Iraq Money Missing: $6.6 Billion Still Unaccounted For, U.S. Officials Say

Los Angeles Times:

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.

Read the whole story: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Gary St Lawrence]

11:26 AM on 06/15/2011

My question is, "Why send U.S. hundred-dollar bills?"

The official reason given was that the banking system in Iraq was a mess and there was no effective and safeguarded way to distribute pay to Iraqi workers. But why American dollars in cash? Certainly Iraq was not using U.S. dollars when Saddam Hussein was in power. Doesn't it just seem painfully logical that injecting U.S. dollars would be more disruptive than helpful in recovering the Iraqi economy since it automatically ensures that Iraqis would have to have that cash converted to Iraqi Dinars? And how easy would that mass conversion of money be if "the banking system in Iraq was a mess"?

http://garystlawrence.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/fed-conducts-third-probe-of-billions-missing-from-iraq-war-funding/

[redbud9]

06:09 PM on 06/14/2011

OK, just re-read the article and it says we lost Iraqi money, not ours. Now Iraq wants to sue us for it. I say send them a bill for everything we did there, deduct the 6.6 billion and they can send us a check for the rest.

But we still need to prosecute those responsible for "losing" billions of dollars.

[Frankaniro]

06:22 AM on 06/15/2011

Are you el elstupido. Did the Iraqis claim to want saddam to leave? and did they ask the US to totally ruin their country claiming weapons of mass distruction. Also just find it strange that Iraqi money was not held in some kind of neutral escrow, but held by the US fed.
Now the money is unaccounted for. The people of Libya better watchout. That 9 billion in gold reserves and untold sums invested in European and US banks that has been seized is going to disappear just like the Iraqi money. And before you know it a country that has been under sanctions for almost twenty years, and has never been to the IMF(Crooks) etc. Will be borrowing money. Wake up people!!! wake up.

[AndyWright68]

03:43 PM on 06/14/2011

That money was stolen to begin with. Of course they lost it. They always lose our money, our hard earned money taken with threats of chains, kidnapping and cages. Violence against peaceful people. Taxation IS theft no matter how you look at it. If you have to use coercion, threats, extortion or violence to get something you are a very, very bad person. And if you voted to pass a law to hold guns on people to take their hard earned money you are just as bad. Put down the guns! Violence will never bring about virtue.

[arabspringlol]

02:53 PM on 06/14/2011

Look over here>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Paul Bremer has it stashed in his undies..he thinks he's Anthony Weiner!

[gregory57]

02:43 PM on 06/14/2011

Iraq Money Missing: $6.6 Billion Still Unaccounted For, U.S. Officials Say
...and in other news, Generalissimo Augusto Pinochet Is Still Dead.

[Wheelo]

02:39 PM on 06/14/2011

Where are the voices of the Tea Party on this? This is the most blatant theft and ineptitude of American treasure.

Why isn't war profiteering one of the demons of these so-called patriots?

[banker67]

01:42 PM on 06/14/2011

Rely on CSI

Many stories were written about the breathtaking corruption in Iraq under neo-con administrator L. Paul Bremer III.
So what?
Now there's renewed interest in how $15 billion in cash -- more than 300 tons of $100 bills -- just vanished while guarded by American military officers.
So what?

None of the men who authorized and orchestrated this robbery is being investigated, much less accused, arrested, tried, convicted or punished.
It's impossible to believe that all our billion-dollar police agencies can't quite find the people and paperwork it took to deliver this mountain of cash to Iraq.
Call me old fashioned, but I'll bet a real person signed at least one form to get that bank guard to hold the door open. Who signed?
If detective shows are a guide, I'd say start with the bank guard and the first forklift guy who showed up sober. Bring 'em in.
Who signed the bill of lading? Who loaded and flew the planes? Bring 'em in… and so on until Holmes, Marple and CSI can show us how it was done.
Then work your way up: squadron leader, wing commander, top general, Joint Chiefs, defense contractor, defense-industry hedge-fund investors….and so on.

Then arrest some corporal and hang him.

[perturbedintexas]

01:29 PM on 06/14/2011

Check out Swiss bank accounts under the names Bush & Cheney

[pcplz]

01:28 PM on 06/14/2011

Forget that....have you seen Weiner's latest pic?

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

01:28 PM on 06/14/2011

At the least, those responsible for the funds having gone missing should be held accountable. Even if said funds are never found.

Is that too tall an order? (Wait, don't answer that.)

[redbud9]

05:39 PM on 06/14/2011

Exactly. Do you think you or I could "lose" a few billion dollars of taxpayer money and go without repercussions? Can't we just stop all the pensions being paid to all those in the Bush Administration who were responsible for this money? It wouldn't pay us back but it would be something. And I'd freeze Blackwater's accounts as well.

[MilesToGo]

01:26 PM on 06/14/2011

This report is emblematic of the cynicism and corruption that entailed the U.S. occupation, and is staggering for the blatant theft involved. The "Viceroy" Paul Bremer asked for the cash, and is responsible for what followed. President Bush later awarded Bremer with the Congressional Medal of Freedom. There are no doubt many American contractors with fabulous wealth squirreled away in Swiss or off-shore banks.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

01:28 PM on 06/14/2011

Medal of Freedom From Accountability is more like it.

[andycan]

01:24 PM on 06/14/2011

REVOLTING DOUBLE STANDARDS IN IRAK INVASION

I maintain that Irak was first and foremost a cruel and cynical scam. Millions died, were maimed or psychologically impaired for life.
There is nothing like war for robbing huge amounts of public money.
With characters like Cheney being instrumental in making the Irak invasion happen, the robbery motive seems certain.

The Hague war crimes tribunal was created to bring war criminals to,justice.

Yet the present configuration of power makes such a trial totally unlikely.

[ligligl]

02:12 PM on 06/14/2011

armed robbery...

[gregory57]

02:45 PM on 06/14/2011

Just a foreshadowing of the theft of billions in the TARP debacle.

[Woodardone]

12:15 PM on 06/14/2011

we found Saddam Hussein, we have found Osaama Bin Laden, we have catptured most of the bombing suspects, but they will not find The missing money pallets.

Just maybe it was never sent there in the first place. its only paperwork.

[antipodal2u]

11:12 AM on 06/14/2011

Yet another Bush Bungle. Show me da money

[Mariosright]

11:01 AM on 06/14/2011

The money was put on pallets, shrink wrapped, and airlifted to Iraq. Cold cash! What did we expect would happen to it.