‘Best of Phinney’ Archives
This Ukrainian Mayor Made a Deal with the Devil — and Lost
Published in the Los Angeles Times. Even surrender to Putin ends in torture, corruption and bombing. By David Phinney Nov. 1, 2022 KUPIANSK, Ukraine — Missiles and artillery began pounding the city of Kharkiv in late February. Air-raid sirens filled the air and ambulances screamed through the streets. The pummeling left rows of [...]
Sitting on the Secret Spy Court: The Judges
by David Phinney Several judges made headlines by threatening reporters with prison sentences after refusing to reveal sources. One ruled on proceedings of the drilling moratorium following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill while owning investments in oil companies with drilling interests. Some have presided over serious terrorist [...]
Marking Up The Reconstruction
The Civilian Police Training: A top-priority Bush administration project for training Iraqi police by DynCorp is now mired in controversy for unexplained cost overruns, questionable work orders and much more. Congress, the Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and [...]
Flying Baghdad Embassy Express
Asian Workers Smuggled to Build World's Largest Embassy: Oct. 17, 2006. CorpWatch, Alternet, Inter Press Service, Asia Times, Counterpunch and others (October 2006). Recipient of Project Censored award and Online News Association fiinalist for [...]
Escape from Iraq: Filipino Migrant Worker Recounts Nightmare Flight
He Didn't Want to Go: Ramil Autencio thought he was traveling to Kuwait for a job in a luxury hotel. The employer, a major Kuwait contractor working for the US government, instead pressured him to work on US military camps in Iraq. The father of two recounts his escape with more than 40 others during interview in Manila. He says he never wanted [...]
Just Business: Buying a US Embassy Contractor
by David Phinney Oct. 25, 2007 -- An Update: Apparently, the sale of the Baghdad embassy contractor's US partner is a done deal -- or nearly a done deal. (Sorry about the earlier typos... I was typing in the dark in an SUV in the back country.) According to documents: Robert Farah, Paul Jureidini and Robert K. Kelley are the key players to [...]
Baghdad Embassy Contractor Wins More US Contracts
by David Phinney Oct. 24, 2007 -- Despite allegations of poor construction, lousy and abusive labor practices and missed deadlines for completion, the Kuwaiti contractor building the new $592-million-and-counting US Embassy in Baghdad has been quietly bagging new lucrative contracts to build US diplomatic compounds around the world. In [...]
Iraq Revokes Security Contractor Immunity
by David Phinney Oct. 24, 2007 -- The Iraqi government has decided to revoke immunity from prosecution that the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority extended to private security companies operating in the war-ravaged country, according to journalist Ammar Karim. "The cabinet held a meeting yesterday and decided to scrap the article pertaining [...]
What Happened to Sabah and Nashat?
by David Phinney April 9, 2007 -- Iraqi officials jailed two young men in the summer of 2005 for allegedly pocketing the wages of hundreds -- if not thousands -- of Iraqis working for the Sandi Group, a Washington, DC, firm doing a multi-million-dollar business in Iraq as the leading subcontractor to DynCorp's $1.2-billion Iraqi police [...]
Iraq’s Police Training Program Records in Disarray
by David Phinney Oct. 23, 2007 -- The State Department so terribly managed a $1.2 billion contract for Iraqi police training that it can't figure out what it got for the money spent, a new report says (pdf). Total Disarray: in invoices and records on the project -- and because the government is trying to recoup money paid inappropriately to [...]