and put into our treasury. Just before the tranfer of power back to Iraqis we were told by the UN that the money should be back to the Iraqi people. Instead it was given to Mercenaries in Iraq.
This is amazing, the bush administration defied the U.N. who told US to pay the money to Iraqi people, for jobs etc….
Instead the bush administration took the cash right from the treasury on big pallets, transfered it to Iraq and doled it out to contractors with duffle bags from the back of a truck.
Sorry if this has been diaried, I looked but did not see it.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062205X.shtml
US Was Big Spender in Days before Iraq Handover
By Sue Pleming
Reuters
Wednesday 22 June 2005
Cash was loaded onto giant pallets for shipment by plane to Iraq, and paid out to contractors who carried it away in duffel bags.
The United States handed out nearly $20 billion of Iraq’s funds, with a rush to spend billions in the final days before transferring power to the Iraqis nearly a year ago, a report said on Tuesday.
A report by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California, said in the week before the hand-over on June 28, 2004, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority ordered the urgent delivery of more than $4 billion in Iraqi funds from the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York.
One single shipment amounted to $2.4 billion — the largest movement of cash in the bank’s history, said Waxman.
Most of these funds came from frozen and seized assets and from the Development Fund for Iraq, which succeeded the U.N.’s oil-for-food program. After the U.S. invasion, the U.N. directed this money should be used by the CPA for the benefit of the Iraqi people.
Cash was loaded onto giant pallets for shipment by plane to Iraq, and paid out to contractors who carried it away in duffel bags.
The report, released at a House of Representatives committee hearing, said despite the huge amount of money, there was little U.S. scrutiny in how these assets were managed.
“The disbursement of these funds was characterized by significant waste, fraud and abuse,” said Waxman.
An audit by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said U.S. auditors could not account for nearly $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds and the United States had not provided adequate controls for this money.
“The CPA’s management of Iraqi money was an important responsibility that, in my view, required more diligent accountability, pursuant to its assigned mandate, than we found,” said chief inspector Stuart Bowen in testimony.
*More at above link*