A Christian organization finds that up $9 billion of Iraqi oil money is unaccounted for... From their website: What this report shockingly reveals, however, is that the billions of dollars of oil money that has already been transferred to the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) has effectively disappeared into a financial black hole. For all the talk of freedom and democracy for the Iraqi people – before, during and after the war which toppled Saddam Hussein – there is no way of knowing how the vast majority of this money has been spent. Here's the .pdf file of the report... the intro is worthy of a glance. Hard to get the word out on the good news when stuff like this keeps popping up... http://www.christianaid.org.uk/indepth/310iraqoil/iraqoil.pdf
From the AP... Oct 23, 2003 British Aid Group: U.S.-Run Iraqi Authority Fails to Account for Billions The Associated Press LONDON (AP) - The U.S.-run body governing Iraq has failed to account for billions of dollars allocated for rebuilding the country, a prominent British aid group charged Thursday. Christian Aid said in its report that the Coalition Provisional Authority had only explained publicly how it had spent $1 billion of the $5 billion it has been given for Iraqi development. The funds include $1 billion from the former United Nations Oil for Food program, $2.5 billion in assets seized from Saddam Hussein's former regime an $1.5 billion in oil revenues, the group said. "This is Iraqi money," said Roger Riddell, Christian Aid's international director. "The people of Iraq must know where it is going and it should be used for the benefit of all the country's people, particularly the poorest." In Baghdad, the provisional authority had no immediate response to the report. Riddell said the authority's alleged failure to account for the funds was "little short of scandalous" and urged Britain's government to demand full disclosure of the authority's spending. Some American lawmakers have charged that money meant for Iraqi rebuilding has been squandered by paying inflated prices to Halliburton, the Texas-based company that buys oil for Iraq from neighboring countries. Christian Aid said a monitoring board which the United Nations said it would set up to oversee the occupation authority's accounts had yet to begin operating.
So we're not running this much better than the UN ran it's oil for food program that we so heavily criticized. Great!
US rejects allegations that billions in Iraq funds are missing Thu Oct 23, 1:30 PM ET MADRID (AFP) - The chief of the US occupation authority in Iraq (news - web sites) rejected allegations that billions of dollars in Iraqi oil revenue and other funds earmarked for the reconstruction of the country had gone missing in "opaque" bank accounts. Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, said all funds were being spent or transferred in a "completely transparent" way and that auditors' accounting of CPA expenditures from those funds would soon be posted on the internet and provided to an oversight board. "The entire accounts of the Development Fund for Iraq will be posted on the internet and made available on a regular basis to the members of the international board," Bremer said. He said the CPA, in the absence of an agreement on the creation of the UN-mandated board until last week, had moved to hire its own independent auditor to go over the fund's accounts and that its findings would be made public. "There is absolutely no question about transparency," Bremer told reporters at an international donors conference for Iraq at which the United States and others are expected to pledge billions in assistance. "We are going to be completely transparent the funds are spent for the Iraqi people," he said. "I have absolutely no qualms about it, I don't think we have anything to apologize for. There are no secrets about it." Asked whether the criticism was unfounded, he replied: "Yes, correct." Earlier Thursday as the conference opened here, the British-based charity Christian Aid alleged that four billion out of an estimated five billion dollars (3.4 billion out of 4.2 billion euros) believed to be in the fund have "disappeared into opaque bank accounts" administered by the CPA. The group urged any potential contributor at the conference to demand explanations before pledging any additional assistance, claiming that "no independent body knows where this cash has gone." It said the "financial black hole" would only fuel suspicions that large amounts of the money in the fund were being siphoned off for large US firms and not being channelled to deal with Iraq's serious needs. "The fact that no independent body knows where this cash has gone is in direct violation of the UN resolution that released much of it for the rebuilding of Iraq's shattered infrastructure," Christian Aid said. Bremer admitted that the international board had not yet begun its work, despite having been mandated by the United Nations (news - web sites) shortly after the major part of the war ended. But he blamed the delay on the membership of the board, which is supposed to include officials from the United Nations, World Bank (news - web sites) and Arab Development Bank and rejected charges that he and the CPA had obstructed its creation. "That's nonsense," Bremer bristled when asked about the charge. "It is simply untrue to say we obstructed it. I've been anxious to get this board established." He said he had tried to get the board running in early August and again in September but when disagreements arose over the body's "terms of reference" in conducting special audits, the membership refused to negotiate for six weeks. "We heard nothing back from members of the board effectively until early October despite repeated efforts through our mission at the United Nations to get them to answer," Bremer said. That said, he stressed that an agreement on the board had been reached last week and that it would begin its work shortly, independently of the CPA's own auditor. "We have got an agreement," Bremer said. "We have completely agreed that we are going to be fully transparent. We're prepared to put all of it on the internet which anybody can review."
The implication here - that we're stealing money - is ridiculous. We're setting up a board to oversee the fund, and the accounting will be posted publicly on the internet. They just haven't finished setting up the board yet. Don't get ahead of yourselves, guys.
Why would the US steal money and then spend $87 billion on Iraq? Makes no sense. Let's give ourselves the benefit of the doubt on this one.
as a trustee...as a fiduciary...you have a duty to account for funds at all times. i don't care if the funds are stolen, lost or anything else...if they can't, it's inexcusable. i'm hoping that's really not the case.
Mr. Clutch - non, now, you should know better than to argue that we should get the benefit of the doubt. If rimrocker and Timing think that we're stealing money, well then by God we must be stealing money! BTW, it doesn't have to make sense. It only has to propose a sinister conspiracy for it to have credibility on this BBS.
I didn't say we were stealing money however when money isn't accounted for that's a problem. Do you routinely not account for large amounts of money in your personal life? I'd hope not. You're simply an apologist for anything US, it's pretty amusing. Money's not accounted for, conspiracy. Soldiers getting killed every day, negative media. No WMD found after 6 months even if it's the justification for war, on no biggie. And you're the one making sense with your conspiracy editorials about where WMD must be hiding, alright... whatever.
Now that is just in the spirit of the Republican philosophy of accountability. I guess these principles rely on a sliding scale depending on who needs to be accountable.
And here I thought I was on your ignore list. I never said we were stealing money. I thought it interesting that we have not accounted for the money and view this as another example of our ineptitude in managing Iraq. The point I made about good news was meant to convey the idea that as long as this administration keeps doing stupid stuff like this that plays into the caricature, then there is little hope of changing the idea that things are going bad. It's also interesting that Bremer comes out with info on the transparency only after being challenged by an international Christain organization. You would think as Administrator, one of his priorities would be to make sure everyone knew the situation, especially given the debate over the $87 billion here.
Timing and rimrocker: You guys sure could have fooled me - I thought you were implying that we were stealing money, as in funnelling money to Halliburton or something like that. (It sure sounds like something you'd both say, since you've been saying just that for several months now) That's not what you were implying? OK, fair enough. I would just say that if in another couple of months the board is not up and running and they are not able to fully account for everything, then you guys might be onto something. But I think that you could at least give Bremer a chance to set the board up, right? Keep in mind that the $87 billion hasn't even gotten there yet. And as far as conspiracies go - you two guys are the kings of conspiracy theories. This war was all about oil, and getting the execs at Halliburton fat and rich by milking Iraq's oil fields? And when we found WMD they'd be planted? C'mon, you guys both agree with Teddy, that this war was a right-wing conspiracy cooked up in Texas to fix the election and get rich off of Iraqi oil, right? I mean, that is what you two have been arguing since this whole thing started. And you are both on my ignore list. Sometimes I take a peek, and with this thread title, I just couldn't resist...
You know, it's lame to post to people but still keep them on your ignore list. Maybe you were kidding. Now, in general, an ignore list is a wonderful thing.
What a crock. Why do you even bother posting here? Aren't there any military boards where you can engage in your little patriot babble and feel all good about yourself? You've become a cartoon.
B-Bob: I know, I shouldn't and to be honest I probably wouldn't have had rimrocker not started the thread (couldn't read what the thread was about without peeking, and the title was interesting). Generally, though, I don't bother. The ignore does save me alot of time. Timing: Waahhh!! You hurt my feelings!!! I'm just gonna quit posting here now... Jackass, couldn't even answer the post. Just a "Quit posting here, you're a joke". Great comeback.
