Legal Village

Besting the bean-counters

Posted 11/04/2008 by Ben Hallman

I’m feeling better about my reporting prospects. I’ve extended my trip for two days and have arranged trips to two courthouses. For security reasons, I won’t say which ones until I return, but I’ll have the opportunity to do more of what I came to Iraq to do: interview Iraqi judges and lawyers.

I’ve spent the last three days interviewing American officials, including, most recently, Phil Lynch, the rule of law coordinator at the US embassy. Lynch is an assistant US attorney in Seattle and in a unique position — he’s a US Department of Justice guy running a State Department programme. His purview, mostly, is the Iraqi High Tribunal and the major criminal courts in Baghdad. He also reports directly to the US ambassador to Iraq on rule of law issues and coordinates with the military. Previously, he advised the Iraqi High Tribunal during the Saddam Hussein trial.

Lynch told me that one of the challenges he faces is defending the provincial reconstruction teams to the congressional bean-counters. I’m still working on getting budget figures but the cost of supporting independent teams in far-flung corners of the country is extremely expensive. Security alone costs thousands of dollars per mission. And benchmarking progress is almost impossible, he says.

For example, the team in Basra hasn’t left the Army base in six months. Does it make sense to continue to pay to support the team? Maybe, Lynch says, a place like Basra is where the US needs a rule of law team most of all. Whatever the answer, Lynch says: “I don’t think you can impact, on a provincial level, rule of law activities from here.”

An interesting political note: Lynch told me that he has briefed all three remaining US presidential candidates in the past but none during the current campaign cycle. He says he hopes to brief a Barack Obama policy adviser — I’ll try to get his name — who is serving in Anbar Province as a Navy Reserve officer.