to the taxpayer.
-
Just in case you missed it, General David Petraeus is in charge of who gets promoted in the Army. The Washington Post reports Army’s next crop of generals forged in counterinsurgency. “An Army board headed by Gen. David H. Petraeus has selected several combat-tested counterinsurgency experts for promotion to the rank of brigadier general, sifting through more than 1,000 colonels to identify a handful of innovative leaders who will shape the future Army, according to current and former senior Army officers. The choices suggest that the unusual decision to put the top U.S. officer in Iraq in charge of the promotions board has generated new thinking on the qualities of a successful Army officer — and also deepened Petraeus’s imprint on the Army.”
Four at Four continues with stories about the impact of climate change and our American history crumbling away due to neglect.