Best-Connected Were Sent to Rebuild Iraq

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 17, 2006; A01

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the
opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq
attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals,
Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone
adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past
Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens
prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts,
applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in
post-conflict reconstruction. What they needed to be was a member of
the Republican Party.

O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions about domestic politics: Did
you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the
president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs
with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their
views on Roe v. Wade .

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition
Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to
June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had
never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job --
was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a
prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an
evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to
manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a
background in accounting.

The decision to send the loyal and the willing instead of the best and
the brightest is now regarded by many people involved in the 3 1/2
-year effort to stabilize and rebuild Iraq as one of the Bush
administration's gravest errors. Many of those selected because of
their political fidelity spent their time trying to impose a
conservative agenda on the postwar occupation that sidetracked more
important reconstruction efforts and squandered goodwill among the
Iraqi people.

The CPA had the power to enact laws, print currency, collect taxes,
deploy police and spend Iraq's oil revenue. It had more than 1,500
employees in Baghdad at its height, working under America's viceroy in
Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, but never released a public roster of its entire
staff.

Interviews with scores of former CPA personnel over the past two years
depict an organization that was dominated -- and ultimately hobbled --
by administration ideologues.

See the rest of the article at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600193.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/zwspw

(And, yes, Jim O'Beirne is Kate O'Beirne's husband.)