Dems attack Bremer for doling cash in Iraq

WASHINGTON -- In power barely a month, Democratic critics of the war in Iraq are moving unmistakably toward a clash between Congress and the commander in chief.

They confirmed plans Tuesday for a symbolic rejection by the House of President Bush's decision to deploy additional troops and filed legislation in the Senate to require withdrawal of U.S. military personnel.

Apart from legislation, Democrats have embarked on an effort to spotlight the war by holding numerous hearings.

At a daylong session Tuesday, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, accused the former U.S. occupation chief in Iraq of haphazardly doling out billions of dollars after the U.S.-led invasion.

Waxman wanted to know how the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) could have shipped $12 billion in cash from the Federal Reserve in New York to Baghdad and handed it over to Iraqi ministries with only the sketchiest accounting controls. The cash, all 363 tons of it, was shrink-wrapped into $400,000 bricks and carried on C-130 cargo planes.

"Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone?" Waxman asked. And with limited oversight, he said, "we have no way of knowing whether the cash shipped into the Green Zone ended up in enemy hands."

The special inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, said in a January 2005 report that $8.8 billion was unaccounted for after being given to the Iraqi ministries.

Distributing cash in a war-zone wasn't "a perfect solution," said Paul Bremer, who was head of the CPA. "But there are no perfect solutions in Iraq."

He said he had done the best he could to kick start the Iraqi economy, which he said was "flat on its back" after years of rule by Saddam Hussein followed by the U.S.-led invasion. During the 15-month occupation, the United Nations allowed the U.S. government to sell Iraq's oil and keep the proceeds in a special trust fund.

One Republican accused Democrats of trying to embarrass the administration.

"It's old news," said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va.

The hearing did not dwell on some of the more controversial aspects of Bremer's time in Iraq, such as his decisions to disband Iraq's army and fire Baath party members from government jobs.

Rep. William Clay, D-Mo., however, did ask Bremer whether he regretted his decision to disband Iraq's army and whether he would admit that "your de-Baathification program helped to set the stage for the takeover of Iraqi politics by Shiite politicians with close ties to Iran?"

Bremer argued that if he had called members of the old Iraqi army into service, it would have angered Shiites and Kurds -- who collectively make up more than three-fourths of Iraq's population -- and it might have led the Kurds to secede from Iraq. He also defended the overall thrust of his "de-Baathification" decree, but he acknowledged it was a mistake to leave the implementation up to Iraqis, who "broadened it."

"It was the right policy, but poorly implemented," Bremer said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meanwhile, acknowledged Tuesday that Pentagon planners were considering alternative war plans if the buildup of forces in Iraq failed to quell ongoing violence in Baghdad, saying the new administration strategy "is not the last chance" to salvage the war-torn country.

Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee that if the buildup did not show the hoped-for results, the military likely would shift to a strategy that would be centered on moving U.S. troops "out of harm's way."

There have been calls by critics of Bush to move U.S. forces into more secure locations -- perhaps in Kuwait or northern Kurdish areas of Iraq -- immediately.

Bush's decision to dispatch additional troops has become a flashpoint for critics of his Iraq policy in the new Congress, many of whom were elected last fall by a war-weary electorate.

Officials said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland had both pledged to the Democratic rank and file that the House would vote next week on a nonbinding measure critical of Bush's plan to add 21,500 forces. They also reassured lawmakers clamoring for more robust action that the vote would merely be the first attempt to pressure the president to shift course and that future legislation will be binding.

In the Senate, Republicans have so far blocked an attempt by Democrats to hold a full-fledged debate on the war.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., now a member of the Democrats' leadership team, on Tuesday jumped into the fray on the Senate floor.

"I can tell you one thing: We are going to have that debate whether some in this body like it or not," said Murray, who reminded members that she had voted against the war in 2002.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., meanwhile, proposed legislation that would require Bush to "complete the redeployment" of American troops within a year. And Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., joined two House members in proposing a measure to block Bush from implementing his planned troop increase, and to begin a withdrawal by May 1, with all combat brigades out by March 31, 2008.

The cost to the U.S. of the war in Iraq hit a record $10 billion per month in October and November as the expense of replacing equipment soared, Pentagon Comptroller Tina Jonas said Tuesday.

The cost of the Iraq war is one of the most contentious aspects of nearly four-year-old conflict.

Compiled from The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg News and Reuters. Seattle Times Washington bureau reporter Alicia Mundy contributed to this report.