washington (reuters) – many of the u.s. firms doing billions of dollars of work in iraq (news – web sites) and afghanistan (news – web sites) have been big donors to president bush (news – web sites) and his republican party and fill their boards with political and military heavyweights, a report on thursday said.
the report by the watchdog group, the center for public integrity, said most of the 70 firms and individuals getting up to $8 billion in contracts for post-war iraq and afghanistan donated more to bush’s presidential campaign — a little over $500,000 — than any other candidate in the past decade.
“”there is a stench of political favoritism and cronyism surrounding the contracting process in both iraq and afghanistan,”” said charles lewis, executive director of the group, which investigates public service and ethics issues.
the report found that 14 of the 70 contractors got work both in iraq and afghanistan and that combined these companies gave nearly $23 million in political contributions and 13 of those firms employed former government officials with close ties to agencies and departments.

government defends contracting

one of the biggest contracts for iraq went to halliburton co., the oil services firm once run by vice president dick cheney (news – web sites), who strongly denies any cronyism.
engineering firm bechtel, which has more than $1 billion in u.s. government business in iraq, has former secretary of state george shultz as a member of its board.
the main government departments giving out work in iraq, the u.s. army corps of engineers and the u.s. agency for international development, strongly deny favoritism.
usaid spokeswoman ellen yount defended the contracting process at her agency as fair and transparent and said most decisions were made by non-political career officers. “”we have made sure that it is not politically motivated,”” she told reuters.
the contracting process in iraq has come under strong scrutiny and criticism, especially from democratic lawmakers who say halliburton, in particular, is getting too much business from the war. halliburton subsidiary kellogg brown & root has clocked up more than $3.5 billion in business in iraq, according to figures given to reuters by the army corps of engineers, with $1.6 billion under a no-competition oil sector repair contract in march and the remainder via another contract given to the company to provide logistical support to u.s. troops. two new contracts to replace the march one were set to have been announced this month, but the army corps of engineers has delayed those until the end of the year and doubled the total contract amounts to $2 billion.
the general accounting office (news – web sites), the investigative arm of congress, is doing a broad investigation into the process used to award contracts to rebuild iraq and is expected to release a preliminary report in the next few months.

washington (reuters) – president bush (news – web sites)’s anti-abortion policy has forced family planning clinics in poor countries to close, leaving some communities without any healthcare, according to a report issued wednesday.
even faith-based clinics that promote abstinence — in line with white house policy — have had to close, according to organizers.
under the policy, known as the mexico city rule by supporters and the global gag rule by opponents, foreign family planning agencies cannot receive u.s. funds if they provide abortion services or lobby to make or keep abortion legal in their own country.
a survey of ethiopia, kenya, romania and zambia by population action international and the planned parenthood (news – web sites) federation of america showed the rule had forced clinics to close and left many men and women without access to contraceptives that could prevent both unwanted pregnancies and aids (news – web sites).
“”you cannot separate hiv (news – web sites)/aids, reproductive health and abortion,”” said hillary fyfe, who heads the family life movement of zambia, a faith-based group working with adolescents on sex education. while her group does not promote abortion or even condom use, it does talk about the possibility, and that was enough to lose u.s. funding, fyfe said. three clinics in lusaka closed this year.
“”we taught natural family planning and abstinence until marriage,”” fyfe said in an interview. now her group will be unable to holds its workshops unless they can find alternative funding, fyfe said.
the same is happening in several countries, according to the report.
“”health services have been scaled back and closings of reproductive health clinics have left some communities with no healthcare provider,”” the group wrote in a statement.

hurting aids efforts
the policy has also hurt aids prevention efforts, said the group, which published the findings on the internet at www.globalgagrule.org.
as one of his first acts in office in 2001, bush reinstated the rule that former president bill clinton (news – web sites), a democrat, had lifted. the rule was originally imposed in 1984 by president ronald reagan (news – web sites) at a mexico city conference.
last month bush ordered the state department to strengthen the rule by withholding u.s. family planning help from overseas groups that promote or perform abortions with their own money.
five family planning clinics run by nongovernmental organizations have closed in kenya because they refused the restrictions and lost funding from the u.s. agency for international development, the report said.
“”as a result, they are prevented from participating in a large-scale integrated health care program funder by the u.s. agency for international development, which curtails the effectiveness and reach of the program,”” the report reads.
in kenya’s mathare valley, a family planning clinic closed, leaving 300,000 people with no healthcare services. “”and there is no other family planning or reproductive health clinic nearby,”” the report said.
in romania, women may be more likely to get abortions, not fewer, because the rule has meant more women cannot get any information on contraceptives that can prevent unwanted pregnancies, the report said.
“”this is the real face of bush’s compassionate conservatism — a war on the world’s most vulnerable women and children, who bear the brunt of bush’s obsession with appeasing his domestic political base,”” planned parenthood’s gloria feldt said in a statement.