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.

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Barack Obama and the War on Terror

If Obama were to stop some of the Dem/Libber BS with the Porkulous rhetoric, he would match up to many reasonable people in his beliefs concerning the battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, Anti-war lawmakers worry over plan for Afghanistan.

Obama appears to support the efforts in Afghanistan, “After campaigning on the promise to end one war, President Barack Obama is preparing to escalate another” and I personally know that feeling, the criticism, the being called names by the Bush Bots because of my massive disagreement with the actions we took in Iraq. Afghanistan is still a theater that needs to be pursued, but after the initial focus on Afghanistan was lost by our former POTUS, due to his obvious A.D.D. and the need to vindicate himself in *Daddy’s* eyes, Afghanistan is NOT the primary target any longer. Terror organizations have re-evaluated their operations and have diversified their theater of operations.

We are still losing troops in the War on Terror, 2 U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan but Afghanistan IS, well, WAS the War on Terror. Iraq had NO part in that war until George W. Bush made them a part of it. Our own Senate, Congress and Dept. of Defense, as well as the CIA and other Intelligence organizations made reports to the American people verifying the fact that Saddam and Iraq were NOT engaged in terror attacks against the USA and had NO part in the attacks of 9-11, Bush admitted that he took us to Iraq under what can only be called bad information. I have never had so much as one word to say against the efforts in Afghanistan, that WAS the right place, the right people and the right time.

There are many errors being made in this War on Terror, Bush made his fair share, Obama is well on the way to eclipsing Bush in the error department, Obama preparing order to close Gitmo. Those preparations have become orders and I am fully convinced that Obama is making one of the most critical errors of his fledgling presidency.

Obama has made NO secret of the fact that he wishes to engage in open dialog with the enemies of this nation, Biden Says US Willing to Talk to Iran. One thing I feel that must be pointed out, you negotiate from a position of strength, not desperation. Iran is directly responsible for many, if not MOST of the deaths we have suffered in Iraq, over 4,200 U.S. service personnel to date. I have a serious issue in negotiating with the powers that caused those deaths. Unless we are negotiating their unconditional surrender.

The focus of the War on Terror needs to be re-evaluated too I believe, Yemen releases 170 al-Qaida suspects, Yemen is where the U.S.S. Cole was bombed. Yemen is the hotbed of al-Qaida activity at present, organization and planning. Yemen isn’t the only place either, al-Qaida, by many different names, is active all over the world. The men that Yemen released were freed Friday and Saturday after signing pledges not to engage in terrorism. Is there anyone that actually believes that these guys are going to honor that pledge?

When you capture a terrorist, and for some odd reason you decide to release that terrorist after a period of time, you can be nearly 100% assured that he WILL return to his former occupation, terrorism. That is something that Obama just doesn’t seem to understand. I get the feeling that Obama has some childlike TRUST in the word of these people, that he has a belief that they will abide by the words they use to obtain their freedom, or, in the recently witnessed actions in Palestine, where Hamas begged for a truce only because they needed a break to re-arm and re-supply.

There are many difficulties in the War on Terror. We don’t fight an organized army, a uniformed army. An enemy fighter is a combatant one minute, then they hide their rifle and instantly become an innocent civilian, one that has MUCH public relations value to al-Jazeera and other Pro-Arab and terrorist supporting networks if they are killed. That statement is well illustrated in this story, Afghan arrested after Guantanamo release, a case of a former detainee being re-arrested and the frustration is showing, for us as well as the Afghan people.

“We are fed up,” says Ishaq Gailani, a member of President Hamid Karzai’s government. “Bagram is full of these people who are wrongly accused. They arrest everyone — a 15-year-old boy and a 61-year-old man. They arrest them because they run away from their helicopters…I would run away too if I saw them. They don’t know who is the terrorist and who is not.”

I don’t know what the Obama administration is going to actually do, I don’t think even THEY know themselves. I do know this, TALK isn’t going to get the job done. Catch and release is great if you’re fishing but it isn’t a great way to conduct combat operations, you only end up catching the same fish, over and over again.

Once the Obama administration realizes that, perhaps they will figure out a way to prosecute the War on Terror as it MUST be done, and find a way to punish those that keep this WAR going, the Princes of The Religion of Peace, the Islamic terrorists that refuse to accept anything other than submission to them or death to their enemies, these ANIMALS of Islam that refuse to allow this world to live in peace