Outrage of the Day
The US sent billions of dollars in cash to Iraq on pallets and it’s gone without a trace.
“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 28.
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.
This is one Democrat investigation that deserves to happen. One of the worst things about the Bush presidency is the flagrant way it has dumped taxpayer money down rat holes. It’s a sad day when a Republican is being investigated by Democrats for blowing the people’s money.
Technically, it wasn’t actually taxpayer money, thankfully. Not that it changes anything else about this fiasco, if true.
“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.”
Posted by goy on 02/08 at 09:05 PMYeah, but it’s money the government could have put to better use. I mean, billions wasted. Billions.
Posted by on 02/09 at 01:06 AM
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