Hat-tip to Mosquitopest for giving me the idea to do this more in-depth research.
According to an article The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers from Alternet.org there is some seriously fishy and potentially illegal stuff going on with the distribution of US Government Contracts relating to Iraq.
Tom Davis is the Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, it is his job to investigate such claims, instead, he does not. He ignores these problems while at the same time taking political donations from said companies. Below the fold is the dirty truth.
For the total contributions, I'm only looking at the 01-02/03-04/05-06 cycles, since those are the only ones affected by the war in Iraq. In all, Tom Davis has taken at least $195,330 from companies he should be investigating. While his opponent Andrew Hurst Democratic nominee for Congress, is refusing to take PAC money specifically because of this level of corruption and influence peddling.
#1 CACI. This company had "private interrogators" in Abu Ghraib. According to tray.comTom Davis and his PAC Federal Victory Fund, have taken $14,130 from CACI employees, including Chairman of the Board J Phillip London and President Paul Cofoni.
#2 L-3 Communications owns Titan Corporation. Titan was also in Abu Ghraib.Tom Davis and his PAC have taken $9,200 from L-3 and Titan Employees and Titan's PAC.
#3 Bechtel
The San Francisco-based construction and engineering giant received one of the largest no-bid contracts -- worth $2.4 billion -- to help coordinate and rebuild a large part of Iraq's infrastructure. But the company's reconstruction failures range from shoddy school repairs to failing to finish a large hospital in Basra on time and within budget.Davis has taken close to $31,000 from Bechtel and it's employees.
#4 Aegis. I couldn't find any money here, probably because it's a Brittish firm
An industry insider told Avant that the $293 million contract was given despite the fact that American competitors had submitted lower bids, suggesting the government wanted to hire the foreign company to shield both sides of the transaction from accountability for any "dirty tricks."
Custer Battles was a newly formed company with no experience in the security industry when it landed one of the first contracts issued in Iraq, in the spring of 2003, to secure the Baghdad airport. The sole source or "no-bid" contract was worth US$16 million when it was awarded in the chaos after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
#6 General Dynamics
General Dynamics PAC has given $23,500 to Tom Davis and his PAC
In July, the Post reported that the company's profits have tripled since 9/11. That should make some people happy, including David K Heebner, a former top aide to Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki, who was hired by General Dynamics in 1999, a year before the Stryker contract was sealed. According to Defense watchdogs at the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), General Dynamics formally announced it was hiring Heebner on November 20, 1999, just one month after Shinseki announced a new "vision" to transform the Army by moving away from tracked armored vehicles toward wheeled light-armored vehicles, and more than a month prior to Heebner's official retirement date of Dec. 31, 1999.
#7 Nour USA. This is a shadowy firm, that incorporated as the war in Iraq started, with the specific purpose to get US Government Contracts. Now also has contracts with the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Can't find any ties to Tom Davis, as I can't really find out much about the company. But there do seem to be Suspect contract deals and another here
#8 Chevron. #9 ExxonMobile #10 Petro-imperialists.
Unfortunately, at this point Alternet gets a little vague, but there is still interesting stuff. Tom Davis was quoted as saying "I have never taken a nickel from the oil companies". This was clearly false, in fact, He has taken over $115,000 from Oil Company PACs Alone, $42,750 from ExxonMobil.
Nate de la Piedra is the Online Outreach Coordinator for the Andrew Hurst for Congress 2006 Campaign. The ideas expressed herein belong to Nate de la Piedra and do not necessarily represent those of Andrew Hurst, his advisors, staff, or "The Campaign".