Posted on 06/14/2011 11:57:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The man Congress put in charge of auditing the billions of dollars dumped on Iraq after Saddam Hussein was toppled has told the Los Angels Times he can't rule out the possibility that $6.6 billion in cash sent from the U.S. was stolen.
Special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction Stuart Bowen told the Times the missing money may represent "the largest theft of funds in national history."
It was not, it is crucial to note here, U.S. tax-payer dollars which have gone missing in Iraq. The money came from a special fund set up by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with Iraq's own money -- funds which were withheld from the nation during a decade of harsh economic sanctions under Saddam.
Now, and here's the real kicker, Iraq wants it's money back. The Los Angeles Times says some officials in Baghdad have threatened to take the U.S. government to court to reclaim the missing loot. The last known holder of the funds, before they mysteriously disappeared into the dusty oblivion of post-war Iraq, was the U.S. government.
"Congress is not looking forward to having to spend billions of our money to make up for billions of their money that we can't account for, and can't seem to find," Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) told the Times.
SNIP
The money in question was literally air-lifted into Iraq by the George W. Bush administration, which flew it into Baghdad aboard C-130 military cargo planes. Bush White House officials were worried in the immediate aftermath of Saddam's fall that Iraqis would revolt if salaries weren't paid and services deteriorated. In total, the Times says $12 billion in cash was flown into Iraq in 21 separate C-130 flights by May 2004.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
When we audit the Federal Reserve, we’re gonna need a few more zeroes.
You can’t, won’t, never will, never gonna tame the Arab. This very expensive lesson is just one more example.
Insane.
That’s almost 3 months of Obama Golf- lost!
We’ve got one too many Zeroes now!.......................
[/rimshot]
Did someone working in the Bush Administration steal the money? That’s the question.
With no accounting, no paper trails? Custody just ends?
Seems the cost to do the above is much greater than the money “stolen” and we are anxiously awaiting our payment and how about a “thank you” while you are at it?
A paltry $6.6 billion the record? No - Not even close.
Obama and Congress hold the record with $787 billion. Only Joe Biden knows where it all went.
Bush and Congress are second with $700 Billion in TARP money, minus a small percentage that was actually paid back.
stop it, the laughter is killing me!
You just know that Alexander Hamilton and the Rothschilds planned this whole thing over two hundred years ago! [/sarcasm]
It ia gone for good. No one will be held accountable. It is business as usual.
“It ia gone for good. No one will be held accountable. It is business as usual.”
Another good reason for Congress to rescind spending authority for the $140 billion of TARP money that has not yet been spent instead of allowing Obama to keep it on hand as a slush fund.
Mr. Boehner — Are you listening? This is a perfect issue with which to pound the opposition at a time when you are discussing raising the debt ceiling. How stupid of me. Much of that money will go to your friends on Wall Street. I guess I can go on expecting nothing of you and the Republican majority in Congress.
In the whiskey business they call it the Angels’ Share.
The problems the Iraqis have is that, most likely, where ever it went it landed in some Iraqi hands.
It’s fine that they want to know where it went, but instead of getting the same sum from us twice, they need to be willing to go get it from the Iraqi hands it fell into.
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