8.8 billion in petty cash missing in Iraq...
Lawson English
violated. Notice that the so-called Republicans are the ones defending
this process...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/06/iraq.cash.reut/index.html
• The Federal Reserve sent over $4 billion in cash to Iraq in 2003 and 2004
• Cash, weighing 363 tons, loaded on to palettes and flown on military
aircraft
• Funds came from Iraqi oil exports, Saddam Hussein regime's frozen assets
• U.S. administrator denies funds were diverted to the insurgency
Adjust font size:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Federal Reserve sent record payouts of more
than $4 billion in cash to Baghdad on giant pallets aboard military
planes shortly before the United States gave control back to Iraqis,
lawmakers said Tuesday.
The money, which had been held by the United States, came from Iraqi oil
exports, surplus dollars from the U.N.-run oil-for-food program and
frozen assets belonging to the ousted Saddam Hussein regime.
Bills weighing a total of 363 tons were loaded onto military aircraft in
the largest cash shipments ever made by the Federal Reserve, said Rep.
Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform.
"Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone?
But that's exactly what our government did," the California Democrat
said during a hearing reviewing possible waste, fraud and abuse of funds
in Iraq.
On December 12, 2003, $1.5 billion was shipped to Iraq, initially "the
largest pay out of U.S. currency in Fed history," according to an e-mail
cited by committee members.
It was followed by more than $2.4 billion on June 22, 2004, and $1.6
billion three days later. The CPA turned over sovereignty on June 30.
Bremer: Cash requested by Iraqis
L Paul Bremer, who as the administrator of the Coalition Provisional
Authority ran Iraq after initial combat operations ended, said the
enormous shipments were done at the request of the Iraqi minister of
finance.
"He said, 'I am concerned that I will not have the money to support the
Iraqi government expenses for the first couple of months after we are
sovereign. We won't have the mechanisms in place, I won't know how to
get the money here,"' Bremer said.
"So these shipments were made at the explicit request of the Iraqi
minister of finance to forward fund government expenses, a perfectly,
seems to me, legitimate use of his money," Bremer told lawmakers.
Democrats led by Waxman also questioned whether the lack of oversight of
$12 billion in Iraqi money that was disbursed by Bremer and the CPA
somehow enabled insurgents to get their hands on the funds, possibly
through falsifying names on the government payroll.
"I have no knowledge of monies being diverted. I would certainly be
concerned if I thought they were," Bremer said. He pointed out that the
problem of fake names on the payroll existed before the U.S.-led invasion.
The special inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction, Stuart Bowen,
said in a January 2005 report that $8.8 billion was unaccounted for
after being given to the Iraqi ministries.
"We were in the middle of a war, working in very difficult conditions,
and we had to move quickly to get this Iraqi money working for the Iraqi
people," Bremer told lawmakers. He said there was no banking system and
it would have been impossible to apply modern accounting standards in
the midst of a war.
Republicans argued that Bremer and the CPA staff did the best they could
under the circumstances and accused Democrats of trying to score
political points over the increasingly unpopular Iraq war.
"We are in a war against terrorists, to have a blame meeting isn't, in
my opinion, constructive," said Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican.
Bobby Bryant
"8.8 billion in petty cash" is an oxymoron.
(Except in comparison to the trillion unbudgeted dollars this war is
going to cost your descendents, yea even unto the seventh generation.)
In article <Pddyh.47454$gJ1....@newsfe17.lga>,
Lawson English <Law...@nowhere.none> writes:
> "We are in a war against terrorists, to have a blame meeting isn't,
> in my opinion, constructive," said Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana
> Republican.
Maybe that $8,800,000,000 could have bought a few terrorists' heads
in a sack.
--
Bobby Bryant
Reno, Nevada
Remove your hat to reply by e-mail.
Jack Linthicum
> "8.8 billion in petty cash" is an oxymoron.
>
> (Except in comparison to the trillion unbudgeted dollars this war is
> going to cost your descendents, yea even unto the seventh generation.)
>
> Lawson English <Laws...@nowhere.none> writes:
>
> > "We are in a war against terrorists, to have a blame meeting isn't,
> > in my opinion, constructive," said Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana
> > Republican.
>
> Maybe that $8,800,000,000 could have bought a few terrorists' heads
> in a sack.
>
> --
> Bobby Bryant
> Reno, Nevada
>
> Remove your hat to reply by e-mail.
Or put Saddam and his sons on a plane