Jackson Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 Read this in the paper today, shit is unbelieveable. Special flights brought in tonnes of banknotes which disappeared into the war zone David Pallister Thursday February 8, 2007 The Guardian An armed guard poses beside pallets of $100 bills in Baghdad. Almost $12bn in cash was spent by the US-led authority 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. 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. Article continues Details of the shipments have emerged in a memorandum prepared for the meeting of the House committee on oversight and government reform which is examining Iraqi reconstruction. Its chairman, Henry Waxman, a fierce critic of the war, said the way the cash had been handled was mind-boggling. "The numbers are so large that it doesn't seem possible that they're true. Who in their right mind would send 363 tonnes of cash into a war zone?" The memorandum details the casual manner in which the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority disbursed the money, which came from Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and seized Iraqi assets. "One CPA official described an environment awash in $100 bills," the memorandum says. "One contractor received a $2m payment in a duffel bag stuffed with shrink-wrapped bundles of currency. Auditors discovered that the key to a vault was kept in an unsecured backpack. "They also found that $774,300 in cash had been stolen from one division's vault. Cash payments were made from the back of a pickup truck, and cash was stored in unguarded sacks in Iraqi ministry offices. One official was given $6.75m in cash, and was ordered to spend it in one week before the interim Iraqi government took control of Iraqi funds." The minutes from a May 2004 CPA meeting reveal "a single disbursement of $500m in security funding labelled merely 'TBD', meaning 'to be determined'." The memorandum concludes: "Many of the funds appear to have been lost to corruption and waste ... thousands of 'ghost employees' were receiving pay cheques from Iraqi ministries under the CPA's control. Some of the funds could have enriched both criminals and insurgents fighting the United States." According to Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, the $8.8bn funds to Iraqi ministries were disbursed "without assurance the monies were properly used or accounted for". But, according to the memorandum, "he now believes that the lack of accountability and transparency extended to the entire $20bn expended by the CPA". To oversee the expenditure the CPA was supposed to appoint an independent certified public accounting firm. "Instead the CPA hired an obscure consulting firm called North Star Consultants Inc. The firm was so small that it reportedly operates out of a private home in San Diego." Mr Bowen found that the company "did not perform a review of internal controls as required by the contract". However, evidence before the committee suggests that senior American officials were unconcerned about the situation because the billions were not US taxpayers' money. Paul Bremer, the head of the CPA, reminded the committee that "the subject of today's hearing is the CPA's use and accounting for funds belonging to the Iraqi people held in the so-called Development Fund for Iraq. These are not appropriated American funds. They are Iraqi funds. I believe the CPA discharged its responsibilities to manage these Iraqi funds on behalf of the Iraqi people." Bremer's financial adviser, retired Admiral David Oliver, is even more direct. The memorandum quotes an interview with the BBC World Service. Asked what had happened to the $8.8bn he replied: "I have no idea. I can't tell you whether or not the money went to the right things or didn't - nor do I actually think it's important." Q: "But the fact is billions of dollars have disappeared without trace." Oliver: "Of their money. Billions of dollars of their money, yeah I understand. I'm saying what difference does it make?" Mr Bremer, whose disbanding of the Iraqi armed forces and de-Ba'athification programme have been blamed as contributing to the present chaos, told the committee: "I acknowledge that I made mistakes and that with the benefit of hindsight, I would have made some decisions differently. Our top priority was to get the economy moving again. The first step was to get money into the hands of the Iraqi people as quickly as possible." Millions of civil service families had not received salaries or pensions for months and there was no effective banking system. "It was not a perfect solution," he said. "Delay might well have exacerbated the nascent insurgency and thereby increased the danger to Americans." http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2008191,00.html :lol: :eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suca Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 who in their right mind would spell it 'tonnes' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qawee Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 i should've been there to get my fair share for reconstruction efforts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackson Posted February 8, 2007 Author Share Posted February 8, 2007 It's the English spelling, get over it. C-O-L-O-U(!!!!)-R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUR X3 Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 TONS* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suca Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 *color Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boxcarrapist Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 why cant they do that in the ghetto fucka iraq. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r o n d a Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 ^^ *faggots ^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gat Bush Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EGG Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 money is only paper! specially dollars... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest R@ndomH3ro Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 money is only paper! specially dollars... actually money is printed on linen...so technically its not paper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishCarBombs Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 booo-yahhhhh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorldBench Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 you should see how they transport it on the roads when i was downrange it was free-for all grabs when convoys got hit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dumy Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 wow..basically the view of the us on this is.."its the iraqi's money, fuck them, they're (sand)iraqi's(niggers)" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guerillaeye Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 millions upon millions of dollars in hard cash literally dumped into a war-zone. how many millions made it into the hands of those that are fighting against the us? the us government is not that stupid. they did that shit on purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~KRYLON2~ Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 this is bullshit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i11igul Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 yawn...this is nothing exciting, granted its an astounding amount of money but this administration has fucked up enough matters that its nothing surprising Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mauler5150 Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 Re-tah-ded!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
After School Special Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 millions upon millions of dollars in hard cash literally dumped into a war-zone. how many millions made it into the hands of those that are fighting against the us? the us government is not that stupid. they did that shit on purpose. I wonder how the US kids fighting over there feel about their government dropping cash money on the people shooting at them. I know that bombs cost money, but at least spend the money on the bombs 1st. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blood Feast Island Man Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 who in their right mind would spell it 'tonnes' people what spell english rightwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EGG Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 actually money is printed on linen...so technically its not paper not only on linen......... COMPOSITION: Bills are composed of 25% linen and 75% cotton; red and blue synthetic fibers are distributed throughout the paper. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/math/money/bills/one/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papa_dukes Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 aight this is where all the ride or die pirates are gonna get fame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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