AP: U.S. Squabble Holding Up Iraq Aid

[Judi Lynn]

Dec 22, 1:48 AM EST

AP: U.S. Squabble Holding Up Iraq Aid

By JIM KRANE
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- It will be the biggest American attempt to change the face of Iraq since the invasion: $18.6 billion from U.S. taxpayers for rebuilding. Yet a U.S. bureaucratic squabble is holding up the money.

The aid package approved by Congress last month amounts to nearly two-thirds of Iraq's annual economic output in 2002, estimated by the World Bank at $28 billion. By summer, the pipeline of dollars is expected to turn Iraq into one of the world's largest construction sites.

But the contract proposals, which were to be released for bids on Dec. 3, are being held up by an apparent turf battle between the U.S. departments of Defense and State.

The dispute, described by U.S. officials on condition of anonymity, centers on the State Department and its co-agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development, vying for some of the contracting authority from the Pentagon-led occupation administration of Iraq, known as the Coalition Provisional Authority.
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http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_THE_BIG_MONEY?SITE=FLPAP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Moderator]

1. Dupe... please continue here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=280160

Thanks!

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