The Amazing Disappearing Iraq Reconstruction Money

More news that isn’t news — if you were paying attention lo those many years ago (and I know you were) you remember that billions of dollars of money allocated for reconstruction in Iraq were missing. We knew this at least by 2006, if not sooner.

So, this bit just posted at Think Progress isn’t really news —

Yesterday, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) released its findings on how the money was spent from a special Iraq reconstruction fund set up by the Department of Defense (DOD) between 2003-2007. The account used Iraqi oil money to fund the reconstruction of Iraq. SIGIR concluded that 96 percent of the $9.1 billion the reconstruction program cannot be accounted for by the DOD.

Read more at WaPo. Naturally I want to know precisely who in the DoD was responsible for this, and if those persons were military careerists or Bushie civilian appointees.

16 thoughts on “The Amazing Disappearing Iraq Reconstruction Money

  1. They were SUPPOSED to create an account for the money. You know, so that transactions could be traced.
    Whooopsie…
    How did that happen?
    Tells you all you need to know right there.
    This just reeks of Bushie incompetence, with a heavy dose of Cheney evil, and Rummy hubris.

    I want to hear from the “Deficit Hawks” on this one.
    Anyone?
    Bueller?
    Bueller?

  2. For starters, it was calculated years ago that had Iraqi construction companies been contracted to rebuild what we bombed the hell out of rather than American contractors, the American taxpayer would have saved about 90% of the cost of reconstruction. I suspect that a large portion of the billions is sitting in bank accounts of American contractors?

    Maybe it fits here, maybe not but I just read a ‘definition’ describing the present American economy – tax $$$ are going for 2 things, creation of a permanent American aristocracy and the military needed to defend it. In my book, that’s a wrap.

  3. I want to hear from the “Deficit Hawks” on this one.
    Anyone?
    Bueller?
    Bueller?

    Other than my hollow, embittered chuckle… nothing but silence.

  4. Felicity,
    BINGO!!! On both card’s, no less!
    All those ‘Private Contractors’ over there will be employed as security guards over here when their tours are over. Those communities will not longer be ‘gated,’ they’ll also be ‘armed.’ And they’ll have all of the nice, new toys to use against us, too!
    Now, if only I could remember where I hide my cyanide capsules when Bush left office…

  5. Well, we can kiss that money goodbye..We’d stand a better chance of finding out where the Hidden Imam went before we find out where that money went.

    Just compare the 8.? whatever billion dollars as a percentage to the GDP of the United States in the years between 2003 and 2007 and you can see that just amounts to pin money..No big deal,not worth getting excited about. Chump change!

    We shouldn’t get bogged down fretting over trivia of the past…We should be looking forward to our grand victory in Afghanistan…”2017 or Bust”!

  6. 4% accountability sounds about right for the incompetents boobs that “manage” our military. My brief military career taught me one thing, the military is really good at blowing stuff up and killing folks, they suck at just about everything else.

  7. I hope the money that went down the rabbit hole is of use to Alice on the other side.

    If by “Alice” you mean “Dick Cheney,” and by “of use” you mean “enabling him to buy Picasso nudes that he and the missus can hide in a closet when the grandkids come over,” then yes.

    By “the other side,” I think we all agree you mean “Hell.”

  8. Kissinger and Associates would be the first I’d interview.
    They gave us Paul Bremmer, & Henny the K seems to have his finger in many pies. A true “person of interest”………….

  9. They haggle over giving extensions for the unemployed; they threaten us that Social Security and Medicare are bleeding “Americans” dry; they’re unable to fund a universal health care program; the total loss of any safety net for the poor, usually single parents, since Reagan proclaimed the end of Welfare Queens; and the list goes on and on. Now that I am ‘enjoying’ my golden years of retirement, I not only can’t afford to live back home, I can’t even afford to fly there to see my family….Hawaii. I worked hard and feel guilty that I am able to get a pretty good amount monthly, yet, I can’t afford a medicare suppliment insurance. The rents are too high for the average person, food has gone up in price while the containers have gotten smaller, we did not qualify for a COLA this year, yet everything has gotten more expensive. My co-payments for health care; non-covered dental and vision care, with rent costs over half of the amount I have to live on every month…..I mean, it’s just too infuriating. We all knew this was going on and who was pocketing all the money, but having it official and in black and white makes me want to vote for guys like Green in S. Carolina. Does anyone know if Medicare pays for cyanide and if the co-payment is affordable????

    Kathleen, Stuck in Baton Rouge without a paddle

  10. Agter Sept 11, we established a worldwide banking spy network for all kinds of money transfers so we could detect who was supporting terrorism. But we don’t know what happened to OUR OWN MONEY????

  11. I have two wheelbarrows, and sometimes when I go out to the garden to work I forget which one has all my money in it. But somehow, perhaps by benefit of years of paying taxes, I am always able to find the one that is full of manure.

    The Rethuglicans always present themselves as the prudent stewards of our “hard-earned” (their favorite adjective for this noun) tax dollars. But count on “the fog of war” to be their accounting method for telling us how this money was spent.

    Sometimes I just have to take a day off from the news and do what the wise man at the end of Candide told the protagonist, who had suffered greatly in trying to help those around him: “Tend your garden.” The literal act brings some peace of mind.

    The other readers’ comments above are funny, sad, rueful and, most of all, revealing in that no one seems shocked. Of course no one will go to jail for this, since that would be too much accountability, just like the lives of soldiers and civilians that are being squandered.

  12. And your point is what Jack, besides the fact that you finally learned how to ‘cut and paste?’

  13. Jack,
    You did the same ‘cut and paste’ routine in EVERY comment string?
    You might want to leave an opinion as to WHY you did that, other than you need some help and you should get to a hospital as soon as possible. Because either it’s years of substance abuse, or the explosion of the meth lab in your garage, has obviously left you with ‘dain bramage.’

  14. I’m pretty sure the Bush cronies who got all that untraceable money consider it a “feature” of our Iraq effort, not a “bug”.

    Mission accomplished, all right.

  15. @c u n d gulag :

    Jack’s not a real commenter. It’s a little tricky to figure out, but it’s actually a spam bot. Notice how you can link to a site using the commentator’s name? It’s linking to some corporate-looking site full of simplified Chinese.

    The copy-and-paste technique is just a simple way for it to bypass spam filters on thread where comments have already been made.

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