Plane loads of US Cash lost

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I have been watching this story for a while and here is some more info on it.

There were also several tractor trailer units of US Cash ($100.00 bills via ground transport) that were also lost that are not in this article. (another billion or so)

Link to plane loads (C-130s) of US Cash lost --> http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...g-billions-20110613,0,4414060.story?track=rss

By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times
June 13, 2011
Reporting from Washington— After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born.

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 U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.

This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled all those Benjamins. But despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion in cash — enough to run the Los Angeles Unified School District or the Chicago Public Schools for a year, among many other things.

For the first time, federal auditors are suggesting that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting error. 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."

The mystery is a growing embarrassment to the Pentagon, and an irritant to Washington's relations with Baghdad. Iraqi officials are threatening to go to court to reclaim the money, which came from Iraqi oil sales, seized Iraqi assets and surplus funds from the United Nations' oil-for-food program.

It's fair to say that Congress, which has already shelled out $61 billion of U.S. taxpayer money for similar reconstruction and development projects in Iraq, is none too thrilled either.


"Congress is not looking forward to having to spend billions of our money to make up for billions of their money that we can't account for, and can't seem to find," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), who presided over hearings on waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq six years ago when he headed the House Government Reform Committee.

Theft of such a staggering sum might seem unlikely, but U.S. officials aren't ruling it out. Some U.S. contractors were accused of siphoning off tens of millions in kickbacks and graft during the post-invasion period, especially in its chaotic early days. But Iraqi officials were viewed as prime offenders.

The U.S. cash airlift was a desperation measure, organized when the Bush administration was eager to restore government services and a shattered economy to give Iraqis confidence that the new order would be a drastic improvement on Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

The White House decided to use the money in the so-called Development Fund for Iraq, which was created by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to hold money amassed during the years when Hussein's regime was under crippling economic and trade sanctions.

The cash was carried by tractor-trailer trucks from the fortress-like Federal Reserve currency repository in East Rutherford, N.J., to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, then flown to Baghdad. U.S. officials there stored the hoard in a basement vault at one of Hussein's former palaces, and at U.S. military bases, and eventually distributed the money to Iraqi ministries and contractors.

But U.S. officials often didn't have time or staff to keep strict financial controls. Millions of dollars were stuffed in gunnysacks and hauled on pickups to Iraqi agencies or contractors, officials have testified.

House Government Reform Committee investigators charged in 2005 that U.S. officials "used virtually no financial controls to account for these enormous cash withdrawals once they arrived in Iraq, and there is evidence of substantial waste, fraud and abuse in the actual spending and disbursement of the Iraqi funds."

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. But repeated attempts to find the documentation, or better yet the cash, were fruitless.

Iraqi officials argue that the U.S. government was supposed to safeguard the stash under a 2004 legal agreement it signed with Iraq. That makes Washington responsible, they say.

Abdul Basit Turki Saeed, Iraq's chief auditor and president of the Iraqi Board of Supreme Audit, has warned U.S. officials that his government will go to court if necessary to recoup the missing money.

"Clearly Iraq has an interest in looking after its assets and protecting them," said Samir Sumaidaie, Iraq's ambassador to the United States.

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wow, just wow

 

Sounds like bizznizz as usual.

 

Somebody made out like a bandit son

 

^^^LOL

 

Not surprising. I don't care if you label yourself Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, or anything in between .. selfishness and greed have no party affiliation, and know no bounds. The massive fraud and abuse, and the number of contractors treating the US like their personal piggybank is sickening. But you see that same attitude day in day out everyday life too. The whole "fuck you .. I got mine" attitude is going to drive the Divided States of America into the ground.

 

It's all about the benjamins baby

 

I don't know what's worse - the extent of the fraud or the lack of surprise I had when reading this.

 

I guess I'm surprised that we actually send cold hard cash.
Figured it would be credit or wire transfers or something.

 

just like Chinese restaurants, the Iraqi Government is CASH ONLY

 

Wow, you always hear stories of govt funds being misused, but this takes it to a whole new level......just tack it on to our deficit, what's another 6 to 7 billion$? Chump change!

 

WTF No pay pal????

 

This is nothing new. Thanks to the like of 'in' contractors like Haliburton who were handed contracts for reasons we don't talk about in public, each plate the troops would eat a meal off of would cost the US taxpayer about $6000.00 dollars, including the 2nd plate they would use to cover the 1st to keep the sand out of the meal.

Small wonder the country is in the shape it is in with the corruption at all levels.

 

...^^^ ... Exactly ... Both parties have been raiding the "gov't cookie jar" for a long time and the greed factor has gone off the charts.

Since that was supposedly "Designated Iraqi Cash" that was lost ... now Iraq wants us to replace it or perhaps they will take the US to an international court ... this statement was just on the news too.
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Sooo.....what else is new?

 

This is the truth

 

Wow, just...WOW!

 

Actually, it was Iraq's U.S Dollars cash from the Iraqi food-for-oil program and other seized assets...caused by economic sanction during Saddams era... we just delivered it.

If you also notice, Iraq is threatening to take it to court to seek reimbursement for the lost funds... even though we've already gave them about $60 Billion of U.S taxpayer money on top of security related expenditures...

btw, IBTL

 

This part is pretty CRAZY! I think there might be some more details not available to the public with this story...it's just too fucking out there!