Holy Crap. Put on CBS right now: Billions of US $$ scattered in Iraq

[jazzjunkysue]

The opening story is an exclusive, about 8.8 Bill lost and forgotten.

Holy shit. It's out.

This is going to really piss off alot of Ford lay-offs, and veterans.

Lost your job to India? We can't afford you, but we can steal 8Bil.

Whoa.

[Pirate Smile]

1. Al Franken said 60 Minutes was doing a big story on it on Sunday.

He has been all over it for a long time.

Now they have a big story interviewing Pillar.

Next is Brownie bashing BushCo.

Lovely.

[LSparkle]

5. Pillar was on with Wolfie today, too

I'm hoping he's on some of the Sunday shows as well.

[rodeodance]

6. yes, i watched that. he did well.

[LSparkle]

14. He was very straightforward and didn't "take the bait" at all

When Leslie B. asked him if he thought the CIA was pressured in its analysis, he very plainly said, "no" but reminded Blitzkrieg that there are far more subtle (but just as effective) ways to manipulate intel -- like taking some out of context and ignoring other info completely.

[Pirate Smile]

20. Here it is from the CBS website.

"Coming up on "60 Minutes": Steve Kroft investigates how some of the $50 billion the U.S. spent on reconstruction work in Iraq was used and why $8.8 billion of it is unaccounted for."

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?channel=60Sunday&CMP=KNC-2005googlecampaign

[RobertSeattle]

2. IOKIYAR

Bush's Congress: 8 Billion gone - yawn.

Clinton's Congress: 140 hours of SWORN TESTIMONY REGARDING F'ING White House XMAS CARDS (!!!)

[jazzjunkysue]

3. Now, Bush cherry picking intel to force us into war.

Final words: It would have been wiser to simply not go to war.

Did I really hear it with my own ears?

[SammyWinstonJack]

25. Now can we say,

BRING THE TROOPS HOME! and RESCIND THE TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH! and lets take this Country back from the BFEE and their merry band of murderers!

[0007]

4. Hey it's Friday, what do you expect? This is dumping time.

[MH1]

35. Great cartoon...thanks!

Really expresses how I've been feeling about this constant barrage of incompetence, lies, scandals, and general thuggery that passes for "government" when republicans are in charge.

[jazzjunkysue]

7. Now, into Katrina fxxx-ups. Really thrashing the crime family.

Saying the asshole in chief knew how bad things were.

[rodeodance]

8. I have seen those images before but can not recall. Bears repeating and

repeating and................

[Nite Owl]

9. Didn't this happen a while ago?

I thought I heard a story about 8billion missing or is this another 8billion? What's a few billion among friends anyway. and we aren't their friends, we the people of the USA.

[jazzjunkysue]

12. We knew about it, but it wasn't a headline on network, with interviews

They had experts and footage and images. Really did it up as their great exlusive. Whatever. As long as Marvin and Martha in Iowa see it, I don't care if it's old.

Wake up, sheeples!

[chat_noir]

10. Billions Wasted In Iraq?

(CBS) Some $8.8 billion dispersed for reconstruction efforts in Iraq is unaccounted for, says the U.S. official in charge of tracing it.

For a report to be broadcast this Sunday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m. ET/PT,
60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft investigates the billions spent on reconstruction-related work, particularly money paid to a contractor, Custer Battles, now being sued for fraud.

Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, says $8.8 billion is unaccounted for because oversight on the part of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the entity governing Iraq after the war, "was relatively nonexistent."

The former No. 2 man at the Coalition's transportation ministry, Frank Willis, concurs. "I would describe (the accounting system) as nonexistent." Without a financial infrastructure, checks and money transfers were not possible, so the Coalition kept billions in cash to pay for its multitude of projects. "Fresh, new, crisp, unspent, just-printed $100 bills. It was the Wild West," says Willis.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/09/60minutes/main1302378.shtml

[Jose Diablo]

11. I bet it ain't 'lost'

I bet a lot of it ended right back here, in the RNC's campaign funds.

[jazzjunkysue]

13. Stranger things have happened, Jose. Like Jeff Gannon in the west wing....

[Kansas Wyatt]

36. That could explain BushCo's & RNC's ease at raising campaign cash.

And wasn't there a coin scandal in Ohio by Republicans?

A Florida investigator who allegedly suicided himself as he was about to break open a fraudulent government scandal, involving rigged elections, going all the way to the top of the country?

Is it all tied together, and did this 8 billion disappear to the same political crime syndicate?

[wryter2000]

15. Oh, goody

I'm on the West Coast and will be watching at 5:30 our time. I love it when DU alerts me to good stuff on the news.

[jazzjunkysue]

18. Skip our dear Laura on NBC...

[katty]

16. bush admin Ticker: 8.8 Billion and counting......

[fed-up]

17. It's/Its? about f*cking time this hit MSM n/t

[seemslikeadream]

19. Iraq Contractor Accused of Offshore Shell Game - Fri Oct-15-04

nice of you to notice CBS

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=908546

Heavily armed security contractors to increase presence in Iraq
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=664142#664399

Custer Battles Iraqis in Alamo
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=512551

[Sydnie]

21. It's not just US money that is missing either

Report, Christian Aid, 23 October 2003

A staggering US$4 billion in oil revenues and other Iraqi funds earmarked for the reconstruction of the country has disappeared into opaque bank accounts administered by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the US-controlled body that rules Iraq. By the end of the year, if nothing changes in the way this cash is accounted for, that figure will double.

The financial black hole, uncovered by a Christian Aid investigation, is revealed as delegates gather for the donors' conference in Madrid. Before pledging money from their own countries' coffers to boost the reconstruction efforts, as requested by the US and UK governments, these delegates should first demand: 'What has happened to the missing billions?'

It is expected that a separate fund, managed by the UN and the World Bank, will be announced at the conference for donors' money, to allay fears of how this cash will be spent. But this should not stop donors from pushing for accountability of the original, massive reconstruction fund - most of it Iraqi oil money.

<snip>

The missing billions are a combination of pre- and post-war oil revenues now controlled by the CPA, plus seized Iraqi government assets and funds vested overseas. Conservative estimates put the total at US$5 billion, of which less than US$1 billion can be accounted for. Estimated oil revenues between now and the end of the year are expected to total a further US$4 billion.


http://electroniciraq.net/news/1180.shtml

[FormerRepublican]

24. Didn't a reporter investigating this get roughed up in Iraq?

[Sydnie]

28. there have been so many roughed up, I can't remember n/t

[Cleita]

44. Janice Karpinsky talked about sacks full of money that

were supposedly taken from Saddam's palaces, that were to be used to repair facilities. The money was passed around with no accounting for it or receipts. Whatever they were supposed to be buying with the money usually didn't get done or delivered.

The money just got passed around and disappeared, where and to whom no one knows. I think this is one big disgrace. As an American I am ashamed for what Americans are doing because of the creeps in our government.

[Ecumenist]

22. Is this the same money that's been missing over a year now?

If it is, it's taken quite a long time to get to the forefront of America's attention. I remember hearing about this on Randi's show last june, I believe.

[Junkdrawer]

23. Well, hell. I guess we'll have to give them $88 billion to replace that...

The only scandal is that we took so long to give them the money in the first place. Please, Mr. Bush, anything if you'll only keep us safe. I really don't need that retirement money - you can have it.

[JuniperLea]

26. I applaud CBS!

The media is finally coming around... I hope.

Today has been a blast, hasn't it? So many Repubs and news organization finally speaking the truth!

What do you think the turning point was?




People are living in the streets, children are starving and going without a proper education... this is America I'm talking about! Plants are closing, people losing jobs and the Neocons lie and say we are seeing great unemployment figures. We are losing our freedom, we are losing Social Security, we are losing our health care, we are losing our voice in government, the rich are getting tax cuts... and these freaks of nature have the gall to "lose" eight billion of our hard earned tax dollars!


THAT IS OUR MONEY PEOPLE!!!

[Serenades]

27. Please!

PLease Lord let these corrupt mofos go down without taking the rest of us with them. Please! It will be totally unbelievable if they get away with all of this -- this is absolute madness!

[Wilms]

29. K&R n/t

[burythehatchet]

30. DAMN IT

THOUSANDS of dollars were scammed in the UN oil-for-food scandal. Norm "green goblin" coleman told me so.

[Blue_Tires]

31. our tax dollars at work

a WHOLE lot of new millionaire Halliburton and Blackwater 'contractors' will be buying themselves into high society when they come back

[tlsmith1963]

32. If the War Continues...

...it's going to ruin the economy. It's just not worth it to continue a war based on false information when you are throwing money like that around. We need an exit strategy, *now*!

Tammy

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

33. Did they talk about the twentysomethings that were shipped over there

to run the Coalition Provisional Authority?

[lala_rawraw]

34. CBS is not running it here...wtf?

[Vexatious Ape]

37. cuts

This just might piss off a few students counting on loans that recently got the axe. What the hell--they can always join the National Guard.

[Booster]

38. In this story they should also mention the TRILLION that was lost

and forgotten by the military.

[stickdog]

39. What's a few billion here or there between war profiteers? (nt)

[lostnfound]

40. Did they mention the cargo plane full of $2.4 Billion cash?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/17/1027/50222
WASHINGTON -- It weighed 28 tons and took up as much room as 74 washing machines. It was $2.4 billion in $100 bills, and Baghdad needed it ASAP.
...

Then, when the shipment date changed, officials had to scramble to line up U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo planes to hold the money. They did, and the $2,401,600,000 was delivered to Baghdad on June 22, 2004.

It was the largest one-time cash transfer in the history of the New York Fed."

And where did it all go? It was given away, handed out from the back of pickup trucks and stuffed into the duffelbags of "contractors"

[EVDebs]

41. $2.3 Trillion was missing in 2002 according to Rumsfeld

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

"""According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.
$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.

"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

Minnery, a former Marine turned whistle-blower, is risking his job by speaking out for the first time about the millions he noticed were missing from one defense agency's balance sheets. Minnery tried to follow the money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records.
"The director looked at me and said 'Why do you care about this stuff?' It took me aback, you know? My supervisor asking me why I care about doing a good job," said Minnery.""

[Ilsa]

42. But let's cut off the widows' and children's Survivor benefits. eom

[farmbo]

43. Any guesses how much of this made it into the 2004 Presidential race?a

No...wait...Karl Rove would never let government money be used for political purposes.

:smoke:

[orleans]

45. gasp. wasted 8 billion? gasp gasp. who would've thunk?

(it's about time people started talking about this!! but...they'll forget all about it in the morning)

[Hissyspit]

46. People should be pissed off about $1/2 Trillion spent on a war

they were lied into - illegal, immoral, unprecedented and a quagmire.

[incapsulated]

47. So, in other words..

Nothing has changed?

Hey, we can always print more money!