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Today's Must Read
And here you thought Stuart Bowen was a paragon of integrity.
Bowen is the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR). Despite being an old buddy of George W. Bush's back in the Texas days, Bowen has earned a reputation as a tireless investigator of waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq contracting.
The quarterly reports issued by SIGIR have not hesitated to name names of both crooked contractors and crooked contracting officials. Bowen's appearances on Capitol Hill have been remarkably candid and free of euphemism. When I was in Baghdad in March, military public-affairs officers jumped at the chance to show me how they interface with SIGIR and boasted of the enormous respect they have for an office that's all up in their business.
But now, reports The Washington Post, the worm has turned. SIGIR faces four separate investigations -- including one by a federal grand jury -- looking into everything from its own profligacy to its alleged abundance of ego:
Current and former employees have complained about overtime policies that allowed 10 staff members to earn more than $250,000 each last year. They have questioned the oversight of a $3.5 million book project about Iraq's reconstruction modeled after the 9/11 Commission report. And they have alleged that Bowen and his deputy have improperly snooped into their staff's e-mail messages.The employee allegations have prompted four government probes into the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), including an investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors into the agency's financial practices and claims of e-mail monitoring, according to law enforcement sources and SIGIR staff members. Federal prosecutors have presented evidence of alleged wrongdoing to a grand jury in Virginia, which has subpoenaed SIGIR for thousands of pages of financial documents, contracts, personnel records and correspondence, several sources familiar with the probe said.
Bowen, with no evident irony, dismisses many of the charges as the result of "disgruntled" employees. Yet some of the overtime that certain SIGIR officials have racked up is downright gaudy (1400 hours?).
One SIGIR official spoke anonymously of a climate of fear that pervades the office. SIGIR's chiefs are "gripped by paranoia. It's almost a siege mentality." Such alleged paranoia, according to federal prosecutors, has led top officials to illegally snoop on their employees. One of them, Ginger Cruz, Bowen's deputy, allegedly used, um, witchcraft to intimidate subordinates:
Cruz, a former spokeswoman for the governor of Guam, originally joined SIGIR as a contractor working for the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche. Current and former SIGIR employees have told investigators that Cruz threatened to put hexes on employees and made inappropriate sexual remarks in the presence of staff members. Cruz is a self-described wiccan, a member of a polytheistic religion of modern witchcraft. "We warned Ginger not to talk about witchcraft, that it would scare people," a former SIGIR employee said.Cruz denied making comments of a "sexual nature" and noted that she was cleared of any wrongdoing by an internal SIGIR investigation into the claim.
I'll let that stand as its own punchline.
Leaving aside the question of Bowen's alleged abuses, he's hardly the first inspector general to come under investigation in recent years. There's the ongoing CIA director's probe into CIA inspector general John Helgerson, who currently has the unhappy task of investigating the destruction of the CIA torture tapes along with the Justice Department. Scott Bloch, the U.S.'s Special Counsel, can't seem to get out from under investigation no matter how hard he tries, and the guy's even had his computer wiped by Geeks on Call. Ex-DOD Inspector General Joseph Schmitz resigned while under investigation for political favoritism before landing safely at Blackwater. There's also Robert "Moose" Cobb at NASA, Johnnie Frazier at Commerce and Bill Roderick at EPA. And we all know what happened to my homie Cookie Krongard.
Update: It appears Congress Daily had this story up on its website before the Post.
Late Update: That last update isn't quite accurate. Congress Daily's story, which was posted on the CD website before the Post story appeared, deals primarily and in great detail with the FBI probe, while the Post's story is broader, and deals with all four investigations into Bowen. Both reporters, Dan Friedman and Robin Wright, did excellent work covering Bowen and both are to be commended.
Comments (28)
Beth K. wrote on December 14, 2007 9:41 AM:This is an old story....Not that Stuart Bowen is engaging in abuse of his position, but that yet another Bush appointee is being investigated. The steady stream of these loyal Bushies is getting tiresome. What is even more tiresome is the endless list of ongoing investigations. It is very apparent that the Democratic leadership has no intention of holding anyone accountable for anything. Let's just move on to the next celebrity scandal.
B wrote on December 14, 2007 9:43 AM:CongressDaily, part of the National Journal, broke this story. Not the Post.
Michael A wrote on December 14, 2007 9:43 AM:I think you guys are totally and I mean totally missing this one. The spin is way, way off base. He is being targeted by the king and the criminals in the administration for trying to bring some integrity and oversight to the outrageous fraud and waste going on in iraq. They tried to shut him down last year and congress prevented them from doing it. Don't you get what is going on with this? It looks like a major story could be had revealing once again the viciousness and criminal activities of this administration. Remember the Plame leak to damage her and wilson? Same mo, don't you think?
warren terra wrote on December 14, 2007 9:58 AM:All in all, he's just another prick on the Mall.
steve talbert wrote on December 14, 2007 9:59 AM:I don't see the problem with a witch talking about witchcraft. How is that any different than when a Christian mentioned something like they will pray for you?
I don't know anything about Wiccan but it is conceivable that her comment about hexes was an innocent as when some Christian tells you to have a Blessed Day.
Michael A wrote on December 14, 2007 10:15 AM:One other point on this guy. I recall when they were trying to shut him down about a year or two ago, he had zero staff in his office in baghdad. I wonder where these staffers came from? Hmmm.
luneylegume wrote on December 14, 2007 10:15 AM:Gee over a billion recovered , Oops silly us ! We meant 95 million !! Peskie investigatory decimal hunters , it oughta be a crime to report a fraud . Right ?
Liz Shepherd wrote on December 14, 2007 10:16 AM:Robbing Right ! Up for the peppy pepto dismal award again ! Bless her reptilian little heart and mind
The Social Security Inspector General is dishonest too. No one wants to hear the story but he is making me participate in FRAUD> He refuses to acknowledge I have forged Appeals Orders in my file. I had three unfair hearings. SSA is stonewalling a 500 page complaint. SSA lost all my medical information at the Appeals Council according to Jacy Thurmond Associate Commissioner but the Chief Judge in Columbia SC , Judge Reed, wrote a letter to a removed party from the case stating, " the file has been returned from the Appeals Council".
Anonymous wrote on December 14, 2007 10:48 AM:The SSA Inspector General is dishonest.
Michael A, you make a good point. I too wonder how much of this is actual corruption and how much is Plame-ification.
Most likely, it's some of both. There are way too many players with an obvious interest in emasculating the SIGUR for me to take this *all* at face value. (In particular, the complaint about the Wiccan threatening to hex her co-workers sounds like, well, a witch hunt!)
Glenn Kessler wrote on December 14, 2007 10:58 AM:Nothing against the Congress Daily story, but that only focuses on the FBI angle. My colleague Robin Wright's story covers four investigations, plus has the eyepopping stuff about the bonuses. It also appeared on the Post website last night, so I think it is inaccurate to say Congress Daily had it "first." At best you can say Congress Daily tied on the FBI angle, but Wright's story, the product of weeks fo reporting, is more comprehensive.
Antenna Clasis wrote on December 14, 2007 11:02 AM:I agree with above comments re mis-spinning this: it is just as likely that the higher-ups are making the lower-downs who actually HAVE been doing a "heckuva job" look bad. And the tip-off to this possibility is the Wicca angle. How often do Christians, just to take one general example, tell you that they are praying for something? This Wiccan remark is the lure to be horrified (!! witches working in the government !!) and the tell of what may be the truly horrifying here.
biggerbox wrote on December 14, 2007 11:06 AM:Oh, good, now we can add Screamin' Jay Hawkins to the Iraq War compilation album!
TheraP wrote on December 14, 2007 11:07 AM:Right here we're seeing the broken social compact. We don't know who or what to trust... All the evil from the top is seeping into everything. Any good thing gets smeared.... or somehow ensnared into the crime machine.
And we are on the outside, trying to parse what comes our way... never knowing for sure if it's disinformation or information or one wrapped in the other.
What a mess!
Impeach. Or appeal for international trials for war crimes etc.
Mojotron3000 wrote on December 14, 2007 11:14 AM:So thew scandal is that a department that investigates waste, fraud, and abuse was undermanned and the WH refused to appoint staff, so he paid overtime to existing staff instead, and is now being investigated for THAT!?!
This one is all smoke no fire.
Bushie wrote on December 14, 2007 11:15 AM:I wondered why the CIA IG John Helgerson, was being investigated by head spook Michael Hayden, as he's supposed to be a straight shooter. Perhaps he was looking into the tape destruction and making The Powers That Be, uncomfortable?
mamiller wrote on December 14, 2007 11:19 AM:It is kind of hard to beleive that someone so uncharacteristically straightforward in criticising underperformers would also be a part of the activities described here.....Help, Mr Wizard.....
Jean wrote on December 14, 2007 11:30 AM:TheraP, I agree with you. Looks like we have been reading the same books. What IS real? Orwell would have really liked 'Truthiness'.
Grampsx3 wrote on December 14, 2007 11:36 AM:I lean towards 'witch hunt', as Anonymous says, too many players with an interest in taking down SIGUR.
Why do we care? Perhaps it causes kids who want to be a professional base ball player to experiment with steroids and HGH, so they can get bigger and stronger and excel at their level. The biggest problem with them using the junk, is that their bodies can't handle it and creates problems. Some even end up killing themselves. I guess some of you don't care about the kids.
Saint Augustine wrote on December 14, 2007 12:12 PM:My ex-wife was a witch when I married her. I divorced her after she turned into a b_tch!
Roberta wrote on December 14, 2007 12:18 PM:Grampsx3 wrote "Why do we care? Perhaps it causes kids who want to be a professional base ball player to experiment with steroids and HGH, so they can get bigger and stronger and excel at their level."
I'm not completely sure why you posted this comment in reference to the article above, but maybe you're trying to get at something I've been concerned about more and more:
If all that "average" Americans see their elected officials and their appointed agents do is lie, cheat, and steal, it becomes ingrained in the consciousness that this is okay, and maybe even admirable, because it so often succeeds.
It's what "the kids" see in their sports heroes, because even if there are repercussions for those players named in the steroid report, they've still earned tons of money in the meantime, and that money (and the trappings of "success" that come with it) won't be taken away. So they, too, have lied, cheated, and ultimately stolen.
Add to this that the president and almost half of the Congress have publicly declared that they support torture, the kids are definitely getting a message that presages the kind of ethical breakdown in our society that so many "apocalyptic" movies have presented.
If it comes to a kind of "Mad Max" scenario when global warming takes its toll, will the kids work with the group trying to save civilization, or will they join the gangs that more closely follow the values they've seen that "work": lying, cheating, and stealing?
TheraP wrote on December 14, 2007 12:53 PM:Possibly Grampsx3 was intending to post to a different thread... related to the steroid scandal.
But Roberta has done a fine job of turning his comment back to the matter at hand.
Yes, it is exceedingly troubling that so many adults, whom young people might look up to or look to for guidance or as role models simply fail to provide anything positive, but instead offer a fantasy that "crime pays." Well, some get away with it for a while. But I wonder what it's going to look like, for young people especially, as war crimes trials get going. As we all, as a society, have to scrutinize what has gone on "under our watch." We did not assent to it, but many did. And we're stuck with that. Having to clean up after it.
The current regime will try to paint us as kooks, as corrupted, as anything they can try and pin on us. And that too will confuse young people.
Boy do we have a long, difficult row to hoe! They've scarred the earth and put poison down where there should be fertilizer. And we're stuck with trying to replant values and virtues in that barren soil.
Ok. Enough of ranting here. Thank you, Roberta, for your words of wisdom.
Scotsw wrote on December 14, 2007 12:54 PM:Pretty petty stuff, actually, in the scheme of things.
Say you was a defense contractor with GOP political connections, and the SIGIR was making life a little hot under the collar. How would you handcuff him?
I'm just sayin.
LiberalTarian wrote on December 14, 2007 1:04 PM:So you think 1400 hours of overtime is gaudy?
You've never worked in a law firm. For a year, that is roughly 27 hours a week. Yeah, long hours. But, haven't we said over and over that the fraud in Iraq is gargantuan? And you think they gave these guys a big staff for this work? Are you kidding me?
I know we love much around here, but really, I think maybe you should give a long hard look at who is shoveling this BS. I just read about the Florida company that was given $32 million for a base they never broke ground on. Now, some planning costs, etc., yes, need to be paid for. But, THEY NEVER BROKE GROUND. This is the kind of waste and fraud that people work 70 hours a week trying to document.
B wrote on December 14, 2007 1:21 PM:Kessler's comment is not right.
A. That the Office was under investigation was reported months ago; the new part was mainly the FBI and grand jury stuff. Granted there were some other new details on the Army and sex harrasment in the much longer post story that CongressDaily didn't include.
B. The Congress Daily story came out before the post story by several hours. So yeah, they both came out last night, but one was, you know, first. Not a tie.
grepthis2000 wrote on December 14, 2007 2:25 PM:I suspend forming an opinion on the merits of the accusations until they are investigated and a report or indictments are issued.
Two points mentioned in the writeup in an accusatory tone as transgressions caught my eye.
"1400 hours?" -- presumably this is a yearly average. This comes out to a weekly average of 27 hours, or 3 extra hours a day and 12 hours on the weekend. As a salaried professional (engineer) in a high tech industry, I and coworkers have worked schedules like this over extended periods WITHOUT the benefit of overtime pay or other significant compensation except a base salary as a matter of course.
On the matter of management reviewing (or improperly snooping to use your construction) emails, in industry and presumably in government, work performed on office computers, and the data stored on those computers, is presumed to be information open to viewing by ones management or anyone appointed by them to do so, without needing the permission of the individual to whom the computer is assigned.
Take a deep breath and calm down a little. Muckraking is fine but make sure it is muck before charging in to attack.
Antenna Clasis wrote on December 14, 2007 2:55 PM:I don't think Grampsx3 posted on the wrong thread; I think Roberta is on to the rhetorical value of the post, but maybe the link is looser content-wise. Perhaps Grampsx3 was just providing an even more extreme example of a red herring. Worry about pro athletes' drug use, not things that more directly affect the lives--and deaths--of others.
Larry wrote on December 14, 2007 6:58 PM:TPM appears confused confused here by the Post pretending the administrative and the Tom Davis investigations of Bowen are news. Know your muck. Those have been public since spring. The AP story is better on this.
AFormerOne wrote on January 25, 2008 1:47 PM:As a former member, here are some thoughts for all to consider sicne its inception.
Where was Stuart for weeks on end? Why did senior mgmt have to call his family to find him? Maybe people should consider that it is a sunset agency trying every angle to stay in existence. Misrepresent and cite inflamatory language in your reports and a highly charged Congress will take notice. How much fraud is going on over there stuart? Your numbers go down down down all the time. What happen to the billions for fraud? In recent testimony, Stuart later recanted those early statements and now put the focus on the fraud really occurring on the Iraqi side of the house. Remember, Ginger is a newsreporter and can spin the story with the best of them to gain attention. Opinions are misstated as facts. They now have avoided an honest review by the PCIE for yet another year.
And why did SIGIR volunteer to be the Katrina IG as well and then the SIGAR IG? Afterall, one commented that it was understaffed and the Administrations fault yet here it is out looking form more work. It is personal glorification and greed that has gone unchecked for far too long.
Why did a retired Admiral, 3 SESers, 1 Ambassador, and at least 2 retired SESers all leave SIGIR? Are these senior folks all wrong and only Stuart is right? What about those discrimination lawsuits that SIGIR settled quitely? How much does one overlook and come up excuses before a problem is realized? Is the King wearing any pants?