$6 billion missing from State Department

Ah heck, what is a few billion between friends. Just make the AF have a bake sale and everything will be fine.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101556214

The State Department has no idea what happened to $6 billion used to pay its contractors.

"In a special "management alert" made public Thursday, the State Department's Inspector General Steve Linick warned "significant financial risk and a lack of internal control at the department has led to billions of unaccounted dollars over the last six years."...

"The auditor recommended that the State Department establish a centralized system to track, maintain and retain contract files. "

Brilliant conclusion, those Gov't auditors are right on the ball!

6 Billion lost yet barely covered.

Yeah, I remember how all the Bushies & TeaPublicans were so outraged and demanding action the last time $12 billion disappeared...

Was The Iraq War Merely A Smokescreen For "The Largest Theft Of [Taxpayer] Funds In National History"?

Back in 2004, following the disastrous Iraq war, started on false Weapons of Mass Destruction pretenses, and which was nothing but a backdoor subsidy to various energy contractors close to the Bush administration, the US government decided to impose a mini Marshall Plan and literally flood the country with billions in crisp $100 bills. The LA Times reports: "Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time." And here we are making fun of the Chairsatan and his puny helicopter. Yet where the story gets very disturbing is that it now seems that more than half of this "reconstruction" funding was blatantly stolen! "Despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion in cash ­ enough to run the Los Angeles Unified School District or the Chicago Public Schools for a year, among many other things. For the first time, federal auditors are suggesting that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting error. Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an office created by Congress, said the missing $6.6 billion may be "the largest theft of funds in national history."" Is another huge political embarrassment in store for the current US administration (even if on this occasion it can legitimately be blamed on the predecessor?): it appears so: "The mystery is a growing embarrassment to the Pentagon, and an irritant to Washington's relations with Baghdad. Iraqi officials are threatening to go to court to reclaim the money, which came from Iraqi oil sales, seized Iraqi assets and surplus funds from the United Nations' oil-for-food program." Prepare for many more hearings involving Halliburton et al. As for where the money is - why, it has long been spent.

I remember it being the outrage-of-the-day... You don't???.......Actually, me neither.

What? It wasn't? The Righties didn't say ANYTHING????

...Imagine my surprise....

And imagine ours that yet again you are outright lying about nearly every salient fact, even according to the post that you, yourself, provided.

For starters, it isn't $12 Billion that went missing, the article you provided clearly defines that amount at $6.6 Billion. Secondly, the source of the missing funds is listed as being "Iraqi oil sales, seized Iraqi assets and surplus funds from the United Nations' oil-for-food proram". Can you illiterate which of those is a US taxpayer funded entity? Thought not.

It's what happens when you write your own echo-inspired headlines, or simply regurgitating what others have posted in them, without actually reading the contents. But then, such trivial details as facts never enter into considreration where "progressives" are concerned, do they.

According to the National Priorities Project's CostOfWar.com, a website providing a running tally of the expense incurred by U.S. wars, the cost of the Iraq conflict is now nearly $801 billion. However, when medical and disability claims are included, as well as the cost of replacing equipment and weapons, economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes estimate the eventual cost of the war could be between $4 and $6 trillion, The Christian Science Monitor reports.




Some of these funds include $20 billion spent annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to NPR. In addition, a recent report from the Commission on Wartime Contracting estimates that between $31 and $60 billion may have been lost to waste and fraud thanks to "poor planning and payoffs" over the last decade in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Indeed, as the U.S. prepares to withdraw completely from Iraq by the end of the year millions more in military funds are expected to go to waste. Faced with little alternative due to shipping costs, the U.S. military has already given away $250 million worth of equipment to the Iraqi government, including everything from tanks to office supplies. As entire bases that cost billions to construct are turned over to Iraqi hands, the tally is only expected to increase over the coming months.

Chump change compared to the incompetence that is the legacy of Bush's War of choice.
This Independent watches both sides, but has not forgotten the Bush Idiocy, the president no one wants to campaign with.

"W" was re-elected so he can't be all that bad, right? People had four years to see him in action and still said he is better than the Dem. And that was after years of war.

whitegp wrote: Chump change compared to the incompetence that is the legacy of Bush's War of choice.
This Independent watches both sides, but has not forgotten the Bush Idiocy, the president no one wants to campaign with.

So, what's your point? We've had years of government waste from both sides of the aisle, so who cares? Every time something like this comes up we hear the 'chump change' comments. Well, when it happens over, and over, and over, year upon year it is no longer chump change. It is huge amounts of waste and more debt.

FredHayek wrote: "W" was re-elected so he can't be all that bad, right? People had four years to see him in action and still said he is better than the Dem. And that was after years of war.

Obama was re-elected, so he can't be all that bad, right? People had four years to see him in action, and still said he is better than the Rep. And that was after years of trying to cleanup and shutdown the Idiot-son's unpaid-for, unnecessary wars.

What is the Point?

Well I really think that the present Administration should do their best to account for the 6 Billion.

But nothing like the complete waste of 4-6 Trillion, plus how many thousand US an Iragi lives?
All of which we were lied into by Bush and his cronies.
That kind of gross incompetence should never be allowed in power again.
While the GOP would love to bury the past and deflect the conversation, those of us who were paying attention then, have not forgotten.