Today's ironic headline (NYT): "Americans Accused of Stealing Fuel in Iraq"

[IDemo]

By JAMES GLANZ
Published: April 24, 2009

In a confidence game that made a mockery of the United States military’s most secure compound in Iraq, a ring of Americans posing as contractors and their Nepalese drivers used tanker trucks, forged documents and sheer brazenness to steal at least $40 million worth of jet and diesel fuel from an Army depot, according to an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Virginia on Friday.

Until they were caught, the dozen or so men in the ring operated an astoundingly successful con game in a war zone, the papers contend, apparently showing up in Iraq with nothing more than fake IDs and a talent for forging official requisition forms. Each time they filled up the tanker trucks at the depot in American headquarters near the Baghdad International Airport, the men would simply drive downtown and sell the fuel on the local black market, the court papers say.

The papers indicate that in 2007 and 2008 the ring sold at least 10 million gallons of stolen fuel, and probably far more, into a black market notorious for its connections with Iraqi insurgents. They are known to control large sectors of that market and to collect a hefty percentage of its profits.

The operation described in the indictment contained elements of an international crime thriller and a Cheech & Chong movie: expletive-filled e-mail messages detailing payment schedules to ring members; a phony security contractor whose nickname was Bong; and the forged signature of a military contracting officer named Sergeant Bonus. The ring members said they worked for a company called Future Services.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/world/middleeast/25fuel.html?hp

Cheney: "That's the American spirit!"