Missing Iraq billions could be ‘greatest fraud in US history’
The US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), the Army’s criminal Investigation Command and the Justice Department are investigating US soldiers and officials in the alleged misuse of a portion of the $125 billion initially sent to Iraq for reconstruction shortly after the fall of Saddam.
Monday, The Independent‘s Iraq correspondent Patrick Cockburn reported the inspectors believe misuse may account for over $50 billion, exceeding the scope of Bernie Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme and making it potentially the “greatest fraud in US history.”
“In one case, auditors working for SIGIR discovered that $57.8m was sent in ‘pallet upon pallet of hundred-dollar bills’ to the US comptroller for south-central Iraq, Robert J Stein Jr, who had himself photographed standing with the mound of money,” wrote Cockburn. “He is among the few US officials who were in Iraq to be convicted of fraud and money-laundering.
“Despite the vast sums expended on rebuilding by the US since 2003, there have been no cranes visible on the Baghdad skyline except those at work building a new US embassy and others rusting beside a half-built giant mosque that Saddam was constructing when he was overthrown.”
The SIGIR auditor’s report, entitled “Hard Lessons,” was published in early February.
“‘Hard Lessons,’ a draft of which was leaked to the news media in December, concludes that the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq was a failure, largely because there was no overall strategy behind it,” reported the Washington Post. “Goals shifted from ‘liberation’ and an early military exit to massive, ill-conceived and expensive building projects under the Coalition Provisional Authority of 2003 and 2004. Many of those projects — over budget, poorly executed or, often, barely begun — were abandoned as security worsened.
“In a preface to the 456-page book, Bowen writes that he knew the reconstruction was in trouble when he first visited Iraq in January 2004 and saw duffel bags full of cash being carried out of the Republican Palace, which housed the U.S. occupation government.”
“As part of the inquiry, the authorities are taking a fresh look at information given to them by Dale Stoffel, an American arms dealer and contractor who was killed in Iraq in late 2004,” reported the International Herald Tribune on Sunday…
Related Posts - FREE Teen Workshops @ Wordstock Festival, September 11th LINDSAY SHAW - All workshops listed below are FREE, but space is limited so registration is required. THE ART OF ILLUMINATION with Lynda Kalusik Saturday, September 11 from 10:00 am...
- Olympic Torch Comes to Blue Mountain Resort From Athens to Blue Mountain, on its way to Vancouver! Live a unique moment in our lifetime as the Olympic Torch Relay passes through Blue Mountain Resort on December 29th,...
- Stimulus Goes Global. Will It Be Enough? The key is how well nations manage the spending. Think 2008 was rough? Most indications are that 2009 will be even rougher for the global economy. For the first time...
- Play Chess - excel in math and science LINDSAY SHAW Teen Services Assistant Did you know? In countries where chess is offered widely in schools, students exhibit excellence in the ability to recognize complex patterns and consequently excel in math...
- Tar Sands: The Most Destructive Projecton EarthEnvironmental Defence just released a new report on the Alberta Oil Sands, calling it the most destructive project on Earth. DeSmogblog gleaned some facts...
- "Changing Colours" Art Show and Sale Saturday, October 3 to Sunday, October 25, 2009 at MEAFORD HALL Presented by the Meaford Creative Arts Association OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, October 3, 2009 2:00 - 4:00 p.m For the weekend...
Related Websites - How to Obtain Your Free (Government Mandated) Credit Report What is a credit report and what does it contain? Back in the day, when you applied for credit you would list all of your creditors on the application. The bank or whomever was deciding whether or not to extend you a line of credit would then call all your......
- UF Home Coming against Arkansas The University of Florida Gators are set to go head to head with Arkansas, and the game is going to be aired at 3:30pm on CBS. The Gators football team is going to be going up against Arkansas on Saturday, October the 17. The game is going to be televised......
- Only 200 Saving Days Until Christmas With less than 200 days (185, to be exact) until Christmas it is comforting to know that our budget debacles of previous years will not repeat themselves. For the last several years, the weeks leading up to Christmas were often spent hunting last-minute gifts while trying not to disrupt the......
- How to Recover From a Stolen Credit Card If you’ve prepared for losing your wallet, recovering from losing just one credit card is actually quite simple. What’s not as simple is discovering when you’ve actually lost a single card. In our current age of electronic commerce, it’s very easy to “lose” your credit card without actually losing the......
- Threats against federal judges, prosecutors are up - Yahoo! News WASHINGTON – A government review has found threats to federal judges and prosecutors have increased dramatically in the past six years. Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine concludes there are still gaps in reporting and responding to such threats. No federal judges or prosecutors have been killed in the six......
- Weakon 180: Intro to the Fed, Part I Over the next few days we will look into the often mentioned, but rarely understood, Federal Reserve System of the United States. If that doesn't sound familiar, maybe throwing out a few terms associated with the Federal Reserve System will jog your memory: The Fed, Ben Bernanke, inflation, federal......
Short URL: http://www.internationalnetworknews.com/?p=1697
Posted by Wendy King
on Feb 20 2009. Filed under Barrie, Collingwood, Owen Sound, Stayner, Thornbury, Wasaga Beach.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
