The Los Angeles Times has a story today about Kimberly D. Olson, an Air Force colonel now accused of using her high position in the Coalitional Provisional Authority in Iraq for financial gain (she’s the highest-ranking officer to be accused of wrongdoing in connection with reconstruction):
One of the first female pilots in the Air Force, she was a hard-charger with an unblemished reputation for honesty, a high profile in the Pentagon and a commitment to the U.S. goal of creating a democracy in the Middle East.
Today, Olson is at the center of accusations of audacious impropriety in the corruption-plagued reconstruction of Iraq….
Pentagon investigators allege that while on active duty as one of the most powerful figures in Iraq, Olson established a U.S. branch of a South African security firm after helping it win more than $3 million in contracts to provide protection for senior U.S. and British officials, as well as for KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton Co.
Disgusting, I guess, although you sort of have to strain to find any meaningful difference between what Olson did and what passed for “business of usual” throughout the reconstruction. Basically, an American-run administration was installed in Iraq and tasked with privatizing the country’s industries and handing off reconstruction contracts to whoever had the slickest and best-connected lobbyists. In early 2005, government watchdogs reported that $9 billion worth of reconstruction funds had somehow up and vanished. Without excusing Olson, the invasion created the perfect atmosphere for looting and corruption; stories like these are the inevitable result.
