Fraud & Theft of More U.S. Billions in Iraq?

Turns out that George Bush's coalition of the willing was actually the coalition of the paid, to paraphrase Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Late last week, just before the Memorial Day weekend when few are paying attention to the news, the Pentagon released its own audit of $8.2 billion spent in Iraq on "commercial and miscellaneous payments", and the results are nothing short of shocking. Really, grotesquely shocking.

($8.2 billion is a tiny sampling of expenditures in Iraq, where the U.S. currently spends more than $12 billion monthly. For more details, see Iraq War Results & Statistics as of May 14, 2008.)

To say that the Bush administration "ignored rules" in its Iraq spending is akin to saying that Bill Gates has some money in the bank: a laughably ludicrous understatement.

Here are a few of the most stunning findings:

• Payments made to countries who provided troops to fight in Iraq, including $68.2 million to Great Britain, $45.3 million to Poland and $21.3 million to South Korea, the three largest members of Bush's coalition of the willing.

  Per the New York Times, "Despite repeated requests, Pentagon auditors said they were unable to determine why the payments were made."

• One U.S. Treasury check for $5,674,075 made payable to Al Kasid Specialized Vehicles Trading Co., with NO corroborating description of what was purchased.

• Payment of $6,268,320 to Combat Support Associates with no explanation whatsoever.

• And per the New York Times, one of the largest apparent fund uses was documented only by "... a scrawl on another piece of paper says only that $8 million had been paid out as 'Funds for the Benefit of the Iraqi People.' "

The Pentagon concluded that of the $8.2 billlion in expenditures examined, "almost 95 percent of the payments had not been properly documented."

And that's just for starters. Seems that the U.S.military spent $1.8 billion in seized Iraqi assets (mainly Iraqi oil money), but per a Pentagon spokeswoman testifying to Congress last week, "We don't know what we got." Reports the Times:

"In one case, according to documents displayed by Pentagon auditors at the hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a cash payment of $320.8 million in Iraqi money was authorized on the basis of a single signature and the words 'Iraqi Salary Payment' on an invoice.

"In another, $11.1 million of taxpayer money was paid to IAP, an American contractor, on the basis of a voucher with no indication of what was delivered."

These dire findings, of course, are in addition to the report previously issued by the Congressionally-appointed independent oversight agency, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which discovered that the Bush administration could not account for its own expenditure of $8.8 billion of Iraqi assets. (The Bush administraton has tried several times to defund the Special Inspector General, so far, to no avail.)

If you can stomach it, read about even more losses of U.S. billions at Iraq War Results & Statistics as of May 14, 2008.

Probable Fraud & Theft
We'll probably never know where most of these tens of billions went. But we certainly know who was responsible for safeguarding and disbursing the missing funds.

I can tell you this, though: I spent almost 20 years working as an auditor, most with a top international accounting firm. Without doubt, such unknown expenditures by a client would have been classified as probable fraud and theft. Our firm would have disassociated itself from the client, and if the company was public, the perpetrators would likely have gone to trial and been convicted. And then the IRS would get involved...

In other words, such fiscal irresponsibility would probably constitute a crime. And the criminals would be fined millions and jailed.

Here's my question: Who in the Bush administration will be held accountable for this probable fraud and theft of billions of U.S. taxpayers' and Iraqi citizens' funds?

Oh, and here's my other question: Could this free-flowing fountain of money be the real reason the Bush administration and its allies and cronies want the aimless, nonsensical, morally bankrupt Iraq War, and its lucrative gravy train, to continue indefinitely?

(Photo: Prime Minister Tony Blair gives a speech to British soldiers on duty in Basra on May 19, 2007 in Basra, Iraq. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Related Reading
The 18 Benchmarks to Gauge "Success in Iraq"