"Contractors hired to rebuild the country’s infrastructure or provide security have overcharged the U.S. for everything from soft drinks—$45 a can—to gasoline. Millions of dollars in no-bid reconstruction contracts were diverted to things such as Super Bowl tickets, prostitutes, watches, and jewelry. And much of the reconstruction work has been substandard. The U.S., for example, paid $72 million to Parsons, a U.S. contractor, to build a police academy in Baghdad. But the building was so badly put together that raw sewage seeps from its walls and ceilings. “This became the lens through which Iraqis now see America—incompetence, profiteering, arrogance,” said House Democrat Henry Waxman of California, a vocal critic of the war."

There's more at The Week Magazine. 

Blackwater Employee Commits Murder And Receives A Free Ticket HomeBy Dan Kenney

            Christmas Eve 2006 in Baghdad’s Green Zone an off-duty Blackwater employee shot and killed Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi’s personal bodyguard. Seven months later the contractor is still free and has not been charged with any crime. This story received little media coverage. Partly because Abdul-Mahdi assured the U.S. ambassador that he would try to keep it from public attention.