Journalists Respond: Greenspan Claims He Didn't Know About Fed's Role in Iraq's Missing Billions

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/09/1349230

Democracy Now! today~

"Mr. Greenspan Is Flat Wrong": Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalists Respond to Alan Greenspan's Claim That He Didn't Know About Federal Reserve's Role in Iraq's Missing Billions


Last month, during an appearance on Democracy Now!, former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan questioned a report in Vanity Fair that $12 billion was shipped from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to Iraq. $9 billion cannot be accounted for. Today investigative journalists Donald Barlett and James Steele respond to Greenspan. We return to a story we covered last month – Iraq's missing billions. Just weeks after the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration began airlifting planeloads of cash to Baghdad for use by U.S. occupation officials. Twelve billion dollars in US currency was shipped in just over a year. But where did the money go? To date, at least $9 billion dollars cannot be accounted for.

Last month Democracy Now! interviewed the investigative journalist team of Donald Barlett and James Steele. They published a shocking expose in Vanity Fair tracking how the money went from the Federal Reserve to Iraq.

Well, two weeks later, the former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan appeared on Democracy Now! for a debate with the journalist Naomi Klein. In our interview I asked Alan Greenspan about Barlett and Steele's piece.

* Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chair

That was the former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan, speaking on Democracy Now! last month. For a response we're joined now by the authors of that Vanity Fair piece -- Donald Barlett and James Steele. They are two of the nation's top investigative journalists. Joining us now from Philadelphia.

* Donald Barlett, investigative journalist and Vanity Fair contributing editor.

* James Steele, investigative journalist and Vanity Fair contributing editor.