You've probably heard about the
missing $8.8 billion that our politicians and the establishment press seem so keen to ignore.
However, you should be aware that in the 11th hour before transferring power to the Iraqis, the US shipped as much as $20 billion to Iraq on pallets, billions of which were handed out in duffel bags to contractors without any real accountability.
One picture shows grinning CPA officials standing in front of a pile of cash said to be worth $2 million to be paid to a security contractor.
That's right. Read it again.
Billions shipped to Iraq and given to contractors in duffel bags, and nobody can tell you exactly what has been done with that money.
From the Reuters Article:
A report by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California, said in the week before the hand-over on June 28, 2004, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority ordered the urgent delivery of more than $4 billion in Iraqi funds from the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York.
One single shipment amounted to $2.4 billion -- the largest movement of cash in the bank's history, said Waxman.
Most of these funds came from frozen and seized assets and from the Development Fund for Iraq, which succeeded the U.N.'s oil-for-food program. After the U.S. invasion, the U.N. directed this money should be used by the CPA for the benefit of the Iraqi people.
Cash was loaded onto giant pallets for shipment by plane to Iraq, and paid out to contractors who carried it away in duffel bags.
The report, released at a House of Representatives committee hearing, said despite the huge amount of money, there was little U.S. scrutiny in how these assets were managed.
"The disbursement of these funds was characterized by significant waste, fraud and abuse," said Waxman.
Good God, what next?
Yet another log for the fire that won't start.
The Republican leadership does not believe in accountability.
The Republican leadership is corrupt and incompetent.
Everybody should know this by now.