Lost Billions in Iraq

Lost Billions in Iraq
by Laura Flanders
Published on Friday, July 30, 2010 by Grit TV

If public schools or Medicare providers were held to the same standards as military contractors, they'd never have to beg for cash. Need money? Sure! -- Congress would say -- what's a few missing billions of tax dollars?

Congress agreed to pump an extra $33 billion into Afghanistan this week, even as a new report revealed that almost nine billion earmarked for the nation's other occupation -- Iraq -- simply, it seems, went missing.

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says $8.7 billion earmarked for Iraq reconstruction has gone. Precisely where, no one can tell him.

Not one percent or five percent, but a full 96 percent of the special fund created from the sale of Iraqi oil and gas-and frozen Saddam Hussein-era assets -- is missing according to the BBC. The Pentagon is "unable to fully account for" it.

And they're blaming a lack of accounting, oversight, and who knows what -- probably some secretaries. Powerful politicians have a habit of blaming their secretaries.