$6.6 billion in lost Iraq cash now accounted for, inspector says

[bloomington-lib]

Source: Yahoo News

It's a rare day when positive news surfaces from the frontlines of Iraq's post-occupation government--or from its troubled economy. However, a U.S. Iraq inspector general report that concluded this week that $6.6 billion in shrink-wrapped cash the U.S. government previously feared had gone missing in the chaotic early days of the Iraq occupation has in fact been safely accounted for.

"The mystery of $6 billion that seemed to go missing in the early days of the Iraq war has been resolved, according to a new report," CNN national security producer Charles Keyes reported Wednesday. "New evidence shows most of that money, $6.6 billion, did not go astray in that chaotic period, but ended up where it was supposed to be, under the control of the Iraqi government, according to a report from the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction or SIGIR."

Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, had previously testified that as much as $6.6 billion of the $10 billion the United States shipped to Iraq had disappeared due to "weaknesses in financial and management controls," Keyes wrote, citing the bureaucratese from a previous SIGIR report.

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"While the bulk of the money was transferred to the Central Bank of Iraq, $217 million remained in a vault in a former presidential palace and was held by the U.S. Defense Department and most was doled out for a variety of projects and payrolls, the report says," Keyes reported. A February 2008 SIGIR audit found that $24.45 million of the $217 million stored at the palace vault remained, and was later turned over to Iraq.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/once-feared-lost-now-...

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The American people still lost 6.6 billion and more.

[Xipe Totec]

1. So, we didn't lose it, we burnt it instead. n/t

[Fumesucker]

2. That's down in the rounding error anyway..

Yawn..

[blackspade]

3. Whitewash.

This is a CYA story.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. "...but ended up where it was supposed to be..."

Well then nevermind.

[Roy Rolling]

5. exactly what Iraq?

I thought there was no government in Iraq after Saddam was ousted. So exactly who did they turn it over to?

[SpiralHawk]

6. "Smirk." - xCommander AWOL Bush (R)

[No Elephants]

7. Does that include the billion plus that was removed from Saddam's safe in the palace in Baghdad?

And went missing soon thereafter?

[cloudbase]

8. Everybody finally

turned in their expense reports and receipts. All good!

[JackRiddler]

9. That money wasn't American, it was always Iraqi...

The Federal Reserve was holding an account for Iraq under the UN oil-for-food provisions. They accumulated about $20 billion from sales of Iraqi oil and that's how much was shipped to Iraq in the form of cash bundles soon after the US-UK invasion. Seems to me that if 6.6 billion can be accounted for, then something like $14 billion cannot be accounted for.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

12. The initial amount airdropped by the US was $12bn

While I'm not sure where the other $5.4bn went, it's whereabouts appears to have been accounted for to the satisfaction of those involved though. It was the remaining $6.6bn that left the auditors scratching their heads.

You're correct in that this was not US tax payer generated money in the first place. It was always supposed to belong to the Iraqis. It was however possible that if this money didn't turn up the US would have been shelling out the missing funds to payback the Iraqi government.

[JackRiddler]

19. The USG owes Iraq a lot more than that in reparations for a war of aggression.

[marasinghe]

24. yea. most in the US willfully ignore the basic fact that this money belongs to the Iraqis.

the negative balance on the US account, is hitting the roof. gonna be one mother of a payback, one day.
alexander the psychopath had his empire go into the chipper in a couple of centuries. the sociopaths of Rome hung on a bit longer. while the murderous Mongolians slunk back to goat-herding in the Gobi, in under two centuries. the British raped the planet for 400 years. but none of them had the body-counts of the US empire. oh, well; kill a million .... steal a billion - what's a few numbers between friends?

[nonoxy9]

10. "Most was doled out for projects and payrolls." WHO'S payroll? Halliburton?

[OnyxCollie]

11. K&R.

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. and KBR.

[truedelphi]

13. The problem is - it was NINETEEN billions of dollars

that went missing.

How anyone thinking that six billion equals nineteen, I don't know. But it goes to show the math skills of the people in charge.

[JackRiddler]

20. It goes to show that they think a sucker's born every minute.

[joe_c89101]

28. dickless cheney is a wallstreet thief

its all about stealing. and the looser regs are (regs are
boundaries) and the more the thieves are allowed to walk, the
bolder and commoner they get until - like other civilizations
- the good people take up arms to rid their country of the
thieves. its almost ineviteabe that this happens. almost.

so meanwhile dickless and his band of thieves steal
$13billion from the people of the u.s. i wonder what a piece
of shit like him would confess to at guantanamo.

[BetsysGhost]

14. now if they

could find those trillions rumsfeld lost...

[ladywnch]

15. so let me get this straight. they found $6.6B shrink wrapped US currency

SO SEND IT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1) They've obviously gotten by without it just fine.

2) The 'missing' funds were probably already 'replaced'

3) We need the 6.6 FAR more than they do.



SHIP THE FREAKIN MONEY BACK HOME ALREADY'!

[FailureToCommunicate]

16. Oh, so the money we borrowed and our children and grandchildren are

on the hook for, went to some banks?!?

Well, that's okay. Whew, I feel better.


I hate Shrub.

[Turbineguy]

17. I wonder if this is related

to the announcement about Swiss banks disclosing customers' names....

[Blue_Tires]

18. and the rest of the mission billions??

[LiberalLovinLug]

21. CNN whitewash

So "$6.6 billion, did not go astray in that chaotic period, but ended up where it was supposed to be, under the control of the Iraqi government"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOkay
So $6.6 billion of American taxpayer money was handed over, obvioiusly without oversite, to the Iraqi government, which as another poster said, in the early days was an unelected puppet government under the thumb of Bremer and the neo-cons. Most went to the Central Bank of Iraq (and used for...?) and $217 million was used for "a variety of projects and payrolls"?

So again....

What happened to the 6.6 billion?

[Dover]

22. Ohhhhhh........wait..... HUH?

Well then, maybe NOW they'll let us stay?

[go west young man]

23. Something obviously stinks in Denmark with this one.

It's shrink wrapped pallets of billions of dollars. It obviously came off the back of a U.S. transport plane.
Everything in the military is signed for yet not a single instance of whether this was signed for or changed
hands has been explained. We're all supposed to just go ok if CNN says so. Where's the U.S. military report
explaining the chain of custody of the money? This is another trust us on this one just like the killing of OBL.
The U.S. govt has no credibility these days.

[Hotler]

25. I call bullshit. I smell cover up. eom.

[melm00se]

26. let me guess

they found a wad of crumpled up receipts in some uniforms that just came out of the wash?

[Solly Mack]

27. lololol

[tabasco]

29. Yeah, that's the ticket!

We found it all and there was even an EXTRA BILLION $$ in there.

You betcha!