Hey Bremer, Where did the 363 tons of CA$H Go?

[Jcrowley]

Rep. grills ex-US leader in Iraq: Where did 363 tons of cash go? Mike Sheehan
Published: Tuesday February 6, 2007




Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), leading a Congressional review of possible U.S. waste and fraud in Iraq, sought answers from former Iraq Provisional Authority leader L. Paul Bremer today.

"House Democrats, taking charge of investigations now that they control Congress, grilled the former U.S. occupation chief in Iraq on Tuesday about the way he doled out billions of Iraqi dollars without accounting for the money," the Associated Press reports.

Over $4 billion in cash, which came from Iraqi oil exports and other sources, was sent by the Federal Reserve to Baghdad on pallets aboard U.S. military planes just before government control was given back to the Iraqis, Reuters says. The bills reportedly weighed hundreds of tons.

"Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone? But that's exactly what our government did," Waxman said, according to Reuters.

The AP says Bremer countered, "I arrived in Baghdad at a time when much of the city was burning. Looting was still widespread. My responsibilities were to kickstart the economy.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Waxman_grills_exUS_leader_in_Iraq_0206.html

[obnoxiousdrunk]

1. I would like

to know what was in Bremer's suitcase when he left Iraq ...?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. nice suit, eh? Handmade in London?

shit on a stick. 360 TONS of cash.

[Jcrowley]

5. Imagine this

363 tons of cash into a f**kin' war zone. This is utter contempt for any laws and complete arrogance at the highest levels. The corruption knows no bounds.

[corkhead]

22. that would be sure to "kickstart" their economy

like lighting my house on fire will keep me warm.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

26. a GREAT analogy.

mind if I steal it?

[corkhead]

27. feel free, I made it all by myselfs!

[onecent]

29. Wonderful picture!!

[Fridays Child]

6. And whether he made a stop in Switzerland or the Grand Caymans?

How has life been for Bremer and some of his favorite private contractors? Have they been living above their means? Trips, cars, vacations? Fine art, jewelry? Swanky private schools for the kids?

[Captain Hilts]

2. It must be somewhere.....nt

[gratuitous]

14. But four years later, the trail's going to be a bit cold

I wonder why Congress didn't look into this any sooner?

Oh yeah, we were being ruled by the
Grifters
Oligarchs and
Pseudo-patriots.

[SpiralHawk]

4. NBC just broadcast this story, and...

Bremer came across as a lying republicon scumbag...

Anyone who was watching the TV could clearly see that he was a republicon liar.

[happydreams]

30. We should send him a gift...an Abramof gangster hat!

[Toots]

7. You don't suppose a bunch of Republican cronies suddenly received a box load

of hundred dollar bills that were untraceable do you? When I went to Vietnam we had to immediately turn in all green back dollars and received MPC instead. It was called treason if we spent any real American money in Vietnam because it was understood the enemy could use that money on the international market to by supplies. Why was that policy abandoned?

[theoldman]

8. My friend who was in Iraq said that a lot of the money went to

people who then left the country. Why stay in a war zone when you have a million dollars or more.

[theoldman]

9. I should add that although a few records were kept, no one

followed up to see how the money was spent.

[randycrow]

10. Bremer is being used to switch sides back to Baathists

Bremer is blamed for de Baathistification. Although a Neocon led USA has always been on the side of Saddam Hussein Baathist Sunni (communi$t$) the finger is being pointed at Bremer now so the USA can help Baathists (communi$t$).

[newyawker99]

16. Hi randycrow!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[happydreams]

33. Welcome to DU. I always wondered why they use two

a's in Baathist. Jim Bath only uses one.

[woodsprite]

11. My guess - either Paraguay or they're using to run the shadow govt. n/t

[happydreams]

32. Or maybe the President of Paraguay has suddenly gotten rich??

:tinfoilhat:

[catmandu57]

12. I've always thought that crashcart

got a great big pile that's hidden away somewhere, the rest has been cut up and passed around to cronies and toadies, but dead eye has the lions share.

[Booster]

18. Didn't he receive something like a 8 million refund from the IRS

last year? hmmmmmmm His salary is $240,000, right?

[leftchick]

13. seeing him in his french cuffs I am reminded

of how he had his shirts sent from baghdad to Kuwait for cleaning. What a fop.

[Bandit]

15. I would say a lot of Swiss Bank Accounts were opened about that time..

American Tax Payers were robbed, plain and simple, and we all know who the robbers are..

[gatorboy]

17. Bremer: "Oh that's easy it went..."

"HEY LOOK OVER THERE AT THAT CRAZY ASTRONAUT!!! " *Exit Stage Left*

[judaspriestess]

19. over 4 billion in cash

how many people would that have helped in New Orleans?

this is crazy

[xultar]

20. Looking for the cash? OJ says he'll look for it.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. Did they use it to buy sex? No? Then move on, nothing to see.

[earth mom]

23. "OTHER SOURCES" no doubt being the hardworking American people-

most of whom live paycheck to paycheck and don't have health care! :grr:

[soup]

24. Not lookin' so good, is he?

from 10/16/04 - all hail the mighty Bremer...

[sweetheart]

25. The bermuda triangle in east new jersey

All the cash went on an airplane through a wormhole in new jersey in to another
universe where only republicans are there to get the money.

[kestrel91316]

28. Am I the only one who thinks maybe the $ eventually wound up

buying a big piece of land in Paraguay?

[Old and In the Way]

35. I think it bought a big piece of the 2004 election.

Putting all of those unqualified, clueless young people into the CPA whose main attribute was that they were loyal Republicans ought to be the first marker. They drained it so fast ought to be the second one. It was all gone before the Iraqi's took over. This was done in 2004....that's a lot of accounted for money that could have bought a lot help for the Syndicate in the election that year.

http://globalpolicy.igc.org/security/issues/iraq/dfiindex.htm

Under Resolution 1546 the Security Council dissolved the CPA and transferred nominal sovereignty to the Iraqis in June 2004, handing control of the DFI to the interim Iraqi government. Eventually, in October 2004 IAMB and independent accounting firm KPMG conducted audits. Findings show that the CPA did not have adequate accounting systems in place, resulting in unknown quantities of petroleum being illegally exported from Iraq . Subsequent audits conducted by the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction (SIGIR) have found that, of the US$23 billion of Iraqi money held in the DFI, US$8.8 billion remains unaccounted for.

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

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."


Here's what the apolgist-braintrust at FreeRepublic think about this-

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780422/posts

really sad to see what they are willing to accept from this administration to accommodate their righteous worldview....

[happydreams]

31. A high focused satellite image of Bushies Paraguay hideaway shows

boxes with Treasury Dept. stamps on them.

[ThoughtCriminal]

34. Yeah, that explanation makes sense

You arrive in a town with looting and burning - that's the time to unload pallets of cash. They couldn't even be bothered to unload a pallet of water in New Orleans.