Iraq hunting $17 billion missing after U.S. invasion

[cal04]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_iraq_usa_money

Iraq's parliament is chasing about $17 billion of Iraqi oil money it says was stolen after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and has asked the United Nations for help to track it down.

(snip)
In 2004, the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush flew billions of dollars in cash into Iraq. The money came from the sale of Iraqi oil, surplus funds from the U.N. oil-for-food program and seized Iraqi assets.

Last July, an audit report from the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) said the U.S. Department of Defense was unable to account properly for $8.7 billion of Iraqi oil and gas money after the 2003 invasion.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Al Jazeera television on Sunday: "No one on the Iraqi side was controlling the work of Paul Bremer at that time. So I think the administration of the United States needs to give the answers for where and how this (money) was being used.

[DCKit]

1. Just the cost of doing busines with the US.

If they owed that same 17 billion to the World Skank, IMF or USAID, they'd really be in trouble.

[Initech]

2. Try looking into Xe, KBR, Goldman-Sachs, and Halliburton for starters.

[bhikkhu]

3. The Iraqis may havbe a legal case for re-payment

...which should at least further mark the Bush administration as a complete failure, though its probably to late to lead to anything useful. In any case, its pretty clear that the UN turned the Iraqi Oil for Food fund over to us in good faith, and that we were responsible to administer it. If we can't account for funds entrusted to us, we may be legally responsible to replace them.

The cost of electing an idiot just keeps going up.

[Wilms]

4. Here's where the money is.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=394148&mesg_id=394148