Pallets of US cash sent to Baghdad before handover

[bigtree]

Tue Feb 6, 2007

WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve sent record payouts of more than $4 billion in cash to Baghdad on giant pallets aboard military planes shortly before the United States gave control back to Iraqis, lawmakers said on Tuesday.

The money, which had been held by the United States, came from Iraqi oil exports, surplus dollars from the U.N.-run oil-for-food program and frozen assets belonging to the ousted Saddam Hussein regime.

Bills weighing a total of 363 tons were loaded onto military aircraft in the largest cash shipments ever made by the Federal Reserve, said Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

"Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone? But that's exactly what our government did," the California Democrat said during a hearing reviewing possible waste, fraud and abuse of funds in Iraq.

On Dec. 12, 2003, $1.5 billion was shipped to Iraq, initially "the largest pay out of U.S. currency in Fed history," according to an e-mail cited by committee members.

It was followed by more than $2.4 billion on June 22, 2004, and $1.6 billion three days later. The CPA turned over sovereignty on June 30.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2007-02-06T210333Z_01_N06249449_RTRIDST_0_IRAQ-USA-CASH-PICTURE.XML



http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[Gman]

1. They played football with bricks of $100 bills

“Iraq was awash in cash - in dollar bills. Piles and piles of money,” says Frank Willis, a former senior official with the governing Coalition Provisional Authority. “We played football with some of the bricks of $100 bills before delivery. It was a wild-west crazy atmosphere, the likes of which none of us had ever experienced.”

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/dfi/2006/0320awash.htm

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Old news that's finally getting some attention, maybe?

[Solly Mack]

2. "discretionary dollars" were all over Iraq in 2003/2004

with little to no accounting...one of the things my husband told me about while he was in Iraq

[CJCRANE]

3. American Heist.

Biggest example of daylight robbery.

[jpak]

4. Biggest Bank Heist Ever

Thank you All Powerful Wise and Benevolent Great Decider!!!

Like you said "it's my tax money" - right????

[SoCalDem]

5. You just "know" that some soldiers have a secret stash waiting for them

if they make it out alive ..

That much money floating around is impossible to keep track of.

[rubberducky]

6. This makes me sooo sick.

Who the hell was this stupid?? TONS of money into Iraq. NO WATER OR FOOD into NOLA?? WTF??

[uppityperson]

7. k&r. Heard this on NPR, thanks for the story

[Cass]

8. Wolf on the Situation Room covered this earlier, too.

I'm glad this is finally being addressed by Congress and the media. Its really galling to think $12 billion could just disappear like that.

[Double T]

9. bushco promoting corruption and malfeasance the world over

[malaise]

10. Tweety is devouring Bremer

on Hardball now

[cascadiance]

11. There's a good documentary on Link TV on this topic the next week or so...

where this is called a "free fraud zone", much like uncontrolled areas for the troops is called a "free fire zone".

"Iraq's Missing Billions" really gets into this topic on how this money was basically ripped off, and how the places that should have gotten the money like hospitals, etc. are woefully underfunded.

This feature along with "Iraq For Sale" would make a wonderful double feature to show your friends that don't understand why we are in Iraq. Together they both should give you answers to that question. It looks like Link TV is doing precisely that in a two hour segment on Iraq, as this time around they look to be showing clips from "Iraq for Sale" in the same segment too.

Try the following times over the next week or so to see it:

Times EST I think:

From:
http://www.linktv.org/schedule/wschedule.php4

Sunday 2/11:
5:00 PM - Iraq: Four More Years Part I
11:00 PM - Iraq: Four More Years Part I
Monday 2/12:
5:00 AM - Iraq: Four More Years Part I
12:00 PM - Iraq: Four More Years Part I
Wednesday 2/14:
8:00 PM - Iraq: Four More Years Part I
Thursday 2/15:
9:00 AM - Iraq: Four More Years Part I

[Beaverhausen]

12. 363 tons of cash

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. Has Jerry Bremer made any major real estate purchases lately?

Paraguay, maybe?

[OneBlueSky]

14. no problem . . . they just print more . . . n/t

.