I have received the JPEG image f the letter, and I can vouch for the fact that (a) it appears to be a genuine letter sent to Kendall Morse from Senator Allen and (b) it has two personalized hand-written modifications in the sender's hand. One is the strike out of "Mister Morse" and the hand-written replacement "Ken" in the salutation. The other is a post-script which states "We need regime change here!". As we do not have OCR software, my wife went to the trouble to type the letter out and it's text is as follows:

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Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20513-1901

Thomas H. Allen
1st District of Maine
1717 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-6116

234 Chicago Street
Portland, ME 04101
(207) 774-5019

http://tomallen.house.gov

COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
Subcommittees:
Energy and Air Quality
Environment and Hazardous Materials
Democratic At-Large Whip
House Oceans Caucus
        Co-Chair
Affordable Medicines Task Force
        Co-Chair


November 10, 2003

Mr. Kendall Morse
40 Ardsley Avenue
South Portland, Maine 04106

Dear Mr. Morse [handwritten, "Ken"]:

        Thank you for contacting me about accounting for money seized
from Saddam Hussein's palaces. I appreciate hearing from you.

        Since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the U.S.-led interim
government in Iraq (the Coalition Provisional Authority, or CPA) has
assumed control of about $5 billion in Iraqi oil revenues, foreign
assets, and cash stockpiles. The CPA has publicly accounted for only
about $1 billion of these funds.

        The U.S. Military has spent a porition of the funds on
thousands of small-scale reconstruction projects that have improved
the lives of Iraquis. Such speedy and visible results have probably
saved both U.S. and Iraqi lives by showing that the U.S. is there to
help the Iraqi people.

        On the other hand, the disbursement of the majority of these
funds raises serious questions about transparency and accountability.
About $3 billion has gone almost exclusively to American companies
that may or may not subcontract with Iraqi companies. I am deeply
concerned that some of these U.S. companies, such as Bechtel and
subsidiaries of Halliburton, have previous or current ties to senior
officials in the Bush Administration. These connections present
serious conflicts of interest, paralleling the Administration's
massive tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and well-connected.
Further, the trend of awarding contracts without a competitive
bidding process is disturbing, and runs counter to the kind of
democratic government and free market economy that we are trying to
build in Iraq. During consideration of the supplemental spending bill
for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, I voted for an amendment to
require competitive bidding on Iraqi oil infrastructure projects. I
also voted for an amendment to require executive agencies tooinform
Congress of "no-bid" contracts before they are offered, which was
retained in the final version of the bill.

        Please be assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind, and
continue to monitor the situation. If related legislation comes
before the House energy and Commerce Committee, I will continue to
work for transparency and accountability in government contracting.

        Again, thank you for your message. I hope you will continue
to contact me on issues important to you.

Sincerely,


Tom Allen
Member of Congress [then handwritten: We need regime change HERE!]

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Regards,

A