<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/b28eac80-8101-447c-9cad-f503f7ee0c3e/0E32F687-0FEE-44E5-B1EC-A2C27E092731/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10204557&ft=1&f=1001" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10204557&ft=1&f=1001" style="font-size: 11px;">www.npr.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10204557&ft=1&f=1001"><P>There is little to show for the tens of billions of dollars spent over the last four years to rebuild Iraq. Plans begun with high hopes and aimed at improving everything from Iraq's dilapidated infrastructure to its healthcare and education systems have instead become mired in corruption, waste and mismanagement.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10204557&ft=1&f=1001"><P>Shortly after Baghdad fell in 2003, huge contracts were awarded to several U.S. companies. Some were no-bid, such as the $1.4 billion contract handed to Halliburton to rebuild Iraq's oil industry. In other contracts there was limited competition.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10204557&ft=1&f=1001"><P>"Basically these were contracts that said to a contractor, 'I'm going to have hundreds of projects all over the country, (but) … I'm not quite sure what those projects are going to look like,'" said Steve Schooner, the co-director of the government procurement law program at George Washington law school.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10204557&ft=1&f=1001"><P>The idea was for the contractors to get into Iraq quickly and then wait further orders, Schooner said. </P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/0E32F687-0FEE-44E5-B1EC-A2C27E092731/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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