US 'fails to account' for Iraq reconstruction billions

Hundreds of millions have been going missing in Iraq since the beginning. Shrink wrapped millions were delivered in Iraq & never seen again. I once did some simple math based on the weight of that much money alone. I had a 1974 Scout, it weighed 3 tons. The weight alone, not the dollar amount, of the 'misplaced' money equaled 48 Scouts of that make. 48-3 ton Scouts. It's no wonder our economy has tanked. Imagine if you ran your household the same way. You & I would be in jail.

reply to post by DancedWithWolves


Yeah, well, he had good drugs. Bush should be under arrest for war crimes. The whole bunch of them should be. I don't think Dick is human & Rummy has to be one of the most dangerous people on the planet.

That is already business as usual.

Story from 2007 :

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. 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. In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the handover.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk...

I watched a documentary a few years ago about the rebuilding of Iraq.
Some soldiers said they couldn't believe their eyes when plane loads of CASH were delivered pretty much unsecured. It was delivered to and kept in Sadaams palace and there were people coming and going and the money was pretty much unchecked.
Iraqis were complaining that clean water piping, schools and hospitals were shoddily built or not built at all and they were angry as they knew the money had arrived at least a few years before.
I wish now I could remember the name of the documentary so I could post it.
It was a real eye opener and I felt incredibly sorry for the American taxpayer who were subsidising the whole shoddy operation.

Damn lazy welfare recipients.
Draining America dry, and taking OUR tax money while they kick back and relax.

Nothing but bums.

- Lee

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander

"When we realize that this isnt about incompetence, but outright, blatant theft."

You could say the exact same thing about the Social Security fund, but do you see anybody speaking out against such thievery?" Just another blatant example of the unlawful, ruthless practices that TPTB have wielded upon its lowly, easily persuaded peasants.
What a shame... when will we ever learn?

Hmm weird.
Does anyone remember the story of the militant they found with over 1billion dollars hiding in a house?
Maybe this is some how linked, it could very well be possible they brought in to the country legally and exported back illegally no?
Come on guy's were not idiots.
If money goes missing in a donation bowl at church, it is obvious what has happened. Though this time we should be suspicious of the priest and his minions.

Break up the cash and dispense through paid off individuals.
CLICK LINK!!!
HEREEEE

reply to post by Extralien


They didn't lose 9 billion, the let thieves walk in and steal 23 billion.

But that number could be much, much higher for all we know.

reply to post by Keyhole


The problem is that no politician will allow true accountability to ever hit the table because they all stand to lose.

Here in Canada some provinces have been pushing for mandatory limits to government service and the ability to recall politicians who act contrary to what their election platform was. The people think it's a great idea, politicians even smile for the camera and say they are for it too, but that's as far as it goes.

I like to think of how things should be as well, but when there are billions of dollars to be made off the status quo no one is going to do anything about it.

...they don't dare, even if they wanted to.

When I read about how the data is buried in archives that will take time and effort to review I can't help but think that all the records should be shipped to one central location. Some place where everything is available to the accountants right up until the building is destroyed in an unforseen terrorist attack (probably by a domestic terrorist motivated by conspiracy theories and funded by the Iranians).

Back to square one.



[edit on 28-7-2010 by [davinci]]

I recall before 9/11 when Donald Rumsfeld casually announced a missing trillion dollars, there wasn't much energy then from any corner to get to the bottom of it.

You in the USA have no idea how many crimes have been and are being committed by your elected government, your bureaucrats, and your military. I have come to realise that the vast majority of people in the USA have sold their souls for a myth about their nation and are incapable of recognising the truth about their nation's darkest deeds.

Certainly, there is more honesty in certain small pockets like the US citizens who support Kucinich or Ron Paul, for example.

But if the majority of you do not wake up and start screaming loudly, your criminals at the top are going to launch you and the world into a thermo-nuclear war that I expect at the end of this year or the first months of 2011.

You must pull the plug on the power of TPTB who own and control so many aspects of your nation, your economy, your military, and your elected government and its bureaucracy from hell.

this...and the rumsfeld trillions..and the billions that got flown into iraq are the reasons the fed are so scared of being audited...and why the bills always get nayed....too much at stake....

[edit on 28-7-2010 by alienesque]

[edit on 28-7-2010 by alienesque]

When you get right down to it this war is just a HUGE money laundering scheme.

What better way to spread around and move huge amounts of money to whomever and have it untraceable.

Bush, Cheney, Obama, CIA... blame who you want. Their in it up to their necks.
And it's us the American people who ultimately pay for it.

reply to post by alienesque


Exactly.

The money didn't go missing in Iraq, it never left the country to begin with.

It's the political version of 'lost in the mail'.

With all this "missing" money and all these announcements recently of movies about Alien Invasions, I can't help but wonder if we're being geared up for Operation Bluebeam to be unveiled.

I could be wrong.......but then again, I could be right.

Mission Accomplished ??

That had a completely different meaning to those in the inner circle of the elite club.
8 Billion Dollars later, vanished into the elitist's bank accounts and now we know !

Some of us here on ATS Knew and were well aware that the entire debacle of Iraq was and IS another money grab.

That was not US tax payers money but Iraqi money, intended to rebuild their F'd up infrastructure that is STILL in a shambles long after the money is gone.

Also, where did the money reside ???
None other US Bankster Central, aka the Federal Reserve.

Remember this on May 1st, 2003 ?





What exactly did Mission Accomplished Mean ???

For Bush and Cheney it simply meant that they GOT THE MONEY !
For That money went to Halliburton and Bush's band of thieves !!

reply to post by Flighty


It was cunningly titled "Iraq's Missing Billions"


Channel 4 Films IIRC

[edit on 28-7-2010 by john_bmth]

reply to post by [davinci]


Back in 1993 or so it was discovered that various Congress men & women had been writting checks with no funds to cover them. Was it some how related to the postal service? I don't recall. It might have been General Acct. Did anyone go to jail? No. Did any of it get paid back? I don't think so. My bank would send me an overdraft notice if I was 25 cents over drawn. Thousands? Millions? Billions? I can't even imagine that. Any of us would still be in jail.

Last Sat. 7/24/2010 edition of our local paper reported Kenneth Feinberg Obamas 'pay czar', tasked with recouping some of the billions given as bail outs to banks, which in turn gave exec huge bonuses, has decided he won't collect $1.6 billion dollars saying "shaming them was punishment enough". People are losing their homes, their jobs, their peace of mind & these bankers are ashamed?? They should be...but then they have no shame. If it weren't so tragic it would be comical.
I'm getting really tired of this double standard.

Failing is convenient, you can always chalk it up to incompetence, you see.

This whole "we lost it" and other threads on ATS point to the hot mess we are in as a nation and a few other countries would probably agree they are in there with us. The corruption is so deep and so broad and so systemic that answers cannot be found individually for each injustice, but will require wholesale redress.

I look in the eyes of my growing children and think often about what kind of world we are willing to them.

So much is wrong that one hardly knows where to apply traditional peaceful civil disobedience to shine the light on outrages. The true State of our Nation is like the Gulf of Mexico seabed with cracks and fissures and leaks of corruption hidden everywhere - even in plain sight. It coats our people in filth and chokes the life out of our nation. We have become unrecognizable.

The state of The United States of America is absolute proof that a representative democracy can become a Kleptocracy.

Kleptocracy, is a term applied to a government that takes advantage of governmental corruption to extend the personal wealth and political power of government officials and the ruling class (collectively, kleptocrats), via the embezzlement of state funds at the expense of the wider population, sometimes without even the pretense of honest service. The term means "rule by thieves". Not an "official" form of government (such as democracy, republic, monarchy, theocracy) the term is a pejorative for governments perceived to have a particularly severe and systemic problem with the selfish misappropriation of public funds by those in power.

Does that definition sound familiar to anyone?

So, from the horse’s mouth, what did Former President George W. Bush say ought to be done about Kleptocracies?

Our objective is to defeat high-level public corruption in all its forms and to deny corrupt officials access to the international financial system as a means of defrauding their people and hiding their ill-gotten gains. Given the nature of our open, accessible international financial system, our success in fighting kleptocracy will depend upon the participation and accountability of our partner nations, the international financial community, and regional and multilateral development institutions. Together, we can confront kleptocracy and help create the conditions necessary for people everywhere to enjoy the full benefits of honest, just, and accountable governance.

Sounds like a plan. Order from chaos you say?


[edit on 28-7-2010 by DancedWithWolves]