Billions Stolen From Iraq?/ 60 Minutes Sunday

[sasha031]

02/09/06 "CBS" -- -- For a report to be broadcast this Sunday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m. ET/PT,

Some $8.8 billion dispersed for reconstruction efforts in Iraq is unaccounted for, says the U.S. official in charge of tracing it. 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft investigates the billions spent on reconstruction-related work, particularly money paid to a contractor, Custer Battles, now being sued for fraud. Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, says $8.8 billion is unaccounted for because oversight on the part of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the entity governing Iraq after the war, "was relatively nonexistent."

The former number two man at the Coalition's transportation ministry, Frank Willis, concurs. "I would describe as nonexistent." Without a financial infrastructure, checks and money transfers were not possible, so the Coalition kept billions in cash to pay for its multitude of projects. "Fresh, new, crisp, unspent, just-printed $100 bills. It was the Wild West," says Willis. Such an atmosphere made it possible for billions to go missing and companies to defraud the Coalition. Custer Battles, a company quickly formed after the war to get reconstruction contracts, goes on trial next week, accused in a whistleblower suit by an ex-employee of bilking the U.S. government out of $50 million. " wanted to open fraudulent companies overseas and inflate their invoices to the U.S. government," says the ex-employee, Robert Isakson. He says he refused to go along with the scheme and "two weeks later, apparently I heard they began exactly the fraud they described to me," he tells Kroft.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11856.htm

[acmejack]

1. I can't wait!

For this to get the sixty minutes treatment! I'll have to buy a couple of "TV Dinners"!

[sasha031]

4. yes, why is the MSM all of a sudden showing some courage

[Independent_Liberal]

2. Four Words

HAL LI BUR TON

:)

[zanne]

3. Custer Battles?

Are you f***ing kidding me?

[converted_democrat]

5. This would be a perfect time for people with puke relatives to call them

and ask them to watch.. That's what I'm going to do with all my puke relatives.. They might not listen to me, but they will listen to 60 Minutes..

[populistdriven]

6. Everyone knew about Custer Battles last year - Before the Election

CBS is a little FUCKING LATE!!!

And the title should be 'Billions Stolen From US via Iraq !'

[Catrina]

7. Is this the same $9 billion of Iraqi Oil Revenues that Bremer lost?

Or is it a different amount of money? This article talks about that, and all they have are excuses about how difficult it is to manage things in 'wartime'.


The $8.8 billion was reported to have been spent on salaries, operating and capital expenditures, and reconstruction projects between October 2003 and June 2004, Bowen's report concluded.

The money came from revenues from the United Nations' former oil-for-food program, oil sales and seized assets -- all Iraqi money. The audit did not examine the use of U.S. funds appropriated for reconstruction. (Full story)

Auditors were unable to verify that the Iraqi money was spent for its intended purpose. In one case, they raised the possibility that thousands of "ghost employees" were on an unnamed ministry's payroll.

"CPA staff identified at one ministry that although 8,206 guards were on the payroll, only 602 guards could be validated," the audit report states. "Consequently, there was no assurance funds were not provided for ghost employees."


http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.audit/

I remember reading that they had sent over a bunch of 'young 20-somethings' to manage things, who were pretty obnoxious and wouldn't allow veteran press reporters to ask questions, unless they were from Fox News.

I also remember that Rumsfeld et al told the American people that this war would cost no more than, at first, '$5 billion, no more than $40 billion dollars'.

This waste of billions of dollars and the corruption in Iraq should be a huge issue in the 2006 elections ~ a Congress that asked NO questions about the hundreds of billions of dollars they have spent so far on this war, and called anyone who did 'traitors' needs to be fired and then prosecuted, imo.

'Duke' Cunningham is a perfect example (and probably not the only one) who pushed for getting that money without oversight, in order to funnel money to his friends in the Defense Contracting business.

[Tim4319]

8. It's about damn time!

Randi and few other personalities, who are on top of their game, have mentioned this for the longest. I am glad 60 Minutes is going to step up and air this. I just hope they do not get "Ratherized" in the process!