Deloitte – Extraordinary Services In Unusual Places
Truth is, nowadays, often stranger than fiction. I am a skeptic by nature but also a realist. If it makes money for someone, it’s probably happening out there.
Why would a mild mannered firm like Deloitte get mixed up in dirty business in Iraq? Well, as I have said before, “…that’s where the money is.” And that’s where the money goes, in order to get these contracts.
The firms, even the one that kept their consulting practice, are always looking for new revenue sources. They also have no qualms about having international offices engage in services that are illegal, immoral or just not done here in the US. HR, legal services, integrated services, recruiting, interim CFO work, valuation, M&A , alternative banking, and transfer pricing are all services that are performed by all the firms somewhere in the world, just not perhaps with the tacit approval of the US firm and sometimes without their ability to monitor them closely for fraud or for independence issues.
It’s sort of like how the US government has been accused of the practice of extraordinary rendition. If we can’t torture those suspected enemy combatants here, have them taken somewhere where someone can.
“While legal rendition has been used by the United States increasingly since the 1980s as a method for dealing with foreign defendants, extraordinary rendition is a wholly extra-legal process that differs in its nature and usage as a tool in the US-led war on terror.[2] Because the modern methods of rendition include a form where suspects are taken into US custody but delivered to a third-party state, often without ever being on American soil, and without involving the rendering country’s judiciary, they have been termed extraordinary rendition. The Central Intelligence Agency was granted permission to use rendition in a presidential directive signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995,[3] and the practice has grown sharply since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Critics — some of whom dub the procedure “torture by proxy”[4][5] — have accused the CIA of rendering suspects to other countries in order to avoid US laws prescribing due process and prohibiting torture, even though many of those countries have, like the US, signed or ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture.”
So it was no surprise to me to see this headline:
Advocates Call Iraq Marine’s Court Martial and Conviction Into Question
Former Marines investigating the case say there is far more than meets the eye; the court martial is currently under appeal and review.
“…Americans are well aware of the billions of dollars of income that the Iraq War has meant for defense contractors. They might be surprised to learn however, that this relatively quiet “accounting” firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has been active in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq for many years. Their psychologists were used to examine Marine Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins.
A group of former marines have been studying the history of the Al Anbar province during 2003-2006. They believe they have put together a fairly clear view of a somewhat larger picture that takes the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu firm and military court martial practices into account.
For the most part, Deloitte claims to be an accounting firm.Former Marine Warren Bonesteel alleges that they were involved in the outcome of Hutchin’s court martial.
“What we do know for certain is that Deloitte was – and is – directly and indirectly involved in Al Anbar province, and, for our present purposes, specifically in Haditha. We also know that NCIS uses contracted Deloitte psychologists. The same psychologists may have been used by both defense and prosecution legal teams in order to examine the Marines in question. We know that NCIS operatives, ‘managers’, and even the NCIS director himself, have gone to work for Deloitte in the two and some odd years since the incident in question.
…“We also know that Deloitte or its subsidiaries and alliances handle the ‘auditing’ and business ‘consulting’ for a great many of the contractors and sub-contractors in Al Anbar province as well as in other areas of Iraq.
These include construction, healthcare, Internet Technology, transportation, private security firms, food and facilities management, oil industry manufacturing and experts, hydroelectric, banking, labor, education, etc., and so on. NCIS also has several other contracts with Deloitte and its subsidiaries. He says his research also shows that men like William Delahunt, John Murtha and others, including most of those who sit on various appropriations committees, receive more than half of their campaign contributions from Deloitte and from its subsidiaries or “alliances.”
Others on that list include Walter B. Jones, Trent Lott and Nancy Pelosi.
“We know that Deloitte directly or indirectly handles a great many, if not most, of the contracts going into the Pentagon, including retirement, life insurance and healthcare. We know that Deloitte also handles the money and business consulting for most of the companies and conglomerates who contract with the Pentagon. We know that Deloitte and it’s subsidiaries and ‘alliances’ have lobbyists all over D.C. and in every state capitol in America.”
He says they have offices and lobbyists in nearly every national capitol and, seemingly, in almost every provincial and state capitol in the world.
“We know that men like Delahunt also have direct and indirect connections to known terrorist supporters and to lobbyists with both direct and indirect ties to Deloitte. Among these groups and lobbyists are individuals, banks, and groups directly and indirectly associated with CAIR, the ISNA, MAS, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Muslim individuals, groups and organizations on a national and international basis. Deloitte is also involved directly and indirectly handling financing for those same groups and organizations.”
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