Shreveport contractor arrested en route to Iraq

[Nambe]

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP)

A Shreveport contractor wanted on charges he misapplied other contractors' payments totaling more than $1.4 million was preparing to leave for Iraq before he was arrested.

Federal agents arrested Joseph Whitaker in Texas Wednesday, less than 24 hours before he was to leave for Iraq, where he was reportedly going to take a position as a senior adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Health.

Whitaker, president of Whitaker's Construction, was the contractor on the $7.1 million Monroe Surgical Center hospital. Fifteen subcontractors have filed liens against the hospital because Whitaker did not pay them.

Agents with the U.S. Marshal's Fugitive Task Force took him into custody at a LaQuinta Inn in El Paso, Texas Wednesday night. ---

Banish bush From Texas Too

[I AM SPARTACUS]

1. file Chapter 11 and head out to Iraq as a Director with the Occupancy...

what leadership...! what a great example to the free world...!

[sandnsea]

2. Join the rest of the crooks

Every one of those companies in Iraq has fines and illegal financial activities way more than this 7.1 million. Problem with poor John is that he's poor John, by Halliburton terms. If he'd screwed them over in the billions, he'd be a Republican hero!