Josh Marshall reports that Paul Wolfowitz is trying to hamstring Congressionally mandated oversight of military contractors' activities in Iraq. It's not entirely working -- Halliburton's price gouging on gasoline has already come in for some unpleasant attention. At any rate, it seems pretty clear that the contractors are siphoning out a lot of cash from the country.

I have to wonder what Grand Ayatollah Sistani thinks of this -- if he's following the situation closely. Juan Cole reported last month that Sistani had been, well ... incompletely briefed about the CPA plans for establishing a new Iraqi government, and "hit the roof" when he got the full details, about the lack of representative elections in particular. If he's similarly uninformed about the corporate shenanigans, he's likely to hit the roof again. Bear in mind that one key reason that most Shiites in Iraq aren't in open revolt is that Sistani has told them to hold off -- for now. There are only so many times Sistani can hit the roof before other structures start to sustain damage...

This post edited late to try to make it at least vaguely coherent...