Related: Occupation Iraq: Country in Crisis
And that was AFTER the "successful surge!"
If that is success I would hate to see what failure would like like to the lying MSM.
"Fraud cases point to lapses in Iraq rebuilding efforts; US investigators scrutinizing large cash transactions" by James Glanz, New York Times | March 14, 2010
NEW YORK — Investigators looking into corruption involving reconstruction in Iraq say they have opened more than 50 new cases in the past six months by scrutinizing large cash transactions made by some of the Americans involved in the nearly $150 billion rebuilding program.
Some of the cases involve people who are suspected of having mailed tens of thousands of dollars to themselves from Iraq, or of having stuffed the money into duffel bags and suitcases when leaving the country, the federal investigators said. In other cases, millions of dollars were allegedly moved through wire transfers. Suspects then used cash to buy BMWs, Humvees, and expensive jewelry or to pay off enormous casino debts.
A form of liberation.
Some suspects also tried to conceal foreign bank accounts in Ghana, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Britain, the investigators said, while in other cases, cash was simply found stacked in home safes.
Isn't it GREAT that WAR is ONE BIG PARTY, American taxpayers?
Don't you LOVE the LIES?
There have already been dozens of indictments and convictions for corruption since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But the new cases seem to confirm what investigators have long speculated: that the chaos, weak oversight, and wide use of cash payments in the reconstruction program in Iraq allowed many more Americans who took bribes or stole money to get off scot-free.
Oh, just like the on the war crimes.
“I’ve had a continuing sense that there is ongoing fraud that we have not been able to nail down,’’ said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who leads the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent oversight agency. “This spate of new cases is evidence that that sense was reasonably well placed.’’
And yet the DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS we "elected" to END the WARS pours in even MORE MONEY!!!!!
And Obomber sure went silent on contractors and corruption, didn't he?
The cases were uncovered during the first phase of a new, systematic inquiry into financial activities, which investigators said began in earnest last summer. A related investigation of rebuilding funds for Afghanistan began in February.
I'll bet it turns up the same sort of s***. Happens in EVERY WAR!
See: The Nye Report on the Munitions Industry and World Peace, 1936
Oh, been a problem ever $ince, huh?
Bowen’s office agreed to answer general questions on the new inquiry but declined to divulge the names of the suspects, who include private contractors, military officers, and civilian officials....
Why?
Related: Occupation Iraq: KBR and the West Virginia Guard
War Looter's Wednesday: Electrifying Bonus
Occupation Iraq: KBR Keeping On
Occupation Iraq: War Looters Still Working
War Looter's Wednesday: Congress on the Case
Ever notice that no matter how many investigations or what they uncover the money still flows?
I guess when some of it returns to the campaign war chests the politicians choose to look the other way unless it becomes a photo opportunity.
Of course, the same lying, agenda-pushing, war-promoting newspaper doesn't spend that much time dwelling on it, either.
Because the investigation has covered only limited areas in the United States so far, Bowen said he estimated that dozens of additional cases would be opened by the end of the year. Bowen, who spoke by phone from Baghdad, described the effort as a “concerted, focused, forensic financial review involving all the Iraq reconstruction funds.’’
Congress has appropriated about $53 billion for reconstruction projects, and the rest of the money has come from Iraqi assets and international pledges.
I hope the lies were worth it, unemployed and foreclosed-upon Americans.
According to testimony before the Wartime Contracting Commission last month by Arnold Fields, who leads the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, Congress has appropriated $51 billion to rebuild that country since 2002.
More missing money; we have not done a damn thing there except maybe pave a couple roads.
John Brummet, the assistant inspector general for audits in that office, said that the office’s staff members had been studying the Iraq investigation for nearly a year and that they had started a related effort last month....
And how long have we been there?
--more--"
