Termination set for Iraq monitor

Congress has set a 2007 termination date for the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction at the behest of the Bush administration, removing the source of a series of audit reports that have emboldened critics of the president's war polices.

The just-completed Pentagon authorization bill ends Special Inspector General of Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), as the post is called, on Oct. 1, 2007. The bill, which has yet to be signed by President Bush, calls for the work to be transferred to inspectors general for the Pentagon, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department. State runs reconstruction in Iraq.

Stuart W. Bowen Jr., a former Bush aide whom the president appointed as special inspector general in January 2004, has issued a series of reports and audits on a reconstruction effort dogged by incessant insurgent attacks and mismanagement.
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Who, you may ask, will be responsible for oversight? None other than former CIA official David H. Laufman, should his appointment by Bush for the IG spot at DoD get approved. Say goodbye to even more of your money.

Laufman was one of the "cleaners" who as part of the House Task Force investigating the 1980 October Surprise, where American hostages in Iran were witheld until Reagan's swearing-in, ignored pertinent information that Republicans (George H.W. Bush was an involved participant) held illegal, back door meetings with the Iranians in Paris to secure Reagan's victory in the presidential election by keeping the Americans away from an early (read: Carter) release.

SIGIR's website