Taxpayer money

The U.S. government can't be sure taxpayer money isn't winding up in terrorists' pockets, it admitted recently. According to a recent government audit stamped "Sensitive but Unclassified" obtained by the Chicago Tribune, the U.S. Agency for International Development can't be sure that some of the billions in aid it distributes annually doesn't go to individuals or groups with terrorist ties, the paper reported. "Although it conducts programs in countries where terrorism is a major concern, USAID has not developed or instituted a worldwide anti-terrorism program," the Tribune quoted from the audit prepared by the USAID inspector general. "USAID risks providing funding or other material support and resources to terrorists or terrorist organizations."

KBR, Inc., the global engineering and construction giant, won more than $16 billion in U.S. government contracts for work in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 to 2006—far more than any other company, according to a new analysis by the Center for Public Integrity. In fact, the total dollar value of contracts that went to KBR—which used to be known as Kellogg, Brown, and Root and until April 2007 was a subsidiary of Halliburton—was nearly nine times greater than those awarded to DynCorp International, a private security firm that is No. 2 on the Center's list of the top 100 recipients of Iraq and Afghanistan reconstruction funds.