Task Force for Business and Stability Operations

Although the initial authorization of TFBSO only pertained to innovations in the military's contracting methodology, by 2009, TFBSO operations in Iraq included foreign private direct investment; restarting state-owned enterprises, banking and financial networks; restoration of industrial capacity; corporate development; procurement assistance; private sector development; agricultural revitalization; and communications networks. Recruiting CEOs TFBSO invited several major international corporations to Iraq to understand potential investment opportunities in the country. Prominent invitees included: • Hyatt • Boeing • General Electric • Case New Holland • Microsoft • Google/YouTube • Honeywell • Daimler Benz • Mitsubishi • Samsung • John Deere • ABC Home Furnishings of New York • Harrods of London. This recruitment effort involved bringing American business executives to personally tour Iraq. In 2010, Brinkley told the World Affairs Council of Northern California that: Restarting State-Owned Enterprises By 2009, TFBSO had received about $103 million to rehabilitate state-owned enterprises. TFBSO estimated that its efforts impacted 24,500 jobs. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction called these estimates "overstated", and found that the majority of TFBSO projects took twice as long to implement than was expected. ==Afghanistan==

TFBSO began operations in Afghanistan in the summer of 2009. As in Iraq, TFBSO in Afghanistan concentrated on attracting private foreign direct investment, corporate development, procurement, and reform of the banking sector. Mineral resources In May 2011, TFBSO and the U.S. Geological Survey announced that they had identified dozens of reserves of copper, gold, lithium, and rare earth minerals in Afghanistan. The report trumpeted the potential value of the mineral assets, estimating that exploiting the lithium deposits alone "could result in up to $1.2 billion in additional annual revenue for the government of Afghanistan". Reportedly in response to outreach from former CIA operative and TFBSO consultant Milton Bearden, The New York Times reported in a front-page article that the find was "far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself". Raw Story reported that these findings were not new, and that "a detailed US Geological Survey report on Afghanistan's mineral resources was published as recently as 2007". New York Times reporter James Risen later told Yahoo News that "Milt convinced Brinkley to talk to me, and Brinkley convinced other Pentagon officials to go on the record. I think Milt realized that things were going so badly in Afghanistan that people would be willing to talk about this." Criticisms over awarding contracts to Chinese firms Former US ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad criticized TFBSO for setting up a bidding process on an Afghan oil contract that favored a state-owned Chinese firm against private Western companies.” He called TFBSO's bid selection process "bad for U.S. business, and bad for the rebuilding effort in that embattled country". Lack of Coordination A report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) noted that "TFBSO's perception that it did not have to coordinate with other U.S. agencies resulted in TFBSO electing not to share information with USAID in multiple instances." ==Reorganization and Brinkley's Departure==

Several US State Department officials criticized TFBSO's efforts to revive state-owned enterprises for being in contradiction with free-market principles. The Washington Post described tensions between State and TFBSO as a "bureaucratic knife fight over the best way to revive Iraq's moribund economy" and that "under pressure from Congress to demonstrate progress on the ground, the military often favors immediate solutions aimed at quelling violence. That has prompted objections from some at State who question the long-term consequences of that expeditious approach." Amidst these concerns, Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN) fought to have TFBSO defunded, arguing that "helping companies make money is not the role of the Department of Defense": Allegations of Ethics Violations and Other Criticisms During the course of Brinkley's tenure, he and members of his leadership team that had remained in place following the end of President Bush's second Administration came under ethics scrutiny within the Pentagon's Office of the Inspector General and Office of the Secretary of Defense, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and by others across the Obama Administration and within the U.S. Congress. Published and unpublished allegations ranged from unethical business deals, financial irregularities and inappropriate management practices to violations of administrative and other applicable law. As a result of these and other concerns, a range of concerned staff departed the TFBSO. Brinkley was encouraged to leave his post quietly at the end of then-Defense Secretary Gates's tenure. In the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, Congress mandated against Brinkley's wishes that TFBSO's operations in Iraq be folded into USAID. In a move that reportedly "alarmed senior U.S. military officials", Brinkley and several staff announced their plans to leave TFBSO in March 2011. OpenSecrets subsequently added Brinkley to their Revolving Door database, a tracker of the pipeline between government and private industry. == References ==