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Contractor admits Iraq theft, bribery

WASHINGTON - A former U.S. contracting official in Iraq admitted he conspired to steal more than $2-million in reconstruction money and to award contracts to a businessman in exchange for more than $1-million in cars, jewelry and cash.

Robert J. Stein Jr., 50, of Fayetteville, N.C., was expected to enter his guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Washington today. His would be the first conviction in a federal investigation that so far has implicated at least seven people.

Stein, a former contracting official for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, acknowledged his role in the conspiracy in a signed statement filed with the court.

The businessman, Philip H. Bloom, also faces federal conspiracy and money laundering charges. Bloom is not named in Stein's statement but has been identified elsewhere by prosecutors and is in federal custody in Washington.

Five U.S. Army Reserve officers who worked in Iraq also were part of the conspiracy, according to court papers.

Rita Bosworth, a federal public defender in Washington who is representing Stein, had no comment Wednesday. John Nassikas, Bloom's lawyer, declined to comment.

Stein, who has an earlier federal fraud conviction, said he helped steer more than $8.6-million in contracts to companies controlled by Bloom, a U.S. citizen who has lived in Romania for many years. The contracts were for less than $500,000 each, the limit of Stein's authority as the top contracting official in Hillah, 50 miles south of Baghdad.

The case against Stein has its roots in audits performed by Inspector General Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who is looking into Iraqi reconstruction contracts.

RECONSTRUCTION SABOTAGED: Guerrilla attacks in Iraq have forced the cancellation of more than 60 percent of water and sanitation projects, in part because American intelligence failed to predict the brutal insurgency, a U.S. government audit said.

The audit of the Iraqi Relief and Reconstruction Program released last week is the latest in a series of auditing reports being issued by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. The audit is titled "Challenges Faced in Carrying Out Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund Activities."

WOMAN DESCRIBES TORTURE: A female witness, testifying Wednesday at Saddam Hussein's trial, said she was stripped naked in prison, hung by her feet and kicked in the chest by the former Iraqi leader's half brother, Barzan Ibrahim .

The woman provided some of the most gripping testimony so far in the trial, which went ahead despite a boycott by Hussein and four other defendants, who demanded the removal of the chief judge. Weeping several times during her testimony, the woman described being stripped naked, hung by her hands, beaten and given electric shocks.

Then, she told the court, Ibrahim told guards to instead hang her from her feet, then kicked her three times in the chest. "I told him (Ibrahim), "For God's sake, I'm a woman. Master, I have nothing to confess. Why are you doing this to me?' " said the woman, who spoke from behind a beige curtain to protect her identity.

BOMB KILLS LABORERS: A bomb planted near a tea stand killed eight men waiting for day labor in a largely Shiite area of Baghdad on Wednesday, and six other people died in violence across the country.

[Last modified February 2, 2006, 02:15:36]