Inspector: $6.6 billion allegedly stolen in Iraq has been found

[kpete]

Inspector: $6.6 billion allegedly stolen in Iraq has been found


A sum of $6.6 billion allegedly stolen in Iraq has been found, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) said Wednesday.

While it was thought to have gone missing, an earlier SIGIR report said the funds were not accounted for due to the “weaknesses” of the Pentagon’s management and control mechanisms for their oversight.

Turns out, SIGIR now says the funds were actually being held by the Central Bank of Iraq, where they belonged.


“Sufficient evidence exists showing that almost all of the remaining $6.6 billion remaining was transferred to actual and legal CBI (Central Bank of Iraq) control,” the report says. http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/26/once-thought-lost-and-now-found-6-billion/?hpt=hp_t2

MORE:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/27/inspector-6-6-billion-allegedly-stolen-in-iraq-has-been-found/

[JPZenger]

1. Right after we invaded, US planes were literally delivering "pallets of cash"

To try to buy friendship in Iraq, after the Cheney-Bush invasion, the US sent in planes with literally "pallets full of cash." Imagine needing to use forklifts to lift up these pallets of cash to load them onto the plane.

[Faux pas]

3. We can't afford to take care of our own but we have pallets of

cash to fly off to some hole in the desert. We are an ass.

[DJ13]

2. 10 years of interest on $6 billion in a European bank

Then return it, and no one is the wiser.

[tridim]

4. I'll bet $6.6 billion dollars that it wasn't in the CBI until very recently

My guess is that it was in a Swiss bank until the announcement that the list of depositors is being released.

BTW, when is that list being released?

[MedicalAdmin]

13. I bet it isn't there even now.

But an entry of 6.6 billion has been made in a ledger somewhere. This smells like creative accounting to me. That money is gone, gone, gone and one only need to turn over a few Cheney rocks to find it.

[canoeist52]

5. palletts 'o cash

"The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent.

The staggering scale of the biggest transfer of cash in the history of the Federal Reserve has been graphically laid bare by a US congressional committee."

[1776Forever]

6. That $6.6 Billion was part of the $12 Billion that was sent in 2003/04 - link.....

June 13, 2011 04:00 PM
$6.6 Billion Stolen in Iraq
By karoli

Remember the billions the Bush administration sent to Iraq just after they started the war there? 12 billion dollars or so was flown into Iraq in cash to facilitate the recovery, or so they said.

Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in U.S. currency—much of it belonging to the Iraqi people—was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Some of the cash went to pay for projects and keep ministries afloat, but, incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed. Following a trail that leads from a safe in one of Saddam's palaces to a house near San Diego, to a P.O. box in the Bahamas, the authors discover just how little anyone cared about how the money was handled.

(more at link)

http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/66-billion-stolen-iraq

[ChandlerJr]

7. Stuart W. Bowen, Jr., Special Inspector General

He was part of President Bush's legal team handling the post-election legal disputes in Florida during November-December 2000; his work helped ensure that overseas military ballots were properly counted. Mr. Bowen subsequently served as Counsel to the Bush-Cheney transition team.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Bowen

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Nice find.

[shraby]

8. The original figure was 9 billion..where's the other 2.4?

[KansDem]

9. "SIGIR now says the funds were actually being held by the Central Bank of Iraq, where they belonged"

Yeah, sure...who would have thought to look in the obvious place!

If you believe this, I've got a palm tree in Wisconsin to sell you...

[mazzarro]

11. So true!

These people are so confident of the lies they tell that they can always come up with new flavor of same old lies anytime they want without fear. Where have they kept the money such that $6b was not seen until recently? It is not as if someone will missing as obvious big bulky thing sitting in some corner of an empty room!

And beside, the missing money was supposed to be more that what has been "found". So where is the rest of it? Also this was supposed to be the Iraqi money portion of the overall missing money. What about the US missing money - how was it and how much of it has been accounted for or found?

[valerief]

10. The amount stolen was more than that. 6.6 billion is lunch money to this war.

Hey, Pentagon, where's the 2 trillion "lost" as of 9/10/11?

[AntiFascist]

12. Exactly...

now, why can't people connect the dots with what's happening to our economy now and the need to trim social programs??