Missing Iraq money may have been stolen, auditors say

[Newsjock]

Source: Los Angeles Times

After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born.

Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.

This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled all those Benjamins. But despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion in cash — enough to run the Los Angeles Unified School District or the Chicago Public Schools for a year, among many other things.

For the first time, federal auditors are suggesting that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting error. Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an office created by Congress, said the missing $6.6 billion may be "the largest theft of funds in national history."

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-missing-billions-20110613,0,4414060.story

[Fozzledick]

1. Mission Accomplished!

[slay]

11. +1

well it was indeed always a war for profit - so mission accomplished indeed. :(

[shanti]

125. +2

[comtec]

131. In other news... Water is wet!

Wow what a fucking shock
I'm just... amazed!









do i really need a sarcasm tag?

[Archae]

2. I just have one thing to say...

No DUH!!! :eyes:

[bemildred]

3. If it's willingly given away, is it really stolen?

Am I supposed to believe that the Iraqis tricked the US government out of taxpayer money? Under Bush and Cheney? Did the Iraqis force Bush.Cheney to send all that cash in-theater? Is anyone to be reprimanded for behaving like gullible tools in all this?

[Iggo]

22. Yes...by the people who gave it away. (n/t)

[dotymed]

43. IMO, that cash

ended up in the bank accounts of many neo-cons, including bush/cheney.
Let us eat cake.

[damyank913]

83. Check out Halliburton...

Betcha some of it's there.

[wordpix]

and Blackwater

[dotymed]

67. Yes, it was stolen.

Not by the Iraqis either. The only trickery that was used, was against the citizens of both nations.

Iraq used to be a very advanced and prosperous country, run by a ruthless dictator. Now it is a third world hellhole, run by the U.S. Military.

[florida08]

137. +100

[cyberpj]

128. If really for reconstruction; why CASH dump? Why not advance then bills? This was a gift. nt

[quakerboy]

157. Do you believe Iraqi's got that money?

I tend toward the idea that a c130 flew it in, it was handed to someone(XE springs to mind) and it was flown back on private jets. Just cause they got fat contracts to privatize military function does not mean they were above conspiracy to steal more.

[DJ13]

4. one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion

So nearly THREE ENTIRE PLANE LOADS went missing, and they cant say where it went?

Have these Einsteins considered that an operation that large would have to be an inside job, meaning high up in the military with the blessing (if not most of the profits) from high up in the political establishment?

[Downwinder]

29. The Crimean War gave us The Great Train Robbery,

Iraq War provides the Great Plane Robbery.

[Starry Messenger]

5. "May"??

I never knew that was even in question. They might as well have taken it and had a bonfire in the Mall with it. And yet it is the workers and poor of this country who are punished for it with "austerity".

[EFerrari]

8. That's why they get the big money.

lol

[BlueMTexpat]

25. My reaction exactly! nt

[KurtNYC]

46. My read: "closing the books" bc "may have been stolen"

and they DON'T want to, or wish they didn't, know who stole it.

So if it is a crime they stop investigating. Whereas if it was an accounting error they would fix it.

[xxqqqzme]

119. That word caught my eye as well.

'May have been stolen'? I thought it was common knowledge. Bremer didn't get the medal of freedom (or whatever dimson called the US equivalent of the Order of Lenin) because he was a jim dandy administrator.

[Plucketeer]

134. YOU said it!

The US would've gotten a better return on this if it had been used as a temporary fuel at some coal-fired generation facility!

[Webster Green]

6. Yeah, by Viceroy Bremer and The Big Dick.

Shocking, I tell you.

[awoke_in_2003]

173. "SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE"...

not

[Angry Dragon]

7. It happened under little bush's watch so he should have to

replace it.......... if it happened to a cashier they would have to explain it

[brewens]

9. I smell Blackwater! So they grab the cash and it's stashed

now in Swiss or other offshore banks. ChugDick Cheney probably got a big cut of that action.

[glinda]

84. Yuppers. Easy one to figure out.

[Jack Rabbit]

10. This theft raises two questions in my mind . . .

1. Why am I not surprised? and
2. How much did Cheney get?

[pansypoo53219]

130. i'd say as much as could fit in that man sized safe.

and his other safes in wyoming + texas.

[Prometheus Bound]

12. Just for the record, that was Iraq's fucking money.

The US was supposed to safeguard it.

[Frisbee]

110. I wonder if the Iragi government will tell us...

we owe them $6.6 billion?

[Prometheus Bound]

159. Yes, according to the OP, Iraq is demanding the money back.

Iraqi officials argue that the U.S. government was supposed to safeguard the stash under a 2004 legal agreement it signed with Iraq. That makes Washington responsible, they say.

Abdul Basit Turki Saeed, Iraq's chief auditor and president of the Iraqi Board of Supreme Audit, has warned U.S. officials that his government will go to court if necessary to recoup the missing money.

"Clearly Iraq has an interest in looking after its assets and protecting them," said Samir Sumaidaie, Iraq's ambassador to the United States.

[Tx4obama]

13. Watch this Alan Grayson video regarding $23 BILLION dollars stolen

Daylight Robbery: http://www.graysonforcongress.com/page.asp?PageId=5

[Tx4obama]

16. Also be sure to watch these videos below

2007
Alan Grayson on Waste & Fraud in Iraq: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDyjkyBWN5o

2007
Contractor Fraud in the Iraq War: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geDJyqaK840

Grayson:
Iraq's Missing Billions
Part 1 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWBkKhr_1WA
Part 2 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQu6JpEvxmE
Part 3 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9vcRfVhhks

[dotymed]

44. That is why Mr. Grayson is an

ex congressman. "they" couldn't allow the truth to be eventually believed or maybe (God forbid) get reported on MSM...nah, not MSM.

[dotymed]

65. That is totally Amazing.

I watched about 5 "clips" from Grayson and CBS News (gosh, just 3 1/2 short years ago, CBS would actually investigate and report on "our" government.)

The constant theme (besides the Billion$ that were stolen) was that OUR Justice department, "Hey William Holder", was "investigating" these blatant profiteering claims. I have not heard of (and it had not happened by 2008) ANY major corporation being charged, prosecuted, anything.

Is prosecuting War Profiteers "off the table" too?

Should we not "look back" at this Huge Theft of American dollars? Currently, WE are enduring increasing AUSTERITY measures.

THEY are increasingly being TAXED LESS and given MORE AUTONOMY to SCREW EVERYONE except, of course, the wealthy. Then they would, at least, have a civil lawsuit against them.

We supposedly ELECTED a PRESIDENT to REPRESENT the average American. Sadly, President Obama has not fulfilled his obligation. Admittedly, we have no recourse. We only have two political parties and the Republican platform and candidates are even worse than who we have. I wholeheartedly supported and campaigned for President Obama.

WE MUST as a nation of voters (even the few who actually do vote) invent (or borrow an existing system, my God) and IMO, WORK HARDER to get this "different voting option" (because we need more options available to us) adopted and working, than WE have ever worked on ANY CIVIC IMPERATIVE.

This SHOULD be BI-PARTISAN. I am positive that many from the GOP feel just as disenfranchised as we do.

If we cannot legislate it. Let's JUST DO IT. It is not illegal for voters to effectively change their "style" of voting or their process for nomination. Really, This is urgent and imperative. If we do not start it will never happen.

There is probably already a site devoted to this change in our voting system. If you know of one, please post it or P.M. me it's address. Thanks.

[go west young man]

14. Everything is signed off for in the military.

Who signed off on it last? Something seriously doesn't add up. It makes the military look like idiots.

[coalition_unwilling]

103. There's a reason 'military intelligence' is an oxymoron - n/t

[JDPriestly]

15. Someone should subpoena the bank records of the top guys in Iraq

in those early years. Congress should have done that.

That money went into some people's pockets.

[BlueMTexpat]

26. Check with Paul Bremer - as well as his bosses. nt

[PuffedMica]

32. Someone should subpoena the bank records of every Bush Administration official

If Dick Cheney is involved, the money went to his friends, except for the cash that ended in Cheney's own offshore accounts.

[Gregorian]

17. It just "fell off the back of the truck".

I used to work at a VA hospital, and it was amazing what just fell off the back of trucks.

That's the beauty of war. Lots of stuff is moving around. And falling off. Right into some big ass's pocket.

[OnyxCollie]

18. War is a racket.

One month after the invasion of Iraq, President Bush signed P.L. 108-11.(21) Born from this
law was the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund (IRRF), a $2.475 billion congressional appropriation
to pay for reconstruction and humanitarian relief. Originally developed by the NSC, it
was based on two premises- that Iraq’s infrastructure would be unimpaired and that oil revenues
would pay for reconstruction costs.(22)

Following the creation of the IRRF, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution
1483 (UNSCR 1483).(23) UNSCR 1483 formed the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) which became
a cache for Iraq’s oil and gas revenues. These were to be deposited into the Federal Reserve
Bank of New York, through which Iraq’s temporary government, the Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA), could withdraw funds for reconstruction costs.(24)

Less than a month after the formation of the DFI, the CPA passed two regulations. The first
regulation gave the head of the CPA, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, total control of the DFI.(25) The
second regulation created the Program Review Board (PRB).(26) The PRB managed the DFI “in a
transparent manner to meet Iraq’s humanitarian needs, support the economic reconstruction, fund
projects to repair Iraq’s infrastructure, continue disarmament programs, and pay for the costs of
the country’s civilian administration.”(27)

Using its legal status as an “international organization,” the CPA was provided a loophole to
dispense Iraq funds without succumbing to U.S. contracting regulations.(28) The CPA then developed
its own procedures, which it failed to follow.(29) Additionally, CPA’s Head of Contracting Ac-
tivity (HCA) was put in charge of managing Iraqi ministry contracting until the ministries could
be capable of “ the transparent use and management of Iraqi funds.”(30)

Money from the DFI was loaded onto pallets and transferred by plane:

The CPA relied on the DFI to fund the operations of Iraq’s ministries and
to pay for reconstruction projects. Held in a Federal Reserve Bank account
in New York, DFI cash was flown to Baghdad in very large sums whenever
the CPA requested. These shipments—the largest airborne transfer of
currency in history—proved an enormous logistical challenge. A typical
pallet of DFI cash had 640 bundles, with a thousand bills in each bundle.
Each loaded pallet weighed about 1,500 pounds. The pallets were flown
into Baghdad’s airport at night and were then driven to the Central Bank
of Iraq for deposit.

The first emergency air-lift of money to Iraq was for $20 million, but the
shipments rapidly grew in size. In December 2003, the CPA requested a
$1.5 billion shipment, at the time the largest single payout of U.S. currency
in Federal Reserve Bank history.16 But that record was soon broken when,
in June 2004, more than $4 billion was flown to Iraq, just before the CPA’s
transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi Interim Government.(31)

(21) Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. (2009). Hard lessons: The Iraq reconstruction experience, p. 61
(22) Ibid
(23) Ibid, p. 80
(24) Ibid
(25) Ibid
(26) Ibid
(27) Ibid
(28) Ibid, p. 81
(29) Ibid
(30) Ibid
(31) Ibid, p. 88

[DeSwiss]

19. I think the Pentagon should pay for it. After all, they lost it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1">How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1">

- And if they don't pay, take it out of their appropriations. Or they can just close a few overseas bases.....

K&R

[No Elephants]

36. No one will pay for this but the U.S. taxpayer, as always.

[DallasNE]

20. Somebody Was Responsible For That Cash

And for its safekeeping. So was it embezzlement or what? One would assume that it was kept under lock and key in bank vaults, no? The "shrinkage" was over 50%. How much ended up in Iran, for instance? How could there be no controls in place for $12 billion US dollars. The Keystone cops weren't this inept, for crying out loud.

[Old and In the Way]

21. The heist went down in the Spring of 2004.

The CPA was a Republican operation. Not just make work jobs for clueless/unqualified sons and daughters of republicans....no one without the right political connections were allowed into that operation. I recall that the auditing firm at the time to oversee the cash accounting was a house in some suburb. This was designed to lose traceability. USD in Iraq? Why not transfer to bank that would issue the money in Iraq's currency? I'm convinced that a lot of this money came back to fund the Republican campaigns of 2004. A nice workaround from those restrictive donations that capped total individual contributions. I'm betting the rank and file weren't exactly shaking loose the big money for that election. And it costs a lot of money to game a national election.

[Kolesar]

30. DU Forum members have been howling about this since they took our money in 2004

I had lost track of the details like the auditing firm. I don't doubt that the money was recirculated back into the Beast/Cheney 2004 campaign.

[wordpix]

113. interesting theory, I think you're onto something there

[Historic NY]

23. The simplist solution is to track the bills.....

The government is well aware of the serial numbers oaf every one of these 100's.

or maybe this would work.........:think:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=aa0_1252013380

[thelordofhell]

24. And then there's this asshole...............

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=607481&mesg_id=607481

[deacon_sephiroth]

27. I want that job

Whoever's job it is, to look at $6.6b missing CASH... and for about 7 years scratch his/her head and finally go. "Hey!... I think that MAY HAVE BEEN stolen."

I want thier job. I think I can do that.

[me b zola]

28. The important thing is we're looking ahead, not behind us

...no time to put people in prison for the largest heist ever when we have social programs to slash.

[SpiralHawk]

31. "Smirk." - xCommander AWOL (R)

"What's good for republicon cronies is, um, good for republicon cronies. Smirk."

- xCommander AWOL (R)

[intheflow]

163. Exactly. This happened under Chimpy's watch.

Your graphic is perfect. It'll probably get blamed on the democrats, eventually.

[PuffedMica]

33. I wonder how much was diverted to clandestine operations of the CIA

In order to keep a good war on terror going, there has to be turmoil all over the world. Our CIA is probably stirring the pot of every disgruntled militant organization around the globe.

[blank space]

162. In this entire thread - the only person with a hint of maturity.

Not only are they the most likely suspects - but we do in fact know for a fact it was the CIA.

Seymore Hersch, Americas ONLY remaining JOURNALIST covered this years ago - and like the weapons for oil, nuclear myth, WMD myth, everyone on democratic underground, along with the rest of mainstream America refused to believe it - simply because it drew into question what America motives were, the moral standing of Americas ethics, and of course confronted the wishful thinking and constructed reality people were living in, their fantasy.

The fact remains the money went to the CIA for the extension of their colour revolutions. It never, ever ceases to amaze me how history reveals almost every single uprising over the past 100 years was concocted through nefarious, or at the least covert means in an attempt to acheive a political means - in other words, not really a simple uprising of the people.

Yet no matter how often this is laid bare in front of peoples lying eyes they never, ever consider it is happening again. From the Hugo Chavez uprising, to the Orange revolutions, bay of PIGS, to the green revolution on Iran - all CIA backed, initiated, funded and controlled for American purposes. All of them - blind freddy knows it.

Seymore broke this story that the money had been diverted to the CIA for the fermenting of popular uprisings at the next election. And wow - magically that's exactly what happened. And despite the unending streams of American polls showing an expected landslide to Amidinijad, despite a historical role call a mile long of American covert intervention, despite a recount confirming exactly the result, despite unending evidence of Mossad and CIA involvement, despite reams of evidence of American support for vested commercial interests, despite sheer logic at the demographics involved in Iran, despite hours of footage coming out in NON AMERICAN media showing significantly different view points to the uprising, Americans absolutely can not get their heads around the fact they are being totally and utterly deceived regarding Iran.

The leaders of the military around the world have expressed absolute and complete SHOCK at the speed and decisiveness of the revolutions spreading through the middle east. They have all been clear in their position that they understood the unrest, they understood the resltessness however the speed and effectiveness and decisiveness of the revolutions is beyond anything which could even be considered possible - this is the leaders, not low ranking, but leaders of world national militaries from France to Beijing.

It is the CIA's SOLE JOB, their guiding core principle to formulate regime change in favour of Americas interest. Which part of that sentence do people not get ? The military in the US takes in well over half of the entire US budget, meaning you are a fundamentally military state, and 75% of that budget goes on secret services.

You were warned directly by Seymore that this is exactly what was happening, it happened, it is exactly what the CIA has done in the past, Kermit Roosevelt, Bay of pigs etc, it is exactly inline with the CIA's job description and manifesto - and you are all asking what is going on - could it be black water ?

Sometimes I really wonder if you guys even spend one minute thinking what it is the US military government does.

I can't tell you how many papers I have written on the US covert services, the budgeting and oversight (which is almost all completely privatised - yes your secret services are run entirely by a secret private organisation - not even by the executive).

Just think about it for one minute.

[JJW]

34. Whoever pulled this off

likely now works as a bankster on Wall St.

[mittysmom09]

93. Its called the Iraq job

instead to the Italian job, carried off by a entire dealership of mini Coopers

[sofa king]

35. Heh. Told ya.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/sofa%20king/82

The first thing that springs to mind is the billions of dollars being filtered through the Iraqi government and then into the pockets of our corrupt contractors, which for all these years has been blithely watched by former Bush staffer Stuart Bowen. Bowen is Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and I'm assuming (perhaps erroneously) that he ultimately reports to the overall DoD IG office. Occasionally he slaps hands, but a Presidential signing statement makes his job pretty easy: he's not allowed to investigate or report on anything that might be a matter of national security... like, say, the war in Iraq?

But of course, the Republican Congress of 2006 sought to confront that corruption head on by abolishing the office of the IG-Iraq. Sort of like burning down the observatory to avoid being hit by a comet. Oh and the punchline? Nobody knows how the termination clause found its way into the bill.

[liberal N proud]

37. may have?

I don't want to be the one to tell you this but "may have" is probably an understatement.


:crazy:

[swilton]

122. My thoughts exactly

I won't bother to repost the obvious.

[Hubert Flottz]

38. Oh, so the missing 9 billion is "$2.4 billion" now(inflation is a Palin)

Send the IRS...and get them off of granny's back.

[No Elephants]

39. "the largest theft of funds in national history." No, that would have been the Wall St. bailout.

And I'm sure we've been ripped off by more than $6.6 billion by others, say Halliburton.

Let's face it, the U.S. bleeds taxpayer dollars.

[baldguy]

40. That's some good work, Lou.

After only 8 yrs too.

[2Design]

41. Not new news EVERYONE here knew this back then MSM ignored it

[coalition_unwilling]

141. It's particularly ironic that the story is being reported in the "LA Times" - a

more pathetic bunch of war-mongering dotards has seldom graced the national journalistic stage. Until Michael Kinsley briefly took over the editorship, the paper was resolutely pro-war. And I cancelled my sub when the LA Times fired Bob Scheer and replaced him with Likudnik crazy Jonah Goldberg, while retaining CFR whack-job Max Boot. I won't give the LA Times (or the New York Times, for that matter) another penny of my money as long as I live.

[underpants]

42. Funny it was 23 Billion

A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq.

Page last updated at 17:25 GMT, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 18:25 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7444083.stm

[valerief]

45. Was it two trillion that Rummy couldn't account for on 9/10/01?

:shrug:

[Mnemosyne]

161. 9/10/2001: Rumsfeld says $2.3 TRILLION Missing from Pentagon :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU4GdHLUHwU&feature=related

[Welibs]

47. The sent these skids in 2003, 2004 and 2007 with billions that went missing????

Not missing! The Republicans sent that money so they could steal it. If it went missing in 2003 why did they send more in 2004 and 2007?

It didn't go missing, they stole it!

[Sportsguy]

53. But Impeachment Was/Is Off The Table

Let's move forward. Weiner has to resign though, right?

[tjwash]

48. Wasn't stealing everything not nailed down the plan from the very beginning?

That's some damn fine investigative work there press-corps :eyes:

[Ichingcarpenter]

49. What General was in charge of this military operation at the time?

I really think this wouldn't be hard to trace, which crews, which general, which agencies, which manifests, which bills in sequence are missing, what time windows etc?

We are talking about a c-130
not a club piper.

[Vinca]

50. Well . . . duh is all I can say. They were playing football with the stuff.

Of course it was stolen.

[SaveAmerica]

51. NAAAAAWWW?! Really? I have the vapors from this fake shock at this news

[Welibs]

52. The sent these skids in 2003, 2004 and 2007 with billions that went missing????

Not missing! The Republicans sent that money so they could steal it. If it went missing in 2003 why did they send more in 2004 and 2007?

It didn't go missing, they stole it!

[Javaman]

54. Really? No shit! I don't think anyone could have anticipated this! nt

[SaveAmerica]

55. Makes no sense; extremely poor and extremely greedy people had truckloads of $$

waved in front of them.

But break it down to just the plan of shipping crates of $100 bills to Iraq, that makes not one bit of sense. In this day and age of electronic banking why would they do that? That is, if their goal was to really pay US contractors for programs in Iraq. We need to send a bill to W and Dick.


"Theft of such a staggering sum might seem unlikely, but U.S. officials aren't ruling it out. Some U.S. contractors were accused of siphoning off tens of millions in kickbacks and graft during the post-invasion period, especially in its chaotic early days. But Iraqi officials were viewed as prime offenders.

The U.S. cash airlift was a desperation measure, organized when the Bush administration was eager to restore government services and a shattered economy to give Iraqis confidence that the new order would be a drastic improvement on Saddam Hussein's Iraq."

[Botany]

94. It makes sense if you wanted to steal the money .....

.... if you ever get a chance look into the Lincoln Group that was run out of the building next to AEI/Project for a New American Century
in D.C. that was run by a 20 something from a questionable background that huge no bid contracts from the pentagon to help
"buy pro American news in Iraq" and large chunks of that money was then passed right on to various republican political organizations
..... it was a real nice way to laundry money.

The Iraq war was all about money, power, and oil. People should be in jail for what happened under the guise of keeping us safe from
terrorism.

[myrna minx]

56. I wonder how big Cheney's cut was -

and yet DC is wanting to cut school lunch programs for poor children and health care for the elderly and most vulnerable. :puke: Yeah - guess who's asked to tighten their belts - and it's not the Cheneys of the world.

[Jakes Progress]

57. Let's not dredge up the past. Let it go. Just move on.

After all, it's not as if it was about some sex thing or something. That we have to go after.

[OwnedByFerrets]

58. If this shocks you, you are living with your head in the sand

[Marblehead]

59. so now this is main stream??

[hobbit709]

60. "May have been stolen"-that's the understatement of the millenium

[A wise Man]

61. I remember the news showing US soldiers loading it up

then all of a sudden the media dropped the subject all together. Remembering "KELLY'S HERO'S. Bush and Chenney stole it all. I blame Nancy Pelosi for taking impeachment off the table. Bush and Chenney never have been investigated for all of the mounting rotten dirty crap they did...including the deaths of 3,000 plus killed on 9/11 and those killed in IRAQ and Afgan. "WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY IS THIS ???????????????????". Even if there are suspicions.AT LEAST INVESTIGATE FOR CLEARANCE OF THE SUSPICIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BridgeTheGap]

62. Did they stop over in Swizerland for refueling? ;-) n/t

[alcibiades_mystery]

63. Filing under "No Fucking Shit"

[Oxy Contin]

64. And Sallie mae torments me over student loans

They could pay off all our student loans with that cash

[glinda]

85. +1 and welcome to DU.

[HopeHoops]

66. What about the $8b the shrub gave Halliburton for "undocumented expenses" just before the election?

I'd consider all of the OTHER money the shrub threw at Halliburton to be stolen as well.

[ooglymoogly]

68. Who could have known. kr nt

[Saturday]

69. I'm shocked I tell ya'. Shocked. nt

[kpete]

70. Missing Iraq money may have been stolen, auditors say ($6.6 billion)

Source: Los Angeles Times

Missing Iraq money may have been stolen, auditors say
U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion, sent by the planeload in cash and intended for Iraq's reconstruction after the start of the war.


Reporting from Washington— After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born.

Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.

This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled all those Benjamins. But despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion in cash — enough to run the Los Angeles Unified School District or the Chicago Public Schools for a year, among many other things.

For the first time, federal auditors are suggesting that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting error. Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an office created by Congress, said the missing $6.6 billion may be "the largest theft of funds in national history."

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-missing-billions-20110613,0,4414060.story

[Gin]

71. mission accomplished George...your friends have been well

paid.

[plumbob]

72. Stuart Bowen was part of the Bush team in Florida, among others.

He's a real old time insider, and he's been special inspector general since 2004, when everybody I know knew that money was stolen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Bowen

From 1994 to 2000, Mr. Bowen held a variety of positions on Texas Governor George W. Bush's staff, including Deputy General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel for Litigation, and Assistant General Counsel. He was part of President Bush's legal team handling the post-election legal disputes in Florida during November-December 2000; his work helped ensure that overseas military ballots were properly counted. Mr. Bowen subsequently served as Counsel to the Bush-Cheney transition team.

As Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Mr. Bowen is tasked with auditing and investigating the use of $61 billion in taxpayer funds appropriated for the Iraq reconstruction effort. Since 2004, he has managed the production of over 350 audits and inspections, producing finanical benefits in excess of $1.5 billion; his investigations yielded over 50 convictions, with recoveries in excess of $150 million via forfeiture orders, fines, and seizures.


So he doctored up $150 million in "fines" as a beard. That's 1/8 of 1%, so they got away with 99.88% of it, all cash.


Nice to have it official, though. Hope Stuart gets everything in life he's got coming.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

73. Stolen? I'm SHOCKED...SHOCKED, I say.

[mittysmom09]

90. Hmmm, I wonder

what covert operations the C.I.A. is doing with all that money.

[xchrom]

74. may? huh. i need to get me one of them jobs. nt

[indepat]

75. Would it be fair to say the $6.6 billion is a microcosm of junior's Iraqi adventure, of his entire

administration and approach to governance? Naw, that wouldn't be fair. :patriot:

[seafan]

76. Just "another one of those mysteries" that we're not supposed to look back on....

How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish, 8 February 2007


An armed guard poses beside pallets of $100 bills in Baghdad. Almost $12bn in cash was spent by the US-led authority (via UK Guardian)


Pentagon can't account for $8.7 billion in Iraqi funds




And, in today's news:

Missing Iraq money may have been stolen, auditors say, By Paul Richter, LA Times

June 13, 2011

Reporting from Washington—
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born.

Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.

This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled all those Benjamins. But despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion in cash — enough to run the Los Angeles Unified School District or the Chicago Public Schools for a year, among many other things.

For the first time, federal auditors are suggesting that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting error. Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an office created by Congress, said the missing $6.6 billion may be "the largest theft of funds in national history."

.....

U.S. President George W. Bush awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Dec. 14, 2004. Bremer was the chief U.S. person in Iraq until sovereignty was granted in June. (UPI Photo/Roger L. Wollenberg)



June 13, 2011.

And they still walk free.

[FreakinDJ]

77. Covered Up like Pat Tilman

[jberryhill]

78. Okay, if it is not returned, then EVERYONE is staying in for recess!

[Downwinder]

79. Have they ever found the missing 3 trillion?

[caseymoz]

80. Bigger than TARP?

Probably the banks looked at the thieving spree in Iraq and thought, "hey, we can get create our own action. Just bomb out the US economy and demand money to rebuild it."

I doubt it was bigger than TARP. We live in a cleptocracy.

[musette_sf]

81. Ya THINK????

:eyes:

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

82. Ya Think?

Geeze................... :puke:

[KansDem]

86. This...from the fuckers who want to take away our Medicare and Social Security!!!

This occurred under a Republican president with a Republican House and a Republican Senate, buoyed by a Republican Supreme Court. And these fuckers are going after our Medicare and Social Security??!!!

It would be too polite to call these Republicans incompetent and irresponsible. Why should we trust them with our money?

[glinda]

87. We shouldn't.

[KansDem]

92. Agreed...

The next "townhall" with Rep. Kevin Yoder, I'm going to pose that question, after reminding him that his party lost $6 billion.

I'm inclined to tell him, "If you want to cut the deficit, go and find that money! But keep you hands out of our pockets!"

On edit: Yoder is a TeaBagger...

[wordpix]

116. not to mention our government of, by and for the people

[felix_numinous]

88. No one, especially these rich ruthless cronies,

loses billions or trillions of dollars. If someone actually lost Cheney's money, or Rumsfelds' money---HEADS would have rolled! If this money ACTUALLY disappeared, we would have seen them look authentically worried and stressed out, and they always looked like foxes guarding the hen houses--alll of them.

THINK how these people would have acted if someone was REALLY stealing THEIR cash. Their money is their life blood and BushCheney would NEVER lose track of it. Is the Pentagon doing a major investigation tracking this money? The story should not end with 'it was stolen'--this should be the beginning of a story of investigation!!

I have never for one second believed this money was lost or stolen--it changed hands, yes.

I hope this horrendous robbery of American money be solved and avenged--because we and our grandchildren will PAY for this. Where are the courts, the investigators, the good people of the world that will take on these criminals?!

[Taverner]

89. I thought it was pretty clear that the Bush Kleptocracy took it

People are still wondering?

[grahamhgreen]

91. Where's the prosecution?

[Deep13]

95. Yeah, I read that in No Shit magazine. nt

[mistertrickster]

96. We tried to hustle the East . . . remember Kipling?

Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan
brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the
Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of
the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the
East."

[mopinko]

97. did they count the cash that they handed out to the war lords?

tammy duckworth said that her helo missions consisted of flying giant piles of cash and putting them down in the middle of the desert for them. we did bribe them to either help us or not kill us. maybe somebody didn't want those bribes on paper.

[russspeakeasy]

98. Somebody tell me why the prisons are not bursting at the seams

with these rotten treasonous bastards.

[kiranon]

99. Make this a campaign issue for 2012 - Republicans lost the money

on their "watch" as in watch me get away with this.

[Love Bug]

100. Closing the books? Yet the IRS will hound Joe Taxpayer for $200

The poor and unemployed are begrudged every single dime yet rich corporations get money thrown at them with little to no accountability. Yet another reason why I get more and more disgusted with this country every day.

[coalition_unwilling]

101. Support our Oops - n/t

[Beartracks]

168. ROFL n/t

[coalition_unwilling]

102. A planeload here and a planeload there and, pretty soon, you're

talking real money!

[young_at_heart]

104. Why is such an important shocker just now being discussed?

I blame the Congress and the media for sweeping Iraq under the rug---except for a few decent journalists.

[russspeakeasy]

105. Wow, that took some serious detective work.

[lildreamer316]

106. Well Duh.

I kinda thought this was a given.

[shoeless]

107. The co-conspirators

[Corruption Winz]

108. OKay.. well I'm sure that they have a way of tracking that money....

This should be solved in no time. I have faith in my government.................

[defendandprotect]

109. We wouldn't have had the serial numbers of the bills or anything like that .... ?

[jimlup]

111. No Shit Sherlock! nt

[defendandprotect]

112. This is what Rep. Cynthia McKinney was working on and she was quickly attacked and out --

and allegedly "accounting" information had been moved to the wing of

the Pentagon which was being renovated ... naturally!! :evilgrin:

[shoeless]

117. Do you think the right-wingers will apologize?

Remember, they all said Mckinney was nuts for suggesting that the money was missing.

[defendandprotect]

121. Wasn't sure that Rumsfeld made any answer to her, except a mumble ... but

if that's what she said -- you'll still get no apology!!

Basically, this is all just organized crime by elites --

[bongbong]

114. DUH!

The only possible comment to this story.

[wordpix]

115. BushCo was responsible for the war & the $$$$---hold BushCo criminals responsible!

Georgie, Dickhead, Rummy, Halliburton, KBR et al.

[Irritable Liberal]

118. I'm waiting for the first GOP politician to suggest

that the money that will have to be eventually be repaid to Iraq will have to be offset by budget cuts to Veteran, low income nutrition programs or health programs. I have no doubt one of them will, maybe even Rep Dana Rochrabacher who was asked to leave Iraq this weekend for insisting that Iraq pay us for the privilege of being invaded by us. Not every nation has that sort of luck.

[shoeless]

126. Republicans will studiously ignore this story.

They will never mention the "missing" money. And, if you ask any Republican about it, they will have no idea what you are talking about.

[TwilightGardener]

120. Sickening waste.

[lonestarnot]

123. Welp no fucking shit morons!

[felix_numinous]

124. Off topic warning:

I love that pop-up add upthread--'Want to know your online reputation/" with Agent Mike looking dude. The fuckers. OK I'm done :)

[earcandle]

127. A good accounting system does not operate in cash. GAAP accounting requires documentation.

This could be interpreted as embezzlement of funds to use
cash, our money, this way.  Mostly underground operations are
funded with cash, precisely so there is no audit trail.  Are
we going to stand for this explanation?  Or will we hold the
accountants and administrators liable for their inability to
provide us with auditable transactions and ultimate theft of
our funds.  This is reckless.  Does Bush or Obama have some
responsibility here?

[valerief]

129. What about the undeclared revenue offshore? That must be a massive theft, too. nt

[Deb]

132. Republicans lost $6.6 BILLION in taxpayers money

there really was a filthy weapon of mass destruction after all, no surprises here

[Blue Owl]

136. What a great campaigning platform this would make

Elect the GOP, and lose billions of YOUR tax dollars.

[newspeak]

133. who remembers the S&L theft?

Little Boot's brother was involved with it. Instead of jail time, he was told that he couldn't work in banking again. Now, apparently, he and the junk bond king, Milken, are in the education business. One book I read on the subject stated it was the biggest heist in the history of the world. We, as citizens, have paid for that debacle, while we as citizens, were the ones greatly harmed by that debacle.

When those plane loads of cash were not being accounted for, guess what I was thinking? I think we have allowed the greatest cons in history to sit in seats of power and we have become victims. Our president asks that we sacrifice because of policies and corruptive behavior have caused the economic collapse of our country and infrastructure. And I say we have sacrificed much from the mechanisms of corporations such as Enron and every damn war profiteering loving corporation along with the banks. We have sacrificed, it's time that those record breaking profit corporations and banks get their arses off of the money and start sacrificing.

I knew, as others knew on this board, that Little boots and cheney were shoveling the dough to their "constituents" as fast as possible. People need to look at Halliburton before Cheney was selected. I think we have been economically raped by some who are greedy sociopaths who dare not call themselves patriots or American. How can you call yourself an american while causing so much pain to other americans and watching your infrastructure crumble?

And every theft of OUR money takes away any form of security for our seniors, children, poor and disabled. Totally fekkin corrupt and sick.

[Blue Owl]

135. Hey instead we get big tough Nancy Pelosi cracking down on WEINERGATE

:mad:

[colsohlibgal]

138. MSN's Twisted Priorities

This story has been virtually ignored by the MSN, a big indictment of said MSN by itself. Notable is this: it is on top of the 2+ trillion that Rumsfled siad was unaccounted for on, and this is pretty curious, 9/10/01.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTwCRuwJc34. Of course that was swept out of the news the next day.

I'd hardly be shocked if a lot of that was in foreign accounts of Cheney, Wolfowitz, etc. It's a scam of amazing proportions.

All this and wingnuts want to save money by curtailing services for the needy and the handicapped.

Welcome to Bizarro World.

[SOS]

139. Your taxes at work: $1.5 billion in cash given to a guy in Erbil

"Money also disappeared in truckloads and by helicopter. The CPA reportedly distributed funds to contractors in bags off the back of a truck.
In one notorious incident in April 2004, $1.5 billion in cash that had just been delivered by three Blackhawk helicopters was
handed over to a courier in Erbil, in the Kurdish region, never to be seen again. Afterwards, no one was able to recall the courier’s name
or provide a description of him. "

http://www.amconmag.com/article/2005/oct/24/00007/

[shoeless]

140. Remember Kelly's Heroes?

The Bushies must have seen it. They knew that it is easier to steal during war.

[AllyCat]

142. You don't say?! Stolen?! Who could have thought of that?

And I thought Greg Palast was just a crazy conspiracy theorist! Pallet of cash left in a room that people would just come in and HELP THEMSELVES!!!

[mckara]

143. Duh!!!!!!!!

[BrklynLiberal]

144. MAY????? ????????????? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[boycottfaux]

145. Just wunderin'?

And where did all this CASH come from?

Anyone know . .

[shoeless]

149. All that cash came from we the taxpayers.

And, Republicans are just fine with that.

[shoeless]

151. Iraqi oil, American money, or both?

Everyone was so focused on the neocon's lust for Iraqi oil, we didn't realize that a main reason for the invasion of Iraq was to steal from American taxpayers, and to enrich private defense contractors.

[Prometheus Bound]

167. Yes, it was Iraqi money that was entrusted to the US to return to the Iraqi people.

It was collected under the oil-for food program in the 90s. It belonged to the Iraqi people.

I wonder if the Iraqis got a penny of it.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

146. You can buy alot of Senators, Congressmen, Congresswomen and journalists with that kind of money

[libodem]

147. Cost + bonus

For Haliburton and Blackwater on the ground unloading the bundles and stashing it for bribes and awakening councils.

[valerief]

148. Auditors say, Bears May Shit in Woods. nt

[cstanleytech]

150. I am not upset over this at all.

After all its a drop in the bucket when compared to the 1.2 trillion and climbing Bush has cost our nation to date in Iraq and Afghanistan, BTW thanks again Mr Bush, our country owes you for the debt you caused us to be burdened with because of that decision of yours.

[SoapBox]

152. BushCo. and Crooks, doing what they did best!

...spending and wasting the American tax payer dollars!

[tex-wyo-dem]

153. Truly disgusting...

Mid-2003: A reporter in Iraq stands on a pallet filled with shrink-wrapped bricks of C-Notes















:mad:

[scribble]

154. STOLEN??

It took how many people eight years to figure this out??

BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA BWAHAAHAAHAAHAA

Thanks. I feel better now.

sc

[LibertyLover]

155. "May"?

There's no "may" about it. Of course the money was stolen. What kind of idiots do they take us for?

[zinnisking]

156. Rank and file Republicans were obsessed about getting to the bottom of this since day one.

After all, it was !tax! money!

By 'obsessed' I mean, completely thumbed their nose at it. ..As with everything else fiscal during the Cheney era.

Teabaggers = phoney.

[lib2DaBone]

158. If I lose a pencil at work.. I will be flogged until I find it...

Smoke a MJ cigarette.. and you will do 10-30 in the slammer.

"Misplace" $2.4 Billion in shrink wrapped cash... and the justice department just yawns.

Is there anything in this governemnt that makes any sense any more?

[Raster]

160. ...may have been stolen

:rofl:

[liberalla]

164. duh... of course it was stolen

:eyes:

[nonperson]

165. I'm sure it's just been temporarily misplaced

It's sure to turn up any time now.

For fuck sake:

"For the first time, federal auditors are suggesting that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting error."

???

Who the fuck do they think is stupider? Us or them?

[kentauros]

175. I know, the equivalent of almost three fully loaded C-130 planes.

Do these yahoos even know just how big one of these planes is? Maybe we need to land one on their property...

Or, let's deliver the same amount of paper as 2.4 billion in bills to their house. Would they get it then?

[Fool Count]

166. That should put a definitive end to the theories that

it might have gotten lost somewhere between the couch cushions. No need to check the table drawers again either. I am telling you, those
federal audits are pure gold, they tell you so much.

[fascisthunter]

169. "May have been".... meaning it's been stolen

and the government now is lying to you about the fact that the government with criminals in charge stole it all.

[City Lights]

170. A shining success!

So says Pawlenty...

[Nossida]

171. say what?

"May" have been Stolen?

It took a Federal Auditor to tell us this?
If they admit to $6.6 billion, you can bet
there is even more missing.

Now about all those Babylonian Artifacts
carried out of the Baghdad Museum. And
Gods know what else.

[donheld]

172. Only a fool would believe it was not stolen

[cstanleytech]

174. Oh it very likely was but it also could have been

used as off the book payoffs to certain people there for varies legal and or illegal reasons.

[Solly Mack]

176. Snicker

[newspeak]

177. after eight long years of Little Boots

who increased the deficit by approximately 89%-this is why I'm extremely angry about our financial plight and this administration telling us we must sacrifice. As more and more americans lose their good paying jobs while CEO's-corporations making big profits, we are told to sacrifice.

A war we were lied into is going to cost us trillions of dollars, not including the human toll-for what? So, some global corporations can make mega bucks on war profiteering and oil, while the American people still must pay the bill. And, after it's paid, on the hill, they're telling us there's little left over to help our fellow citizens or repair our infrastructure. And yet, the money keeps pouring out for foreign adventures.

The bigger the heist and the more people you screw, it seems the less penalty or no penalty is realized.

Hey, Rummy where's the 2.1 trillion dollars and where's the billions missing from Iraq? Inquiring minds want to know.