Marines Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stack ($$$$)

AL BO ALI DAKEL, Iraq (news - web sites) — In accordance with the brutal accounting of modern combat, cash payments were made Thursday to people in this small village who suffered during recent fighting between U.S. Marines and insurgents in nearby Fallouja.

The village leader received $15,000 on behalf of residents in compensation for dead livestock, uprooted trees, damaged fields and other losses. The Marines tried to bargain him down to $10,000, but he stood firm.

The son of a man killed by gunfire while driving in a battle zone received $2,500. And a man who said his 7-year-old daughter was killed as she tended the family's sheep also received $2,500.

Now that the fighting between Marines and insurgents has tapered off in the area, the U.S. military is attempting to make amends with noncombatants who suffered. The Americans hope cash will win friends and help bring peace in this part of the volatile Sunni Triangle.

more…
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&u=/latimests/20040514/ts_latimes/marineswalksoftlyandcarryabigstack&printer=1

and little or no oversight as to how he spends it!

Has Congress approved of this compensation...or is this another exec. order?

no accounting of the money's serial numbers ... no accounting as to where this wealth is ...


~snip~
BERN, Switzerland - The United States believes it has found at least $300 million Saddam Hussein hid in banks, yet doesn’t have enough evidence to get countries such as Syria and Switzerland to hand over the money, U.S. and European officials told The Associated Press.
~snip~

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4217526/

Saddam's gold discovered in truck
By Pamela Hess
Published 8/4/2003 2:56 PM


HILLAH, Iraq, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A routine Iraqi traffic stop has turned up what may be $90 million in gold bars in this town just over 50 miles south of Baghdad.

While the financial haul is major, U.S. Marines helping to get this town back on its feet say something more valuable has come out of the episode: the notion that Iraqis can begin to trust their government.
~snip~
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030804-022903-7609r

to be made of copper.

eom

:shrug:

$2,500 for my 7 year old daughter. Thank you, but no thank you. See you on the other side, will you leave my country now? It would be a good idea, I give you 90 days.