360 Tons Of Money Sent to Baghdad

[Stalwart]

This amount measured in tons still boggles my mind. Considering their value they are still around somewhere. Where are they now?

All of the bills (100's?) had serial numbers. It is possible that they were all new and serial numbers ran consecutively in lots or perhaps throughout the entire 360 tons. On the other hand they might have been old withdrawn bills that were in the warehouse to be burned?

If they could be identified by serial number sequences wouldn't it be fascinating to find out where in the world they are showing up? Armed with serial number sequences and a website to report discovery to (with a jpeg of the bill?) then enough people might look at the serial number on c-notes in their pocket or in their till just out of curiosity. Publicity generated by initial discovery might snowball the effort. A google map with pins denoting discovery of the serial numbers would be fascinating.

Certainly worth some effort for me to try and find out about the serial numbers by a freedom of information request or ask my congressman about it.

If this was a big bank heist somebody would be doing this. A quick google search does not seem to turn up anything about serial numbers nor much info on how tons and pallets of money are handled in accordance with government procedures.

Any volunteer detectives, leads or clues are most welcome.

[Old and In the Way]

1. I find the timing most interesting.

The money was completely laundered in the 2 months preceding the Iraqi takeover....and 6 months before the 2004 election. I suspect little if any of that money found its way in Iraqi hands....I'm betting that this money greased a lot of hands in our election. Remember that the CPA went to great pains to vet the political backgrounds of the people who went to work in Iraq.

One doesn't lose accountability of $8.8BB...unless one wants to.

[Graybeard]

2. A trucker called in to the Sam Seder Show...

...and put that 360 ton amount into perspective. He said that it would take 17 trailer trucks to haul that load. That's a hell of a lot of hundred dollar bills to just disappear.

[Stalwart]

3. Serial Numbers

The New York Fed cash staff in East Rutherford NJ has records by bill serial number of cash shipments made to Iraq.

Two of the biggest shipments of cash totaled 2.4 billion on 23 and 25 June 2004. The New York Fed has the individual bill serial number info. on those and all other shipments.

14,000 pages of financial records and other documents related to the shipment of cash to Iraq were turned over by the New York Fed to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Those serial numbers may be in that info, if not there the info is held by the New York Fed.

It will not be the government that will be looking or making public where these bills are showing up and probable reasons why.

This is analogous to leaving ammo dumps wide open for anyone to help themselves to something that could be used to harm us. Criminal.

Get serial numbers, put them on website, get media publicity to get people world wide looking at serial numbers and reporting them to website, put them on google map.

[Graybeard]

4. Great work Stalwart. Welcome to DU!...

...Forget getting any satisfaction from the MSM. You should e-mail your findings to real journalists like Seymour Hirsch or Greg Palast.

[Stalwart]

5. Just Did

I will go after this thing. I have discovered more.

[Graybeard]

6. That sounds very intriguing...

...I look forward to your future posts.

[LSK]

7. gee, I wonder how "insurgents" got weapons

:shrug:

[Bandit]

8. Any bets on whether there were big increases in Swiss bank Accounts

right around that time. IMO it was the biggest cash heist in American history. No one knows anything...How about that? :shrug:

[Stalwart]

9. Where's George?

No, not that George. We know where he is at and going to.

People have input the serial numbers of more than 100 million bills to this website just to find out (possibly) where they have been for the fun of it. (Low hit probability)

http://www.wheresgeorge.com/

Like fishing with about as much luck but some people obviously like it. Mostly all ones since they are most common and for their purposes sufficient. It only covers the USA but many other countries have similar websites for their currencies (links at the site)

No interest on the part of the website owners to expand into recording hits on the tons of bucks "lost" and their current location reported. Their intent (strangely) is medical research.

It does indicate what can be done.

Maybe Google would like to do it? To induce participation perhaps Google could pick one secret serial number of a bill out of the 360 tons of bucks and offer a million bucks to the person who enters it in a google search and then produces the bill. The new c-notes are hard to counterfeit. Just hitting on a non winning number gives the holder bragging rights. Google could show hit locations on a map. Any geographic concentration of hits, like Washington DC or the town where Blackwater operates would stimulate the input of more serial numbers from that area. Some town in the middle of nowhere?

These ideas expressed in a public forum are entirely my own and I reserve all rights to them.

If they pay off then I will make a greater contribution to DU.

Now to get serial numbers and get in touch with Google!