The Pentagon is going to temporarily extend the controversial contract it has with Mina Corp., the mysterious company that the U.S. hired to provide fuel for the air base it operates in Kyrgyzstan, because there isn't enough time in the current contract to find someone new. That's according to none other than Chuck Squires, the defense-attache-turned-fuel-magnate who is the director of operations for Mina. He spoke to the Washington Post:
"We are running against a deadline, and they are aware of it," Squires said in an interview, adding that the Pentagon is "going to have to extend, even if it is just in the short term," because no new contractor could assemble in a short time the complicated infrastructure needed to deliver as much as 12 million gallons of fuel to Manas each month.
The Post also quotes an unnamed administration official saying that the next contract will be "more competitive."
As far as I'm aware, this is the first time Chuck Squires has been heard from in the media since this whole story broke, and the Post fails to ask what seems to be the most obvious question, which is how on earth his company got a $1.4 billion no-bid contract. But with investigations going on both in Kyrgyzstan and in the U.S. Congress, some answers should be coming soon.
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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