Inspector General's report

This bridge across the Tigris River was destroyed by U.S. and allied warplanes in 2003. Rebuilding it proved problematic -- and extremely expensive.

After U.S. and allied warplanes destroyed a key bridge carrying 15 oil and gas pipelines in northern Iraq during the 2003 conflict there, officials in Washington and Baghdad made its postwar reconstruction a top priority. But instead of spending two months to rebuild the span over the Tigris River at an estimated cost of $5 million, they decided for security reasons to bury the pipelines beneath it, at an estimated cost more than five times greater.

What ultimately happened there tells the story — in a microcosm — of a substantial chunk of the massive nine-year U.S. effort to reconstruct Iraq, the second-largest such endeavor in history (only the U.S. investment in Afghanistan has been larger).

Studies conducted before the digging of the new pipelines started showed that the soil was too sandy, but neither the Army Corps of Engineers overseeing the effort nor the main contractor at the site, Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), heeded the warning. As a result, “tens of millions of dollars (were) wasted on churning sand” without making any headway, as Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart W. Bowen Jr., described it in his recently published final report on the U.S. occupation.

By the time the digging effort was halted, and the old bridge and piping repaired — more than three years later — the bill had reached more than $100 million. “Because of the nature of the original contract, the government was unable to recover any of the money wasted on this project,” Bowen said. More than $1.5 billion in oil revenues may have been lost as a result of the delays. KBR did not respond to a request for comment.

The episode is emblematic of the contracting abuses and mismanagement that wasted at least $8 billion of the $60 billion spent by Washington on Iraq’s postwar recovery, under the guidance of what Bowen describes in his report as “adhocracy” largely controlled by the U.S. military — a structure that never “coalesced into a coherent whole” and often failed to achieve its aims.

With the U.S. military now gone from Iraq, and with the 10th anniversary of the invasion, Bowen’s retrospective summary of his audits offers useful insights into how well the U.S. government managed its occupation and the legacy it left behind. The mostly downbeat tone is set early, when the report summarizes final interviews Bowen conducted with 44 top U.S. and Iraq officials, who addressed the simple question of whether the decade-long project left Iraq in better shape.

Most of the Americans he spoke to -- including appointees of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama -- were rueful, noting multiple miscalculations, poor planning, disorganization in Washington, and inadequate consultation with Iraqis. James Jeffrey, the U.S. ambassador in Iraq from 2010 to 2012, told Bowen that “the U.S. reconstruction money used to build up Iraq was not effective. ... We didn’t get much in return.”

Related: Iraq, 10 years on: Did invasion bring 'hope and progress' to millions as Bush vowed?

Only retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, who commanded U.S. forces in Iraq before shifting to Afghanistan and then briefly directing the CIA, was ebullient, claiming the effort had brought “colossal benefits to Iraq.”

Virtually every senior Iraqi, in sharp contrast, said the decade-long U.S. occupation was beset by huge misspending and waste, and had accomplished little. The biggest footprint Americans left behind, most of these Iraqi officials said, was more corruption and widespread money laundering. Such a huge investment “could have brought great change in Iraq,” Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said, but the gains were often “lost.”

Billions here, billions there
The bill for Iraq is hard to divide into neat categories, but in rough terms: Washington spent more than $15 billion to try and improve Iraq’s power and water supply, revive its schools and repair its roads and housing; it spent another $9 billion on health care, law enforcement, and humanitarian assistance; it spent $20 billion training and re-equipping Iraqi security forces; it spent roughly $8 billion to enhance the rule of law and battle narcotics; and it spent $5 billion helping to prop up the economy.

Bowen’s interviews with influential Iraqis reveal, however, that they don’t seem to have noticed all this investment or don’t seem grateful. One reason might be that households — as recently as 2011 — still got an average of only 7.6 hours of electricity a day, and a sixth of Iraq’s citizens lacked access to potable drinking water for more than two hours a day.

Both U.S. and Iraqi officials complained to Bowen that not enough was done during the occupation to stem corruption. An Iraqi government watchdog agency, the Board of Supreme Audit, noted last year that $800 million in profits from illicit activities was being transferred out of Iraq each week, effectively stripping $40 billion annually from the economy, according to Bowen’s report.

There are exceptions to the tales of fraud and waste. A State Department-funded childhood vaccination program helped cut the national infant mortality rate by nearly three-quarters. The Baghdad rail station was repaired on time and under budget. And telecommunications repairs have enabled mobile phone use to climb from 80,000 to 23 million subscribers.

But U.S. dreams of fostering a thriving, Western-style economy in the Middle East have not been realized. Almost all of Iraq’s gains have come from oil production, which is now roughly a third greater than it was in 2003. The oil industry is not a big employer, however, and “Iraq is still far from having a vibrant, market-based private sector,” Bowen reports.

Moreover, its military still “lacks critical capabilities in logistics, intelligence,” and repair, Bowen’s report states. It cannot defend its airspace or its coastline, and is weak in counterterrorism.

Parceling blame
Bowen’s report indirectly assigns blame for mismanaging the endeavor to the Bush White House, which had the authority to force U.S. government agencies to coordinate their work but failed to exercise it. Instead, he points out, no single office was assigned to lead the effort, making "stovepiping" — a myriad of narrowly focused efforts — “the apt descriptor,” the report said.

But the largest responsibility for the failures lies generally at the Pentagon and particularly in the Army, according to the report. The Defense Department “held decisive sway over $45 billion (87 percent) of the roughly $52 billion allocated to the major rebuilding funds that supported Iraq’s reconstruction.”

The agencies formally charged with dispensing foreign aid — the State Department and the Agency for International Development — played only a minor role in these accounting shortfalls, because they spent less than a fifth of the reconstruction funds. “State’s role in managing the reconstruction … ebbed and flowed in cycles driven by the personalities involved, with State frequently on the losing end of arguments,” Bowen reports.

It was the Pentagon that failed to plan “for a lengthy occupation or a large relief and reconstruction program,” Bowen noted, under the tutelage of a defense secretary — Donald Rumsfeld — who famously said, “If you think we’re going to spend a billion dollars of our money over there, you are sadly mistaken.”

Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense from 2001 to 2006, defended the war itself in a 2011 memoir, saying that its central element -- Saddam Hussein's removal -- made the Middle East a safer region. But he blamed other officials for many of the problems, saying that military officials did not request more troops and that civilian managers of the occupation stoked Iraqi nationalism by not giving local citizens enough power.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a report last June on "lessons learned" in Iraq, acknowledged that "operations during the first half of the decade were often marked by numerous missteps and challenges as the U.S. government and military applied a strategy and force suited for a different threat and environment." But it said the military adapted its work and had more success in the second half of the decade. 

Other defense officials have acknowledged that a substantial chunk of the Pentagon’s spending in Iraq went to repair the looting and other damage done by Iraqis in the immediate period after the war ended, when U.S. troops were not tasked with keeping order. They also have confirmed that billions of dollars were diverted from civil reconstruction to security efforts after the military abuses at Abu Ghraib prison helped stoke widespread hostility to the U.S. occupation.

It was the Pentagon that opened a contracting office in Baghdad that Bowen said was chronically understaffed — despite the Defense Department's peak presence in Iraq of more than 170,000 personnel. The office nonetheless shoveled money out the door at such a high rate and with so little accountability that by 2005, the U.S. embassy there was incapable of matching “projects with the contracts that funded them,” according to Bowen’s report.

Average U.S. expenditures for Iraqi reconstruction in 2005, for example, were more than $25 million a day. When Bowen’s auditors went looking for documents supporting billions of dollars of fund transfers to the Iraqi government in that period, they discovered the paperwork was “largely missing.”

Pentagon-funded fuel purchases were particularly problematic: When Bowen’s office asked to see a log book documenting $1.3 billion in fuel purchases by the Coalition Provisional Authority, “the log book could not be found.” Defense officials also could not produce documents supporting their expenditure of over $100 million in cash found in a vault at the Republican Palace, the gilded Hussein mansion that became a headquarters of the occupation.

In the crisis atmosphere pervading the reconstruction effort for most of the decade, Pentagon contracts were often open-ended, with vague demands and no precise deadlines. Although the contracts had provisions allowing their conversion to fixed-price awards after some of the work was completed, “the government failed to exercise these options,” Bowen’s report said.

A special system of urgent payments by military commanders — created to tamp down the Iraqi insurgency and known as the Commander’s Emergency Response Program — dispensed $4 billion without any formal oversight. Military officials say it worked well, at least at the outset, but no Defense Department office assembled a comprehensive picture of how the money was spent. As a result, Bowen calls the claims of success “suspect.”

Overcharging
Weak oversight predictably led to rampant overcharging. A firm based in Dubai managed to keep around $4 billion in Pentagon construction contracts, for example, despite routinely marking up the price of switches and plumbing parts between 3,000 and 12,000 percent, according to an audit Bowen conducted in 2011. Kellogg Brown and Root was among a handful of large contractors that kept winning U.S. funds, despite repeated claims by the Pentagon and others of overcharging by the firm and its subcontractors. The firm has said it conducted its work with “integrity, transparency, accountability, and discipline.”

Some military officers and civilian defense officials participated in the looting. A probe by Bowen’s office of the American official overseeing early reconstruction in Hilla, for example, yielded evidence of widespread bribes, bid-rigging, money laundering, kickbacks and illegal gifts in a scheme that included four colonels, who all got prison terms. An Army major who was the main contracting official at a base in Kuwait oversaw fraud in the purchase of bottled water and warehouse construction that involved 21 others.

Perhaps Bowen’s most depressing conclusion is that the U.S. government is no better prepared for reconstruction work in other countries than it was in 2002. No single government office has responsibility for such operations, he notes, and no tracking system has been established to help oversee related contracting.

Bowen recommends that the Obama administration create a new U.S. office for “contingency operations,” and even includes draft legislation on it in his report. But in an austere fiscal climate, and with Obama’s team set against future military occupations, hopes for reform appear scant.

Clearly a number of lawmakers "have signed on to this solution," said Bowen's deputy Glenn D. Furbish, a top auditor in SIGIR for the past eight years. "Hopefully, we will not get into these things again ... [and] I hope people pay attention to what he has to say ... But it is questionable whether these [reforms] are going to go forward. Given the current political environment, I am not particularly optimistic."

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Courtesy IAVA

Former U.S. Marine Sergeant Derek Coy says he still struggles "both mentally and physically, with the toll it took on me and countless others do as well."

Derek Coy hails from Baytown, Texas, and could be a poster child for American veterans of the war in Iraq as they look back and ask: "Was it all worth it?" 

A former U.S. Marine sergeant based in the volatile Anbar province at the height of the conflict, Coy is proud of his service and believes the "invaluable tools" he gained as a Marine will ultimately help him succeed in life.

But seven years since he left Iraq, he’s fighting a different battle — against anxiety, depression and emotional numbness — the effects of post-traumatic stress. 

"I still struggle, both mentally and physically, with the toll it took on me and countless others do as well," he said.

Tuesday will mark 10 years since the "shock and awe" invasion and more than a year since the last company of U.S. troops left Iraq. But only about 4 in 10 Americans who fought there — according to a Pew Research Center poll — believe the reasons for going to war justified the loss in blood and treasure.

Almost 4,500 U.S. troops were killed and more than 32,000 wounded, including thousands with critical brain and spinal injuries.  Estimates of the number of Iraqi civilian fatalities are staggering, ranging from 100,000 to 600,000.

The monetary cost could exceed $3 trillion.

While the war in Iraq has ended, the sacrifice for vets continues back in a civilian world they often find "foreign" and isolating.

Ann Weeby, a native of Boyne City, Michigan, was deployed at the beginning of the war, attached to the 101st Airborne under then-Major General David Petraeus , in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.

"Our goal was to find weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein," she said.

"After WMDs were not found and Saddam was captured, I didn’t expect [such a] prolonged U.S. military presence in Iraq," she added.

As the only person her family and friends know who fought in the war, Weeby tries to educate them about the scourges of depression and suicide that U.S. vets face after Iraq. 

"American troops are suffering, and in some cases dying, because a Veterans Affairs' claims backlog is preventing them from getting [mental] health care. Twenty-two U.S. veterans commit suicide every day!" Weeby said, citing a troubling statistic recently published by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Courtesy IAVA

Ann Weeby, who was attached to the 101st Airborne, went in to look for WMDs and Saddam Hussein. "I didn't expect [such a] prolonged U.S. military presence in Iraq," she said.

'The cost was high'
When Leon Panetta, then secretary of defense, addressed U.S. troops in Baghdad before they pulled out of Iraq, he argued that their core mission had been accomplished.

"To be sure, the cost was high," he said. "But those lives were not lost in vain. They gave birth to an independent, free, and sovereign Iraq."

Today, however, Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, heads what looks more like an authoritarian regime, propped up by a coercive secret service.

Toby Dodge, an analyst at U.K.-based think tank Chatham House, claimed Iraq had morphed into a pro-Iran police state, where Sunni gunmen and al Qaeda’s suicide bombers seem to strike at will, killing hundreds each week. 

His conclusion: 10 years after regime change in Iraq, little has changed.

"The lives of ordinary Iraqis, in terms of the relationship to their state and their economy, are comparable to the situation they faced in the country before regime change," he said in a report written for Chatham House.

Many Iraq War veterans admit they were fighting more for their battle buddies than for any "island of democracy" in the Arab world.

Courtesy IAVA

Robert Contreras, who had two tours of duty in Iraq, returned to California to finish a college degree, where he has struggled to relate to other students. "The most common question I get … is if I've ever killed someone," he said.

Robert Contreras, from Sylmar, California, left the military after 10 years in the Navy, including two tours of duty in Iraq, and returned to California to finish a college degree.

"Personally, I was not there fighting for Iraq," he said when asked if the war was won or lost.

"I was there to protect those who served alongside me to the best of my abilities," he said.

He’s struggled to relate to his student peers who know little about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The most common question I get … is if I’ve ever killed someone," he said.

Contreras also developed symptoms of PTSD. "I was anxious in crowded places and unable to feel at ease anywhere but at home."

Veterans like Weeby and Coy have found a therapeutic way to generate positives from their Iraq War experiences — and better deal with some of the nagging uncertainties about Iraq’s future: They’ve reached out to their fellow vets.

Weeby is an outspoken advocate for San Francisco Bay Area veterans, while Coy is an associate at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, or IAVA, the first and largest non-profit group representing U.S. vets from those wars.

Both are currently in Washington, D.C., part of the "Storm the Hill" offensive, pressuring Congress to address key veterans’ issues, like 9.4 percent unemployment and a bottle-necked health-care program.

"Coming home with a renewed appreciation for my life and freedoms, I’ve committed my career to helping others," reflected Weeby.

U.S. military commanders would argue that the war in Iraq brought important changes there:  Iraqis are better off without Saddam Hussein and have at least gained a fledgling democracy and national elections.

But 10 years since “shock and awe” was supposed to clear the path for a liberated Iraq and a "forward strategy of freedom" that would sweep across the Middle East, Iraqis are instead falling victim to wave upon wave of sectarian violence.

And many of their American "liberators" are fighting for their own survival — back home.

Jim Maceda has covered Iraq since the 1980s.

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LONDON -- Four days of celebrations to mark Queen Elizabeth's 60 years on the British throne was getting under way on Saturday with one of her favorite pastimes -- a trip to the horse races. 

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to descend on London over the next few days for Diamond Jubilee festivities, with millions attending street parties across the country as the nation marks the queen's personal milestone. 

"The queen has given incredible service," British Prime Minister David Cameron said. "She's never put a foot wrong, she's hugely popular and respected here and around the world and it's an opportunity for people to give thanks and to say thank you for the incredible service that she's given." 

Across much of Britain, red, white and blue "Union Jack" flags billow from street lamps, outside buildings, shop fronts and houses, and sales of patriotic souvenirs have rocketed ahead of the celebrations. 

To royalists, the occasion is a chance to express their thanks and appreciation to the 86-year-old Elizabeth, head of state for 16 countries from Australia and Canada to tiny Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean, for her years of public service. 

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For others, the chance of some extra days off work and to enjoy the sort of extravaganza and public ceremony for which Britain is renowned has made it a welcome break from austere times, pay freezes and deep public spending cuts. 

Republicans hope the occasion marks the last hurrah of a dying anachronism, while some 2 million people are leaving Britain altogether to go on holiday. 

"Original jubilees were invented in the 19th century by the popular press as modes of national celebration for which the monarchy and monarch was almost incidental," royal biographer Robert Lacey said. 

He said the jubilee was as much about society celebrating itself as it was about the head of state and the now largely symbolic institution of the monarchy. 

"They tend to work best in times of economic hardship. It provides a tonic for the country," Lacey told Reuters. 
 

Jubilee treat: Canadian Mounties guard Britain's queen

Having acceded to the throne in February 1952 on the death of her father George VI when Winston Churchill was prime minister, Elizabeth is now the longest-lived British monarch. 

Only her great-great-grandmother Victoria spent longer on the British throne and she looks on course to overhaul her as longest-serving monarch in 2015. 

As well as being head of the Commonwealth of nations mainly made up former British colonies, Elizabeth is also the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. 

"I think we've been enormously fortunate in this country to have as our head of state a person who has a real personality - a personality that comes through more and more, I think, in her public utterances," said the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual head of the Anglican Church. "Someone with insight and judgment, and with immense stamina and a depth of commitment that I think is immensely impressive to all of us." 

The four days of celebrations begin on a fairly low-key note when the queen indulges her long love of horses by attending the Epsom Derby, one of the biggest events in the British horse racing calendar. 

On Sunday, there will be a flotilla of 1,000 boats assembled from around the globe travelling 25 miles along the River Thames featuring the queen and her 90-year-old husband Prince Philip on a royal barge, in the largest such pageant for 350 years. 

Thousands of street parties are also planned across Britain, including one on Downing Street outside Cameron's office, as part of a "Big Jubilee Lunch". 

Officials say there are some 9,500 street parties planned in England Wales and ABTA, the British travel association, said almost 2.5 million Britons were expected to take part. 

London's Heathrow airport said some 780,000 people were due to arrive in the next few days, although ABTA said an estimated 2 million Britons were planning to head overseas to take advantage of the two extra public holidays. 

The queen's London residence Buckingham Palace will play host to a pop concert on Monday featuring the likes of Paul McCartney and Elton John, before a network of 4,200 beacons will also be lit across Britain with more set alight around the Commonwealth. 

The celebrations culminate on Tuesday with a memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral, a carriage procession through central London and flypast by present and former royal air force aircraft. 

Police said the weekend would include the largest royal security operation ever conducted. Some 13,000 officials including about 6,000 police officers will be on duty for the Thames pageant, which poses challenges never before encountered. 

"We're treating it as a unique event, to have that many dignitaries on that many boats moving along the Thames," London police's Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh told Reuters. 

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Stringer / Reuters

Anti-government protesters give victory signs to riot police as they arrive during a protest held in downtown Manama on Saturday.

MANAMA, Bahrain --  Bahrain expelled two American rights activists Saturday after police used teargas and stun grenades to break up a protest Saturday that tried to march toward the roundabout at the center of a failed pro-democracy uprising last year.

The activists had come as part of a group called Witness Bahrain which says it wants to observe events on the eve of the February 14 anniversary of protests led mainly by the Shiite majority for democratic reforms in the Gulf Arab state.

"Huwaida Arraf and Radhika Sainath arrived in Bahrain in the last few days and obtained tourist visas upon arrival at the airport," a statement from the government's Information Affairs Authority said.

"However, once in Bahrain, they declared their intentions to join demonstrations in order to report on them. Arraf and Sainath were picked up at an illegal demonstration in Manama this afternoon."

A statement by Witness Bahrain said the women, human rights lawyers, were put on a London-bound plane on Sunday morning after taking part in a peaceful demonstration.

Amnesty: Tear gas used on Bahrain protesters kills

"The two women are part of the Witness Bahrain initiative, which arrived in Bahrain in response to a call by Bahraini democracy activists for international observers," the organization said. "Huwaida was dragged away by numerous security forces after sitting on the ground."

"Though their visit was brief, the activists will be returning with firsthand experience of the lengths to which the Bahraini regime will go to suppresses dissent and prevent the world from finding out about the brutality of its security forces," the organization said.

Bahrain has been in turmoil since the democracy movement erupted last year, followed by months of violence between riot police and teenagers that has worsened in the past two months.

Bahrain escaped heavy censure from the United States, which regards Bahrain as a key ally in its conflict with Iran. The U.S. Fifth Fleet is based in the island kingdom.

US moves embassy staff in Bahrain to avoid clashes

Demonstrations, sometimes organized by leading Shiite opposition party Wefaq with government approval, have multiplied as the February 14 anniversary of the uprising approaches.

Some rights activists and journalists were denied entry to Bahrain last month and a member of the team from Japan's NHK television said Saturday they had been prevented from entry at Manama airport. Officials were not available for comment.

The government said last week it denied visas to some journalists because of an overflow of visa requests.

Egypt's military rulers, meanwhile, have began legal action against Americans and Egyptians for activities with non-government organizations that they say was not legal or authorized.

Dreams of Pearl
Two groups of several hundred activists gathered at different points in Manama's old market area Saturday afternoon in an apparent effort to dupe riot police who were scattered through the district, before suddenly marching toward the roundabout, now renamed al-Farouq Junction.

Security forces maintain a tight guard on the junction, which has remained blocked to traffic, to stop protesters returning.

PhotoBlog: Bahrain protesters clash with police after funeral

"To the roundabout, to the roundabout," chanted protesters, led by prominent rights activist Nabil Rajab. Behind them, police using megaphones warned the crowd that the march was unauthorized and they should disperse. Police then fired teargas and stun grenades at the march.

Riot police then seized Arraf, a Palestinian American who campaigns for non-violent protest by Palestinians. It was not clear when Sainath was detained.

Police used stun grenades and teargas after a scuffle between women protesters and police over Arraf's arrest. Police also cornered Rajab to stop the march reforming.

"This proves to everybody that peoples' spirit is still alive and coming back, and we're not going to go away," he said.

Bahrain to citizens living abroad: Spy on countrymen, no protests permitted

Youth protesters in Shiite villages have also clashed with security forces, throwing petrol bombs and iron bars and blocking roads with burning tires.

Activists say at least two people have died in police custody in the past month and others have died from apparent effects of teargas, taking the total dead since February 14, 2011 to over 60. The government disputes the causes of death.

Sunnis rally
In a sign of the division tearing at Bahraini society, Sunnis organized an alternative rally in Manama while Shiites were protesting not far away.

Gathering at the al-Fateh mosque for a rally led by pro-government cleric Sheikh Abdul-Latif Al Mahmood, they said they were worried the Al Khalifa family-led government would give in to Wefaq's demands for parliament to form the cabinet.

They said Shiites were using violence for political gain.

"We want to send a message to the government that we are against the terrorism and the government should listen to us as well," said a housewife who gave her name as Nour.

"We are afraid. Bahrain was a land of peace, where we didn't lock our doors at night and women would go out without fear of anybody," said Hala Ahmed, a doctor.

They said Sunnis were moving out of some districts because of the continuing clashes between police and youths.

Asked if he could agree with the opposition demand for a Western-style parliamentary democracy, Nader Mohamed said: "In the long run, yes, why not? But not in the current situation."

Bahrain's Sunni rulers have given parliament some more powers of scrutiny over ministers and budgets, but are resisting opposition demands that the elected parliament be given the power to approve cabinet appointments.

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Msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.