One Utah

The Washington Post has obtained a draft copy of a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The 69-page draft, titled “Securing, Stabilizing and Rebuilding Iraq,” is still being reviewed by the Department of Defense. Congress requested the GAO report, an unclassified version of which is due to be released on Tuesday. It concludes that Iraqi government has met only three out of 18 statutory benchmarks enacted by the U.S. Congress last May as a condition for supporting the continued occupation of Iraq.

The Iraqi government has met only two security benchmarks. The GAO report contradicts the Bush administration’s conclusion in July that sectarian violence was decreasing as a result of the U.S. military’s stepped-up operations in Baghdad this year. “The average number of daily attacks against civilians remained about the same over the last six months; 25 in February versus 26 in July,” the GAO draft states.

One of eight political benchmarks — the protection of the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature — has been achieved, according to the draft. On the others, including legislation on constitutional reform, new oil laws and de-Baathification, the report assesses failure.

Two benchmarks — the formation of governmental regions and the allocation and expenditure of $10 billion for reconstruction — have been “partially met,” the report says. Little of the allocated money has been spent.

The person who provided the draft report to The Post said it was being conveyed from a government official who feared that its pessimistic conclusions would be watered down in the final version — as some officials have said happened with security judgments in this month’s National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq.

Related post: NIE Key Judgments on Iraq Stability

UPDATE: The Pentagon wants to upgrade the GAO assessment. And White House spokesperson Dana Perino doesn’t think the report says anything new:

“I think we have said they have not met the benchmarks,” Perino said. “I don’t see how it would be news for them to come out today and say they have not met benchmarks. We have said that.”

UPDATE: Via Talking Points Memo– More people are noticing that the Bush administration and the military have provided no data whatsoever to back up their unlikely claims that Iraqi civilian casualties have declined since they escalated the conflict. The Associated Press found that the civilian casualties have doubled.

UPDATE: Doing something about rampant corruption in Iraqi government ministries is not one of the benchmarks, although corruption is the main reason the government isn’t functioning. A US embassy report obtained by The Nation reveals that criminal activity is the norm throughout the government.

Part of the problem, according to the report, is Maliki’s office: “The Prime Minister’s Office has demonstrated an open hostility” to independent corruption investigations… and “there have been a number of identified cases where government and political pressure has been applied to change the outcome of investigations and prosecutions in favor of members of the Shia Alliance”-which includes Maliki’s Dawa party.

This entry was posted Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 9:01 am and is filed under Disaster, Iraq, National Politics, War. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.