Finishing up, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) asked what’s standing in the way of continued contracting fraud in Iraq. Neither Gen. Petraeus nor Amb. Crocker had much in the way of a detailed answer, but both singled out the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, as a key bulwark against waste, fraud and abuse.
Given that Petraeus wants to speed up weapons purchases by Iraq under the Pentagon’s Foreign Military Sales programs, maybe those safeguards should be looked at in greater detail.
