Iraq Audit Can't Find Billions of Reconstruction $

[PeachMonkey]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/10/16/iraq_audit_cant_find_billions?mode=PF

"The audit, released yesterday, found serious gaps in how the Development Fund for Iraq -- a pool of money drawn from Iraqi oil revenues and international aid, including some from the United States -- was handled by American occupation officials responsible for funding reconstruction projects and the operations of Iraqi ministries and provincial governments. The development fund is separate from the $18.4 billion in US reconstruction funds set aside last year to rebuild the country.

All the funds -- more than $5 billion -- were spent between Jan. 1 and June 28, 2004, during the period when the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority ran the country."

Of that $5 billion, over *half* cannot be accounted for.

 

[bignick]

Of that $5 billion, over *half* cannot be accounted for.

*whistles*

how do you lose over 2.5 billion dollars? Leave it in your pocket when your doing the laundry?

 

[michaeledward]

Quick Quick ... Blame the UN!!!


just kidding - mike

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Have they checked Cheneys Halibut account?
Just axin.

 

[OUMoose]

Anyone check Halib---.....

Durnit Kaith... You beat me to it...

 

[rmcrobertson]

As Jay Gould and Jim Fisk told the jury in the New York Subway Scandal of the 1880s, "It's gone where the woodbine twineth."

Either that or there's the whole, "You didn't really think they spend 20,000 on a toilet seat, did you?" argument.

Just as hilariously, it seems that of the money they CAN account for, only about 28% actually went to Iraqis in any way. If what I saw today is true, the lion's share went to "security," "administration," and similar needs. Hell, back in Rhode Island there are crooked charities that spend more of their budget on actual clients.

Can't WAIT for the hearings on this one. They should be true comedy classics.

 

[PeachMonkey]

Can't WAIT for the hearings on this one. They should be true comedy classics.

I'm already laughing at your suggestion that there will ever even be hearings on this.

 

[rmcrobertson]

Why not? There were hearings on Iran/Contra that clearly showed where the money went, how Reagan and Bush broke the law, and why Ollie North ought to be in the Hague awaiting trail for war crimes.

 

[PeachMonkey]

Why don't I think there'll be hearings?

Because:

1) There's nowhere near as much coverage of this as Iran/Contra

2) The media have become even more cowardly since then

3) Congress has become even more craven since then

4) Besides, Iran/Contra was about arms for hostages; this is about simple corruption, which is the American way!

 

[Feisty Mouse]

...and people sometimes seem shocked about why I am so unhappy with the current Administration. Sigh.

:miffer: