Thread: Missing Iraq cash 'as high as $18 billion'

New York Fed Refuses To Disclose Data On "The Largest Theft Of Funds In National History" Which Could Be Three Times Larger Than Expected

Submitted by Tyler Durden
06/22/2011 10:22 -0400
180 comments

A week ago we reported on the case of the "The Largest Theft Of Funds In National History" http://www.zerohedge.com/article/was-ir ... al-history or the missing $6.6 billion in Iraq war reconstruction funding, which was literally composed of "shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills", which was part of a $20 billion total in "Marshall Plan" investment meant to stimulate the post-war economy. When discussing this so far undisclosed cash loss, "Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an office created by Congress, said the missing $6.6 billion may be "the largest theft of funds in national history." Two new developments have emerged in this fascinating story. The first, as CNBCs Eamon Javers reports is that "The New York Fed is refusing to tell investigators how many billions of dollars it shipped to Iraq during the early days of the US invasion there." Javers adds: "The Fed's lack of disclosure is making it difficult for the inspector general to follow the paper trail of billions of dollars that went missing in the chaotic rush to finance the Iraq occupation, and to determine how much of that money was stolen." Well, for what it's worth, we may have an estimate of this largest war theft ever: talking to Al Jazeera, "Osama al-Nujaifi, the Iraqi parliament speaker, has told Al Jazeera that the amount of Iraqi money unaccounted for by the US is $18.7bn - three times more than the reported $6.6bn." If indeed the total theft amounts to virtually the entire amount of reconstruction spending that could possibly explain why the Fed is so coy in discussing this issue. Alas, just like the Fed's multitrillion bailout of the financial system, it is unlikely it will be able to keep the topic from reemerging, and that very soon - al-Nujaifi adds: "There is a lot of money missing during the first American administration of Iraqi money in the first year of occupation. "Iraq's development fund has lost around $18bn of Iraqi money in these operations - their location is unknown. Also missing are the documents of expenditure. "I think it will be discussed soon. There should be an answer to where has Iraqi money gone." Who will be the next Mark Pittman to sue the New York Fed to get the required information on how much cash the FRBNY was complicit in "disappearing" - we can't wait to find out.

Video: Missing Iraq cash 'as high as $18 billion' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5yLFq6R ... r_embedded

From Al-Jazeera:

The Bush administration flew in a total of $20bn in cash into the country in 2004. This was money that had come from Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and seized Iraqi assets.

Officials in Iraq were supposed to give out the money to Iraqi ministries and US contractors, intended for the reconstruction of the country.

The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Iraqi officials argue that the US government was supposed to safeguard the stash under a 2004 legal agreement it signed with Iraq, hence making Washington responsible for the cash that has disappeared.

Pentagon officials have contended for the last six years that they could account for the money if given enough time to track down the records.

The US has audited the money three times, but has still not been able to say exactly where it went.

Al Jazeera's Iraq correspondent, Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said: "It's an absolutely astonishing figure - this goes back to 2003 and 2004.

"There is going to be a fairly wide net cast - some of them [involved in mishandling of this money] are thought to be US officials, but many here believe that it is the Iraqis who have filled their pockets.

"Safeguarding the money was up to the Americans ... after the invasion, provisional authority here was run by the American military.

"Piles and piles of shrink-wrapped US dollars came here, but the cash coming in is not the important part - it is what happened to it after [it got here].

"There are no documents to indicate who got it, where it was spent and what was ever built from it."

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/new-yo ... d-be-three

Jun 19, 2011

Osama al-Najai, the Iraqi parliament speaker, has told Al Jazeera that the amount of Iraqi money unaccounted for by the US is $18.7bn - three times more than the reported $6.6bn.
The Bush administration flew in a total of $20bn in cash into the country in 2004. This was money that had come from Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and seized Iraqi assets.

Wake Up America

Missing Iraq money may have been stolen, auditors say http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 4060.story

$6.6 Billion In $100 Bills Goes Missing http://therealrevo.com/blog/?p=48333

How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1

Rumsfeld 2.3 Trillion Dollars missing Pentagon 1 DAY b 4 / 911 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kpWqdPMjmo

Nothing but Money Laundering ... every war .. every chance they get .. Government Money Laundering

It will not stop till you get the Foxes out of the Hen House

February 11, 2009 9:17 PM

The War On Waste

By Aleen Sirgany

(CBS) On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists, "the adversary's closer to home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy," he said.

He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat.

"In fact, it could be said it's a matter of life and death," he said.

Rumsfeld promised change but the next day – Sept. 11-- the world changed and in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, the war on waste seems to have been forgotten.

Just last week President Bush announced, "my 2003 budget calls for more than $48 billion in new defense spending."

More money for the Pentagon, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports, while its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends.

"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.

$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.

"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

Minnery, a former Marine turned whistle-blower, is risking his job by speaking out for the first time about the millions he noticed were missing from one defense agency's balance sheets. Minnery tried to follow the money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records.

"The director looked at me and said 'Why do you care about this stuff?' It took me aback, you know? My supervisor asking me why I care about doing a good job," said Minnery.

He was reassigned and says officials then covered up the problem by just writing it off.

"They have to cover it up," he said. "That's where the corruption comes in. They have to cover up the fact that they can't do the job."

The Pentagon's Inspector General "partially substantiated" several of Minnery's allegations but could not prove officials tried "to manipulate the financial statements."

Twenty years ago, Department of Defense Analyst Franklin C. Spinney made headlines exposing what he calls the "accounting games." He's still there, and although he does not speak for the Pentagon, he believes the problem has gotten worse.

"Those numbers are pie in the sky. The books are cooked routinely year after year," he said.

Another critic of Pentagon waste, Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan, commanded the Navy's 2nd Fleet the first time Donald Rumsfeld served as Defense Secretary, in 1976.

In his opinion, "With good financial oversight we could find $48 billion in loose change in that building, without having to hit the taxpayers."


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/ ... 5985.shtml