The Cowboys of Kabul

Mother Jones by Daniel Schulman | Jul. 28, 2009 (Special Report)

Although their circumstances looked dire, the Spiers were about to become millionaires. By May, Barbara Spier had filed the paperwork to form a new corporation called US Protection and Investigations. Soon, thanks to the contracting sweepstakes that was the war in Afghanistan, she was signing an $8.4 million deal with the Louis Berger Group. The multinational construction and engineering company had landed a $214 million contract to rebuild Afghanistan's ... Full Story »

Posted by Derek Hawkins - via Mother Jones

More Info

Tags Help
Subjects: Politics, Living, Business, World, U.S.
Topics: Housing, Finance, Afghanistan, Iraq, War in Iraq
Member Tags: special reports, Top Stories, private security firm, investigations, military, berger, contractors, security, uspi
Stats Help
# Diggs: 2 (as of 2009-07-27)
Editorial Help
Posted by: via Mother Jones - Jul 27, 2009 - 2:19 AM PDT
Reviewed by: Derek Hawkins (review), Fabrice Florin (review), Emma Asomba (review), James Canning (review), Kristin Davis (review), John Louden (review), Chris Finnie (review), Dwight Rousu (review), Tanya J. Maurer (review)
Content Type: Article
Edit Lock: This story can be edited
Edited by: Derek Hawkins - Jul 27, 2009 - 9:46 PM PDT
Like | | | Comments

To:


Separate email addresses with commas.
25 recipients max.

Note:

Reviews

Show All | Notes | Comments | Quotes | Links
Member_photo_thumb
4.3
 by Dwight Rousu - Aug. 10, 2009

Schulman presents a big picture of corruption in Afghanistan that appears to involve American fraudulent war profiteers. Most the big media focus on blaming the corruption of the Afghan puppet regime and the warlords. Well written and disgusting.

Afghanistan has received even less scrutiny. In conflict zones, it’s always difficult to weed out fraudulent invoices from legitimate expenses, to discern patronage ... More »

See Full Review » (13 answers)
N1812091_2834_thumb
4.0
 by Derek Hawkins - Jul. 27, 2009
Derek posted this story.
See Full Review » (2 answers)
Member_photo_thumb
4.9
 by Chris Finnie - Jul. 30, 2009

A true OMG story. Well researched and written.

“If the Spiers, along with Bill Dupre, are found guilty of fraud, it’s likely their case represents one small chapter in a much larger story of ... More »

See Full Review » (11 answers)
Emmaii_thumb
4.3
 by Emma Asomba - Jul. 28, 2009

There's no so many ways as done in this article to really sketch the contours of "reconstruction-related corruption".

Where will it end? A one million dollar question considering the fact that Afghanistan is spiraling out of control, and so does any systems of ... More »

See Full Review » (7 answers)
Fabportrait_smallsquare_180x180_thumb
3.9
 by Fabrice Florin - Jul. 28, 2009
See Full Review » (4 answers)
Silhouette_sml
4.2
 by Tanya J. Maurer - Aug. 10, 2009

How many others are there?

See Full Review » (12 answers)
Silhouette_sml
4.6
 by James Canning - Jul. 28, 2009

Graphic illustration of how hundreds of billions end up down the rathole, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq.

The US should not be taking the lead in working out how best to lower the violence levels in Afghanistan, and squandering hundreds more billions of ... More »

See Full Review » (7 answers)
Myphoto_thumb
4.5
 by John Louden - Jul. 28, 2009

an absolutely stellar piece of journalism: concise yet well rounded, good pace and very well written; comprehensive and seemingly well researched. Reads like a good short story.

As a sidebar to the main topic, It's scary that in the eyes of the US government, Blackwater can do no wrong --- in my view they are pure evil.

See Full Review » (7 answers)
Kristin2_thumb
4.1
 by Kristin Davis - Jul. 28, 2009

It seems like mainstream media tends not to focus on war-related corruption stories like this one. It's truly sickening what people will do for a ... More »

See Full Review » (6 answers)

Comments on this story Help (BETA)

Sort by: Oldest | Newest Hide All Replies
NT Rating | My Rating

Ratings

4.3

Good
from 9 reviews (58% confidence)
Quality
4.4
Facts
4.2
Fairness
4.3
Sourcing
4.3
Style
4.5
Context
4.7
Depth
4.8
Enterprise
5.0
Relevance
4.3
Popularity
4.0
Recommendation
4.2
Credibility
4.0
# Reviews
4.5
# Views
5.0
# Likes
3.0
# Emails
1.0
More
How our ratings work »
(See these related stories.)

Links Help

No links yet. Please review this story to add some!