Iraq War Supporters Profit From Reconstruction

Several key advocates for the invasion of Iraq are now profiting from Iraq's reconstruction the Los Angeles Times reports. "As lobbyists, public relations counselors and confidential advisors to senior federal officials, they warned against Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, praised exiled leader Ahmad Chalabi, and argued that toppling Saddam Hussein was a matter of national security and moral duty. Now, as fighting continues in Iraq, they are collecting tens of thousands of dollars in fees for helping business clients pursue federal contracts and other financial opportunities in Iraq," Walter F. Roche Jr. and Ken Silverstein write. Among the profiteers are former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, a founding member of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq who used his Pentagon connections to help arrange for a debriefing of an Iraqi defector provided by the Iraqi National Congress; Randy Scheunemann, founding president of the CLI; and Washington lobbyist K. Riva Levinson, who while at Burson-Marsteller owned BKSH & Associates did PR work for the INC.