in Iraq. Where did it go?

Quote :

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly $9 billion of money spent on Iraqi reconstruction is unaccounted for because of inefficiencies and bad management, according to a watchdog report published Sunday."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.audit/index.html

This was reported 3 months ago, and there's been no investigation to find out where the money has gone.

4/18/2005 2:12:05 PM

I think we have a better chance of finding wmds or bin laden

4/18/2005 2:15:47 PM

Like true drunken sailors, our administration spends money without accountability...

4/18/2005 2:24:11 PM

yeah that's a fucking load of shit.

4/18/2005 2:32:32 PM

is $9 billion much money? I mean, is that significant?

-ZiP!-

4/18/2005 2:41:55 PM

Clearly, it went to the space aliens we had to pay off to help us in the invasion. They can't just put "Space Alien Pay" on an invoice you know... they have to spread it out as overpayments for "Train Iraqi Police" and stuff like that.

4/18/2005 3:04:19 PM

you want change get all your lazy hippie friends to vote in the next election

4/18/2005 3:15:24 PM

I was gonna vote, but I got high

4/18/2005 3:16:24 PM

That's practically nothing compared to the 2.3 TRILLION that's "missing" from the Pentagon.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

Quote :

""According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted."

[Edited on April 18, 2005 at 3:17 PM. Reason : 1]

4/18/2005 3:16:39 PM

I don't think a simple change in administration would fix this... you would have to get a LOT of REALLY hippy people to vote for a 3rd party. And even then, the space aliens would come and screw things up for the 3rd party (because they are on the Republican pay roll).

4/18/2005 3:22:20 PM

Quote :

"is $9 billion much money? I mean, is that significant? "

it will almost buy you one of the new aricraft carriers coming out in the next couple years

4/18/2005 3:23:17 PM

weren't the old ones only 2 billion each? plus 1.6 billion in aircraft, of course.

4/18/2005 3:27:16 PM

yes, but the new ones have death rays

4/18/2005 3:32:06 PM

^nimitz class carriers run about 6 billion a piece ship only

the new ones are about double that

4/18/2005 3:40:52 PM

a 12 billion dollar ship sure is good for breaking up small terrorist cells in remote corners of the globe

4/18/2005 3:46:32 PM

i know

the force projection is unbelieveable

4/18/2005 3:47:36 PM

$9 billion??

who did we contract out to help rebuild Iraq?? I forgot

4/18/2005 3:48:25 PM

Quote :

"i know the force projection is unbelieveable"

hippy pwnt

[Edited on April 18, 2005 at 3:53 PM. Reason : s]

4/18/2005 3:52:51 PM

"It's too busy, by the time you read it, you're dead!"

4/18/2005 4:01:45 PM

4/18/2005 4:11:22 PM

Haha... wow...

Lovely shitheads, so when does this company get fined $9 billion and set on fire?

4/18/2005 5:05:57 PM

Rounding error.

Seriously though, it's probably been diverted to some other Pentagon cause like a black op operation or small weapons programs, etc. Might have been used to bribe or buy off insurgents, hire mercenaries, etc.

I don't think that a change in administration would make much difference. Government is is inefficient in general. I'm sure we lose tens of billions each year in the great bureaucratic machine. I mean we lose billions each year because the IRS can't even fully enforce the tax laws.

4/18/2005 6:06:27 PM

hmmmm....I wonder....

4/18/2005 7:02:00 PM

its about 36 F-22s or about $1000 to everyone in north carolina

[Edited on April 18, 2005 at 8:38 PM. Reason : df]

4/18/2005 8:35:24 PM

Or it's one ESPN Monday Night Football contracts with the NFL

Quote :

"The Monday night move to basic cable, which includes an earlier start time of 8:40 p.m., is expected to cost ESPN – which previously broadcast Sunday night games – $1.1 billion a year over eight years, two sources familiar with the deals told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity."

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/nfl/20050418-1652-fbn-nflmondaynight.html

4/18/2005 10:16:44 PM

I smell a conspiracy theory in the works

4/18/2005 10:21:35 PM

funding for x files....

4/18/2005 10:41:59 PM

went to sponsor a presidential bachi-ball tourney

4/18/2005 10:43:18 PM

tom delays golfing

4/18/2005 10:51:50 PM

Quote :

""

4/18/2005 11:41:25 PM

^

Quote :

"$9 billion?? who did we contract out to help rebuild Iraq?? I forgot "

4/19/2005 12:13:25 PM

^7 or 8 different companies.

While halliburton was the largest benefactor of a govt contract for the rebuilding process, it was also a contract almost strictly for oil field rebuilding.

4/19/2005 1:25:21 PM

All those "extra travel expenses" claimed on travel vouchers

4/19/2005 7:05:35 PM

$9 billion? what does that equal out to? about $30/person right. eh. oh well.

4/19/2005 7:30:04 PM

well there's about 130million tax payers, so that's ~$67/each

4/19/2005 10:41:07 PM

Quote :

"$9 billion? what does that equal out to? about $30/person right. eh. oh well."

Would you show the same nonchalance if $9,000,000,000.00 was missing from the Dept of Education? or Welfare?

4/20/2005 8:51:34 AM

$9 billion is a lot of money to just have disappear.

It'd be nice to find out where the fuck that went.

4/20/2005 9:21:03 AM

it's in my checking account

shhh don't tell anybody

4/20/2005 9:22:46 AM

Quote :

" "A billion here. A billion there. Pretty soon we're talking real money.""

Senator Everett Dirksen
US politician (1896 - 1969)

4/20/2005 9:32:51 AM

Quote :

"Like true drunken sailors, our administration spends money without accountability... "

too much spending is not a democrat or republican thing; it's a washington thing.

4/21/2005 5:51:27 PM

2 words

Star Wars

4/21/2005 6:35:50 PM

Quote :

"Isakson and William "Pete" Baldwin, the former Iraq country manager for Custer Battles, filed a federal whistle-blower suit last year, accusing the company of war profiteering and defrauding the government of at least $50 million."

Quote :

"The company is under investigation by the Department of Defense for allegedly overcharging the government millions by making up invoices for work never done, equipment never received, and guards who didn't exist."

Quote :

"The spreadsheet showed Custer Battles had charged more than $9.8 million for work that actually cost the company about $3.7 million – a markup of more than 162 percent when the maximum allowed profit was 25 percent, the memo said. The spreadsheet also noted a December 2003 invoice charging the coalition $157,000 for building a helicopter pad in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The actual cost to Custer Battles was $95,000. "

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20050430-0915-wildcontractor-abridged.html

[Edited on May 1, 2005 at 1:36 AM. Reason : more]

5/1/2005 1:35:33 AM

it's possible that this is bad accounting.

however, i think that there is a more plausible explanation. the military, from what i've observed so far, pretty much dots every "i" and crosses every "t" in terms of accountability of their stuff. somebody has to sign for pretty much everything. if you lose it, you either have to fill out a missing gear report or pay to replace it.

if it's anything of any big value (or something that you don't want to take a chance on it getting out and just floating around in the civilian world, like a weapon), it probably has a serial number. that stuff is REALLY watched closely. for example, i have an M-16 in my room...serial # 6059332. every friday, i have to verify that i not only have an M-16 in my possession, but that it's #6059332.

if you lose a piece of serialized gear, it's no joke. if it can be found, it will be found, even if that means that your entire platoon, company, or whatever size unit was out training has to stay out and look until you find it. I've heard of an entire company spending a weekend in the woods after they'd been out training all week, just because someone lost a BOLT from an M-16 (not a bolt like what threads into a nut...the part of the rifle that chambers the round, etc). I've heard of those inflatable motorized rafts flipping over and dumping gear, and Navy divers having to come out to recover serialized gear (i mean just rifles and radios and stuff).

now, the system isn't perfect. i've heard of stuff getting covered up, too...usually by some crooked, dirtbag warehouseman who is snagging a piece of gear here or there and selling it.

still, though, the military wouldn't be the first place i'd point the finger in terms of losing $9 billion.


it could happen within the ranks of civilian authorities a little easier, i guess, but that's still not my #1 guess.


my feeling is that it probably was used to fund something covert and/or classified. it might have been marked for one thing, but partially diverted towards covert activity as a means of covering the tracks of stuff that not everyone needs to know about. (i don't really know much about this specific situation or how that kind of stuff works...that's well above the level of stuff that Lieutenants deal with! it's just my guess on the subject.)

Quote :

"Auditors were unable to verify that the Iraqi money was spent for its intended purpose."

Well, if it was classified, and this watchdog group's auditors didn't possess BOTH the proper security clearance and a need to know where that money went, then of course they couldn't verify that the money was spent for its intended purpose.

5/1/2005 2:24:03 AM

^ Maybe, if Bush didn't rely so heavily on hiring mercenaries, the money would not have gone missing [stolen].

Mercenaries is how Bush is managing to avoid proposing a draft.

5/1/2005 3:02:02 AM

I'll take contractors over a draft anyday. My bet is that the military feels the same way.

5/1/2005 3:26:01 AM

Well...if people who believed in Bush and the Iraq war would volunteer for military service, there wouldn't be a need for either contractors or the draft.

5/1/2005 3:38:38 AM

so are republicans still arguing over going to iraq was the right thing to do?

5/1/2005 3:55:14 AM

Kofi Annan's son stole it.

5/1/2005 1:52:33 PM

^^ ultimately was it the right thing? yes. was it right based on the reasoning that we were given? no. I didn't buy it then, and I don't buy it now.

5/1/2005 2:27:29 PM

drunknloaded, I think it has worked out. Of course, only history knows, but it hasn't failed yet.

5/1/2005 4:20:49 PM