Bush Administration gives 22 year old guy a $300M arms contract

[elucidator]

And this just in…

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/waxman_says_us_embassy_in_alba.php

(Warning! Lefty site! Tighty righty proceed with shields up, and anti-cooty protocols in effect!)

Waxman Says U.S. Embassy in Albania Concealed Info About Arms Shipment

…Was the State Department involved in a shoddy and potentially illegal ammo shipment that led to the arrest of a 22-year-old Miami arms dealer last week?

That’s what Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) now says. The House oversight committee says it has evidence that the U.S. embassy in Albania helped Albanian officials keep the allegedly illegal shipment of Chinese-made ammunition to Afghanistan under wraps and then failed to disclose that information when Waxman’s committee asked about it…

What I Did on My Summer Vacation.

[RTFirefly]

@elucidator

What I Did on My Summer Vacation.

I love the TPM front-page header: “State Department Involved in Dudes’ Arms Deal, Waxman Alleges”

[UncleBeer]

@RTFirefly

One example:
It was a $100M/year contract, and as the article points out, it didn’t turn out too well.

SAIC is an employee-owned company. Almost certainly not as politically-connected to the Bush-machine as you seem to be implying.

[RTFirefly]

@UncleBeer

SAIC is an employee-owned company. Almost certainly not as politically-connected to the Bush-machine as you seem to be implying.

Hi, Unc! Nice of you to stop by. I recommend reading the posts you respond to.

The statement I was providing some for-instances of was:

The number and scope of contracts given to people and companies who had little or no experience related to doing the things they contracted to do, is really quite impressive in this Administration.

Ain’t nothing in there about political connections; your mind put that in on it’s own, and that’s not my responsibility. I mean, this thread, which I started, is about a 22-year-old duuuuude with (AFAICT) no connections whatsoever. Sheesh.

[UncleBeer]

If your implication then is not that these contracts were awarded to Bush’s political bedfellows, then why do you believe they were given to ostensibly unqualified companies?

[RTFirefly]

@UncleBeer

If your implication then is not that these contracts were awarded to Bush’s political bedfellows, then why do you believe they were given to ostensibly unqualified companies?

I’m not following. Are you asking me why I’m sure that the companies were unqualified, or why I think that this Administration was handing out our tax dollars to unqualified companies that weren’t politically connected?

My answer to the former would be: (a) no evidence of prior experience in the field, and (b) fuckups ensuing. To the latter, I’ve got some ideas, but another time. I could speculate, but that’s all it would be, and I’m not in a mood to get drawn into positions I’m not ready to defend.

[BJMoose]

This particular case is worse than anyone has noted in this thread (info from a McClatchy Newspapers article ):

Before the contract that finally caught the attention of congresscritters, the same guy had been given other contracts and repeatedly screwed the pooch. Sez the article before me: Diveroli’s record “included delivering damaged helmets to Iraq, falsely blaming a hurricane in Miami for failing to deliver 10,000 pistols to Iraq’s security forces and delivering the wrong model of laser pointer and rifle attachments to the U.S. Embassy in Columbia.” Indeed, "several contracts were ‘terminated for cause’ ".

And by the way: Efraim Diveroli is on the State Department’s Watch List.

Jesus, Mary, Joseph and Bob.

Where’s Harry Truman when you need him?