$13 Billion in Iraq Aid Wasted Or Stolen, Ex-Investigator Says
By Dana Hedgpeth - Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 23, 2008; Page A19
A former Iraqi official estimated yesterday that more than $13 billion meant for reconstruction projects in Iraq was wasted or stolen through elaborate fraud schemes.My first question is, Why is this buried on Page A19? The bigger question is, Why is the lede buried?
Salam Adhoob, a former chief investigator for Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, an arm of the Democratic caucus, that an Iraqi auditing bureau "could not properly account for" the money.
While many of the projects audited "were not needed -- and many were never built," he said, "this very real fact remains: Billions of American dollars that paid for these projects are now gone."
Investigations by Iraqi oversight agencies also found that some of the money sent to the Defense Ministry was diverted to al-Qaeda in Iraq, Adhoob said, and deposited into banks in Jordan and elsewhere.If I had a loved one killed in this war, I'd be livid. My own government, however unwittingly, was funding the enemy. Shameful.
Here are some archive posts on Iraq fraud and the years of less-than-interested approach to oversight of this by Senator Susan Collins:
Daylight Robbery (June 2008)
Iraq waste, fraud, and abuse dissected by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Susan Collins and the Oil-for-Food double standard
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