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For years and years, many of us have been screaming about war profiteers. From no-bid contracts, to outsourcing run amok, to shoddy work that endangers our troops, to graft so egregious it makes Boss Tweed look like a beginner -- for anyone paying attention, the overriding question has been "What does it take to get someone to go after these crooks?"

Finally, it looks like the wheels of justice are starting to turn.

In a story posted on Sunday June 7 entitled "New report find big problems in war spending," the AP and MSNBC are reporting that

the Wartime Contracting Commission presents a bleak assessment of howtens of billions of dollars have been spent since 2001. The 111-pagereport, obtained by The Associated Press, documents poor management,weak oversight, and a failure to learn from past mistakes as recurringthemes in wartime contracting.

Here's one example of findings in the report:

At Rustamiyah, a seven-acre forward operating base turned over to theIraqis in March, the military population plunged from 1,490 to 62 injust three months. During the same period, the contractor populationdropped from 928 to 338, leaving more than five contractors for everyservice member.

Of course, the news that contractors are ripping off the soldiers and taxpayers is nothing new. Perhaps the most dramatic story on war profiteering is the Rolling Stone article "The Great Iraq Swindle" that come out in September 2007. I had to stop reading occasionally just to calm down. Go read it -- you'll get just as angry.

And if that's not enough to get your blood pressure up, check out the various links and stories in the SourceWatch article on war profiteering. More fun and games with money and lives.

Frankly, I had given up hope that anyone would be punished. The current administration seems completely loathe to investigate any of the excesses and crimes of the Bush era, so I figured all the crooks would get away with it. Perhaps this new report will cause someone, somewhere, to get mad as hell and decide to do something about the report's findings. I hope so; to me, there is almost no criminal anywhere as slimy as a war profiteer.