My firm represents whistleblowers in numerous cases involving fraud by government contractors in Iraq. These cases are often brought under the Civil False Claims Act, a law that was enacted in 1863 to combat war profiteering during the Civil War. In 1986, when Congress amended the Act, it lauded it as the "Government's primary litigative tool for combating fraud."

Nevertheless, at present there are only four such cases in litigation that have been unsealed, and Alan Grayson of my firm, Grayson & Kubli, P.C., is the attorney of record in all four of them. Of course, there have been far more than four instances of war profiteering in Iraq.

The False Claims Act yielded total recoveries of over $3 billion last year alone, but in Iraq, where there has been war and war profiteering for over four years, the total recovery to date has been less than $6 million. Senator Dorgan has rightly referred to it as "an orgy of greed" by military contractors.

Billions of dollars are missing--at least $9 billion to be more precise--and many more billions are being wasted. It is a travesty that only four such cases are unsealed and in litigation, and even in those four cases, the Bush Administration is not participating. Moreover, it has swept such cases under the rug by obtaining and extending court orders sealing the cases when, by law, they are supposed to be sealed (secret) for only 60 days. Then after the cases are unsealed, the courts create and apply strict rules that have no basis in the statute.

As Lincoln said 144 years ago,

worse than traitors in arms are the men who pretend loyalty to the flag, feast and fatten on the misfortunes of the Nation, while patriotic blood is crimsoning the plains. . . and their countrymen moldering the dust.

You can watch Alan Grayson's testimony here:

http://www.youtube.com/...