N.Y. Times (July 3, 2008)

July 3, 2008

Editorial
The Imprecise Meaning of War

Unless Congress closes a gaping hole in the law against war profiteering, companies ripping off taxpayers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars may never be fully prosecuted. This is because the latest conflicts are not declared wars.

The anti-fraud law dating to World War II allows prosecution of contractors up to three years after a war ends. But this statute of limitations was omitted from the resolutions authorizing military force in Iraq and Afghanistan, which carried no formal war declaration.

Investigators say that current war fraud runs into untold billions, including faulty ammunition and vehicles and not-so-bullet-proof vests. Investigative officials and the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction have testified that they’re hampered by the ongoing conflicts and need more time to catch contract thieves after they end.

The solution is a bipartisan bill clarifying that “war” absolutely includes Congressional authorizations of military force. The repair also wisely allows prosecution for five years after a war. The Senate Judiciary Committee just approved this crucial measure and the rest of Congress should quickly enact it. Or else the loophole will continue to invite war contracting as “a free-for-all with no criminal accountability,” in the words of Senator Charles Grassley, the bill’s Republican sponsor.

The Justice Department, meanwhile, is reportedly sitting on a backlog of more than 900 cases in which whistle-blowers have accused government contractors of billions in fraud, in both military and domestic spending. Long delays bog down the information in secrecy as the department, understaffed and overloaded, weighs whether the allegations have merit, according to The Washington Post.

On both the war front and the home front, the government must do a far more convincing job of going after profiteers who are gouging the taxpayers.