New Iraqi regime admits $8.8 BILLION is missing Defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Bremer have made sure that the reconstruction of Iraq is paid for by the "liberated" country, by the Iraqis themselves. So, Mr Bremer, where did all the money go? http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=1347 -------- That's an awful lot of money. But then, they had an awful bunch of crooks employed there... American contractors and security personnel. I didn't know the Iraqis got cheated on top of being killed.
That's actually a good thing, you know I've been thinking we've been wasting ammo and bullets and lives over in the M.E for practically nothing, now that we actually have something to show for it I can get behind it a little more
That reminds me of this story: http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175448/ Tomgram: Peter Van Buren, How the American Taxpayer Got Plucked in Iraq ... The story at the link is pretty lengthy, but basically a lot of public money was wasted in Iraq on this chicken processing plant that never became what it was intended to become, and indeed what it was made to appear to be. So, with this story and yours, I guess we can safely conclude that both Americans and Iraqis got fleeced.
Good luck in being part of that 'we'. I imagine the 'us' keeps those profits like good cards...close to 'their' chest.
Stories like this abounded in the huge orgy of no bid contracts, influence peddling, and outright graft that was the Bush adminstration's misbegotten adventure in Iraq. Part of it reflects the jingoism of the war's sponsors, and the cultural ignorance of the people who conducted the operation. But it was also a reflection of the serial corruption of the Adminstration, which was one of the most corrupt in US history. A far better picture of the mismanagement and cronyism of the Iraq war can be found in " Imperial Life in the Emerald City" by Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran. It's a snapshot of how the war was actually conducted. I've included a Scribd link, so you can read excerpts if you like. It's one of the best books written about the Iraq war, and it is a lively read. http://www.scribd.com/doc/15822196/Chandrasekaran-Imperial-Life-in-the-Emerald-City-2006-Synopsis
