WASHINGTON - The chaos surrounding US operations to rebuild Iraq were called a "scandal" by a leader of the opposition Democrats.

Senator Harry Reid was visibly angry over accounts of incompetence and fraud from former civilian employees of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq.

"This is a scandal," said Reid, the head of the Democrats in the Senate.

"We are close to 24 months into this conflict with Iraq, and the administration (of US President George W. Bush) still cant seem to get it right," he said.

In a hearing organized by the Democrats, civilian CPA workers compared reconstruction efforts in Iraq to the Wild West, with money tossed freely about, to the benefit of a few select groups.

Franklin Willis, who supervised aviation for the CPA in late 2003, said that millions of dollars in 100 dollar bills were stored in the basement of the CPA offices, to be liberally drawn on to pay CPA contractors in the field.

Don North, a journalist hired to create a new independent Iraqi television station, said he was scandalized by the censorship imposed on the operation.

"I left after four months of frustrations," said North, who formerly worked with leading US television networks.

Copyright © 2005 Agence France Presse

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