Audit: US can’t account for $8.7B in Iraqi funds

Audit: US can’t account for $8.7B in Iraqi funds

BAGHDAD (AP) - The U.S. Defense Department is unable to properly account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil money tapped by the U.S. for rebuilding the war ravaged nation, according to an audit released Tuesday.

The report by the U.S. Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction offers a compelling look at continued laxness in how such funds were being spent in a country where people complain basic services like electricity and clean water are sharply lacking seven years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The audit found that shoddy record keeping by the Defense Department left the Pentagon unable to fully account for $8.7 billion it withdrew between 2004 and 2007 from a special fund set up by the U.N. Security Council. Of that amount, Pentagon “could not provide documentation to substantiate how it spent $2.6 billion.”

The funds are separate from the $53 billion allocated by Congress for rebuilding Iraq.

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Audit: US can’t account for $8.7B in Iraqi funds

Out of curiosity, I wonder how much of the $53 billion allocated by Congress for rebuilding Iraq can be accounted for? And WHY was $53 BILLION U.S. tax dollars allocated to rebuild a nation that is RICH with oil reserves and the revenue from that oil?

I have said this before, on numerous occasions, George W. Bush was the founder of the ‘Lets see how many ways we can bankrupt America’ campaign. The Bush bailouts set the trend, Obama is just a continuance of those same Bush policies, on a much grander scale.

The report comes at a critical time for Iraq, which four months after inconclusive elections squabbling political factions have still not agreed on a new government.

As I, and many of my readers have commented in the past, a U.S. style government is not going to work in an Islamic nation. Our way of governing isn’t working here, for us. How can anyone expect that some form of democracy will work in a place such as Iraq?

Despite security gains made since 2008, bombings remain near a daily occurrence that compound the frustrations and fears of Iraqis increasingly weary of the political crisis - one many say reflects how the country’s politicians are more interested in their own interests than those of the nation.

Iraqi politicians are more interested in their own interests than those of the nation? Well, you know, I may have been wrong after all. Maybe a U.S. style government HAS taken hold in Iraq.

The continuing impasse was highlighted on Tuesday when Iraqi lawmakers gathered for the second time this month only to indefinitely postpone the parliamentary session because there was still no decision on the new government.

Sounds a lot like a certain *grass roots* group that I know of… 😕

The U.S. audit is unlikely to do anything but further stoke that frustration felt by Iraqis who continue to suffer from poor infrastructure despite the billions spent.

Yeah, well, welcome to OUR world. BILLIONS of OUR tax dollars have been spent, the recession is still not over, nearly 10% of the nation is unemployed, campaign promises have been broken, lies have been told and the Obama regime wants to spend even MORE of our tax dollars to bail US out.

The audit cited a number of factors behind the inability to account for most of the money withdrawn by the Pentagon from the Development Fund for Iraq.

It said most of the Defense Department organizations that received DFI money failed to set up Treasury Department accounts, as required.

In addition, it said no Defense Department organization was designated as the main body to oversee how the funds were accounted for or spent.

“The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss,” the report said.

In the military vernacular, SNAFU, FUBAR and a few other things you can’t, or shouldn’t say in polite company.

Funds left WIDE OPEN, unprotected, available for the taking. Even if it wasn’t being publicized as a government operation, it has GOVERNMENT written all over it.

Iraq is not in need of OUR money to rebuild THEIR nation. For the longest time, libbers cried that Iraq was all about thew oil, Cheney, Halliburton and so forth. NO BLOOD FOR OIL, that was the libbers battle cry. Well, Iraq HAS oil, we NEED oil, and we need to recoup the billions of tax dollars that have been blown in Iraq.

I never believed it was about the oil, I have my own beliefs regarding why we went to Iraq, but maybe it’s time it DID become about the oil. CHEAP oil for us and EARNED dollars for Iraq.