Excerpt: "Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that US officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time."
Pallets stacked with shrink-wrapped US $100 bills arriving in Iraq in May of 2004. (photo: Scott Applewhite/AP)
6 Billion "In Cash" Missing in Iraq
14 June 11
�
he Iraqi and US governments have been unable to account for a substantial chunk of the billions of dollars in reconstruction aid the Bush administration literally airlifted into the country. If the cash proves to have been stolen, the heist could represent "the largest theft of funds in national history," according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
The Times' description of how the billions of dollars entered the country is a must-read:
Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that US officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.
Special inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction Stuart Bowen told the paper the missing $6.6 billion may be "the largest theft of funds in national history."
Iraqi officials say it was the US government's job to keep track of the funds, which were brought in as an emergency measure to keep basic infrastructure going after Saddam Hussein's ouster. House Government Reform Committee investigators found in 2005 evidence of "substantial waste, fraud and abuse in the actual spending and disbursement of the Iraqi funds."
Witnesses testified that millions of dollars were shoved into "gunnysacks" and disbursed to Iraqi contractors on pick-up trucks, with what seemed to be little financial controls or accounting on the part of the US government.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
Aha, I knew it.
And if you think about the ramifications of a privatized Postal System your hair should be standing on end right now.
The worst abuse of your personal information by private companies occurs when private companies turn that information over to government agencies. Privacy from other citizens is important, but privacy from government is more important, because the government can, has, and will continue to do worse things with your information.
Similarly, I wonder why we should be happier to find out that Jeb Bush turned over the purging of Florida voting rolls to a Texas corporation in order to insure brother Geo.that 250 or so hanging chads would turn out to be spit in the ocean -- instead of putting the government of Florida to work fumbling at the job, and leaving better fingerprints behind.
So it's not clear to me how it counts as consoling that FedEx or UPS gets mail delivered faster than the USPS (if indeed they do).
FedEx and UPS have a track record of greater integrity wrt actually getting packages delivered, vs. the postal service - see the scandals from a few years back, where overworked Chicago area postmen were simply dumping large quantities of mail, rather than delivering it. An example of a private entity performing it's service with better integrity and efficiency than a public entity - there are plaenty of anecdotes to support either side of the public/private argument (glad my electric utility stayed public back in the 90s, for instance) I just mentioned the postal service vs. UPS/FedEx because the person I replied to mentioned "the ramifications of a privatized postal service" as terrifying. Just felt like pointing out that we have multiple private "postal services" that do a good job, and the world hasn't imploded.
It means that he had an opportunity to reveal that information to the general public, that he would not otherwise have had.
Here's how the non-privatized postal service respects your privacy:
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/us-postal-service-spying-you?akid=10652.19365.U1fi3T&rd=1&src=newsletter864220&t=4
Not sure why you think a government paid bureaucrat would have any less compunction about sharing information. Or why you think one company sharing with another - even unethically - is somehow worse than the government itself unconstitutiona lly obtaining such information. The government is able to do far more sinister things to you based on such info.
Laws requiring a warrant to access third part info WOULD be beneficial. E-mail left on a server is not abandoned, and providers should be able to refuse to give up users information if they so choose. As it stands, a private communications company that doesn't want to release information about it's customers can be easily compelled to give that information up in response to a simple demand or subpoena.
What happens is, with their inadequate personnel policies, they fail to weed out leakers. GOOD!
Corporatism is not good policy, I agree, but it seems like a distraction and muddying of the waters to argue about whether the NSA surveillance program could have been better administered by government vs. corporate agents. The fact is, it was created at the behest of government and should not have been. If Snowden had been a federal employee instead of a contractor, that would not have made the program one bit more constitutional. It might have helped keep it more secret, but that's a bad thing.
Privatization of Government is a very very costly SCAM.., and a great big, For-Profit Scheme to transfer the Nation's Tax Revenue into the hands of highly lucrative, OVERLY Expensive For-Profit Corporate Contracts. Who knows how many of which are just made up bullshit.
We should end these contracts and immediately hire and PAY WELL, legions of Civil Servants and Military Personnel who will work directly for the WE the People WITHOUT any CORPORATE-INTER EST Middle Men in between.
The Military should run the entire Military--- KP Duty and all..!
I think Americans should demand an AUDIT of ALL Government Privatization SCHEMES (contracts)... And also demand a Forensic Financial/Econo mic/Contract-Cu lture investigation into all of it, which I am sure would at least show that Contracting begets more Contracting and spirals the cost of Government out of control more than anything else...!!
Government-- OUR GOVERNMENT -- IS NOT a Business..!!
And American Tax Payers are NOT Corporate Cash Cows..!