Iraq's former finance minister Ali Allawi claimed in a CBS 60 minutes report which aired Sunday that up to $800 million meant to buy weapons for the Iraqi army had been stolen from the government by former officials through fraudulent arms deals.
The former minister said that $1.2 billion had been allocated from the Iraqi treasury to the defense ministry to buy new weapons. About $400 million was spent on outdated soviet era equipment, were in such poor shape they could not be used, while the rest of the money was simply stolen, he said.
Allawi said the arms fraud is "one of the biggest thefts in history" and that corrupt former Iraqi officials are now "running around the world hiding and scurrying around."
Iraqi investigators are probing several weapons and equipment deals engineered by former procurement officer Ziad Cattan and other officials including former Defense Minister Hazim Shaalan.
Cattan, wanted by Iraqi authorities and now living in Paris, was interviewed in the same "60 Minutes" broadcast and said he can account for the hundreds of millions he used to purchase weapons.
Most of the fraudulent arms purchases were allegedly made during the term of former interim Prime Minster Ayad Allawi who took office after occupation authorities turned over sovereignty to Iraqis on June 28, 2004, Ayad Allawi and Ali Allawi are cousins.
When new Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi took office in May 2005, an investigation was opened into several alleged cases of corruption.
Documents show the theft of $2.2 billion dollars from the time of Saddam Hussein's fall from power in 2003 until now. This clearly shows the lack of planing by the Bush administration. You would think the first thing to do when giving millions of dollars to a new government that you would send in accountants, but then again our government will spend four hundred dollars for a ten dollar hammer.
Just before up coming elections David Kuo, former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, which channels federal dollars to religious charities has written a book which comes out today "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction."
As reported byABC News: Kuo says the office was misused to rally evangelical Christians, the Republican base voters, to get GOP politicians elected. Not only that, Kuo claims Bush officials mocked evangelical leaders behind their backs, alleging that in the office of political guru Karl Rove they were called "the nuts."
"National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as 'ridiculous', 'out of control,' and just plain 'goofy,' " Kuo writes.
"You name the important Christian leader, and I have heard them mocked by serious people in serious places," Kuo told "60 Minutes" Sunday night.
That mockery, he added, included the Rev. Pat Robertson being called "insane," the Rev. Jerry Falwell being called "ridiculous" and comments that Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family "had to be controlled."
James Towey, Kuo's former boss in the faith-based initiative office, suggested Kuo is bearing false witness. -abc news
I'm sure he's not far off the mark in this new book, the smartest thing the republican party did in past elections was to bring religion into their message, as a promise to bring morals back to the people.
This book does bring to light the fact that christians do fight for social issues such as poverty, which the republicans have turned their backs on since taking office.
North Korea has kept promise to the international community and carried out its first underground nuclear test.
This comes after South Korean troops fired warning shots at soldiers from the North when soldiers crossed into the demilitarised zone amid rising tension.
Last Friday, the UN Security Council urged the N Korea not to undertake such an exercise and warned of unspecified consequences if it did.
According to North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, the test was "conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology 100 per cent."
The agency added: "It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the KPA (Korean People's Army) and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defence capability."
A US official said North Korea gave China a 20-minute warning of its test and China immediately told the United States, Japan and South Korea.
North Korea is believed to have enough fissile material to make six to eight nuclear bombs but, according to experts, probably does not have the technology to devise one small enough to mount on a missile.
South Korea said a tremor of magnitude 3.58 to 3.7 was detected in North Korea in the early hours. The US Geological Survey said however that it was not aware of the kind of seismic activity expected from such a test.
Mexican Foreign Secretary, Luis Ernesto Derbez says it may go to the United Nations to challenge US plans to build hundreds of miles of fences on its southern border.
The Foreign Secretary, Luis Ernesto Derbez, said the plan was offensive.
The US President, George Bush, yesterday signed a homeland security funding bill that includes $1.2 billion - $1.6 billion for fencing along the US-Mexico border to stop illegal immigrants and criminals sneaking over.
The outgoing Mexican President, Vicente Fox, has called the plan "shameful" and compared it to the Berlin Wall. Mr Fox has spent his six-year term lobbying for a new guest worker program and an amnesty for Mexicans working illegally in the US.
On Thursday, all eight parties in Mexico's Congress joined forces to exhort Mr Fox to use all diplomatic means to try to stop the construction of the fence.
Mr Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, was quoted as saying "There is no money to build it, so it won't be built," he said.
The president-elect, Felipe Calderon, who takes office on December 1, has also attacked the plans.
"One could stop more migrants with a kilometre of new roads and development than with a wall," he said.
A gunman killed "a number" of people at a one-room Amish schoolhouse Today in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County. The shooter was among the many dead, and a number of people were injured.
Police surrounded the one-room school late Monday morning, and the Lancaster County 911 Web site reported that dozens of emergency units were dispatched to a "medical emergency" at 10:45 a.m.
It was reported that a man entered the schoolhouse this morning and began to make threats. The man apparently took hostages and began negotiations with the police. At some point, at least 10 shots were fired within the school, then the hostage taker shot himself.
This makes the third shooting within thirty days, and shows that the population of crazy cowards is on the rise.
The FBI is assessing whether former Rep. Mark Foley broke any laws when he sent sexually explicit e-mails to a male teen-age congressional page and leaders of both parties demanded full-scale investigations into anotherscandalfor the Republicans.
Foley, 52, a six-term Florida Republican,resignedon Friday afterABC News reportedhe sent messages containing references to sexual organs and acts to current and former congressional pages.
The scandal, breaking just weeks before the November 7 election to determine control of Congress, has shaken Republicans who often accuse the Democrats of being weak on moral issues.
Foley was chairman of the House caucus onmissing and exploited children, and the author of the key sexual predator provisions of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, which President George W. Bush signed in July.
Top HouseRepublicans acknowledgedon Saturday that they had been aware of e-mail traffic between Foley and a former teen-age page, but that they were not aware of the sexually explicit messages to other pages revealed last week.
"Family Values," being the words republicans have used to win elections for 6 years now, I just wonder when are they going to start living by the words they preach.
Iraq's former finance minister Ali Allawi claimed in a CBS 60 minutes report which aired Sunday that up to $800 million meant to buy weapons for the Iraqi army had been stolen from the government by former officials through fraudulent arms deals.
Most of the fraudulent arms purchases were allegedly made during the term of former interim Prime Minster Ayad Allawi who took office after occupation authorities turned over sovereignty to Iraqis on June 28, 2004, Ayad Allawi and Ali Allawi are cousins. 
