$6.6 BILLION OF CASH AIRLIFTED TO IRAQ LOST OR STOLEN
Iraq may sue US for recovery
"After the US-led invasion in March 2003, the Bush administration flooded Iraq with so much cash that a new unit of measurement was born. 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 by May 2004 in a $12 billion haul that US officials believe to be the biggest ever international cash airlift.... despite years of investigations, US defence officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion of the cash.... Federal auditors are now 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, said the missing $6.6 billion might be ''the largest theft of funds in national history''... Iraqi officials are threatening to go to court to reclaim the money..."
http://www.smh.com.au/world/missing-iraqi-billions-probably-stolen-20110613-1g0eb.html
"... Witnesses testified that millions of dollars were shoved into "gunnysacks" and disbursed to Iraqi contractors on pick-up trucks, with what seemed to be little financial controls or accounting on the part of the U.S. government..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110613/us_yblog_thelookout/more-than-6-billion-in-iraq-reconstruction-funds-lost
Friday, June 10, 2011
THE NEXT FACE OF OUR OCCUPATION
"... an occupier needs shock troops. The State Department's army will be divided into two parts: those who guard fixed facilities like the embassy and those who protect diplomats as they scurry about trying to corral the mad Iraqis running the country. For static security, a company named SOC will guard the embassy facilities for up to $973 million over five years... Long-time merc group Triple Canopy will provide protection outside the embassy fortress, reputedly for $1.5 billion over a five-year span. The overall goal is for State to have its own private army in Iraq: those 5,500 hired guns, almost two full brigades worth of them... "
"... State Department Office of the Inspector General's (OIG) "Report on Department of State Planning for the Transition to a Civilian-led Mission in Iraq Performance Evaluation" explains that our diplomats will... have... a fleet of 46 aircraft, including:
- 20 medium lift S-61 helicopters (essentially Black Hawks, possibly armed).
- 18 light lift UH-1N helicopters (new models of ‘Nam era Hueys, possibly armed).
- Three light observation MD-530 helicopters (Little Birds, armed, for quick response strike teams...
- Five Dash 8 fixed-wing aircraft (50-passenger capacity to move personnel into the "theater" from Jordan).
The OIG report also notes that State will need to construct landing zones, maintenance hangars, operation buildings, and air traffic control towers, along with an independent aviation logistics system for maintenance and fueling.
"... (However) Changing the occupying force from an exhausted US Army that labored away for years... to a newly militarized Department of State will not free us from the cul-de-sac we find ourselves in... (but) downsizing our embassy radically to emphasize that we are no longer in the business of claiming more space for the American empire might very well help change the future.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MF10Ak02.html
"... an occupier needs shock troops. The State Department's army will be divided into two parts: those who guard fixed facilities like the embassy and those who protect diplomats as they scurry about trying to corral the mad Iraqis running the country. For static security, a company named SOC will guard the embassy facilities for up to $973 million over five years... Long-time merc group Triple Canopy will provide protection outside the embassy fortress, reputedly for $1.5 billion over a five-year span. The overall goal is for State to have its own private army in Iraq: those 5,500 hired guns, almost two full brigades worth of them... "
"... State Department Office of the Inspector General's (OIG) "Report on Department of State Planning for the Transition to a Civilian-led Mission in Iraq Performance Evaluation" explains that our diplomats will... have... a fleet of 46 aircraft, including:
- 20 medium lift S-61 helicopters (essentially Black Hawks, possibly armed).
- 18 light lift UH-1N helicopters (new models of ‘Nam era Hueys, possibly armed).
- Three light observation MD-530 helicopters (Little Birds, armed, for quick response strike teams...
- Five Dash 8 fixed-wing aircraft (50-passenger capacity to move personnel into the "theater" from Jordan).
The OIG report also notes that State will need to construct landing zones, maintenance hangars, operation buildings, and air traffic control towers, along with an independent aviation logistics system for maintenance and fueling.
"... (However) Changing the occupying force from an exhausted US Army that labored away for years... to a newly militarized Department of State will not free us from the cul-de-sac we find ourselves in... (but) downsizing our embassy radically to emphasize that we are no longer in the business of claiming more space for the American empire might very well help change the future.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MF10Ak02.html
U.S. LEAVING IRAQ - NOT
"... as of October 1, 2011, full responsibility for the US presence in Iraq will officially be transferred from the military to the Department of State.... the occupation won't really end at all, even if the landlords are switched... The US mission in Baghdad remains the world's largest embassy, built on a tract of land about the size of the Vatican and visible from space. It cost $736 million to build... the State Department expects to have 17,000 personnel in Iraq at some 15 sites... 5,500 of them will be mercenaries, hired to shoot-to-kill Iraqis as needed, to maintain security. Of the remaining 11,500, most will be in support roles of one sort or another, with only a couple of hundred in traditional diplomatic jobs.... the occupation run by a heavily militarized State Department will simply continue in a new, truncated form..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MF10Ak02.html
"... as of October 1, 2011, full responsibility for the US presence in Iraq will officially be transferred from the military to the Department of State.... the occupation won't really end at all, even if the landlords are switched... The US mission in Baghdad remains the world's largest embassy, built on a tract of land about the size of the Vatican and visible from space. It cost $736 million to build... the State Department expects to have 17,000 personnel in Iraq at some 15 sites... 5,500 of them will be mercenaries, hired to shoot-to-kill Iraqis as needed, to maintain security. Of the remaining 11,500, most will be in support roles of one sort or another, with only a couple of hundred in traditional diplomatic jobs.... the occupation run by a heavily militarized State Department will simply continue in a new, truncated form..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MF10Ak02.html
Thursday, June 09, 2011
CHALABI GOT U.S. INTO IRAQ, NOW WANTS U.S. OUT
"Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi politician who played a key role in persuading the administration of President George W. Bush to invade Iraq and overthrow dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, said Tuesday that it's time for U.S. forces to go home..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/07/115413/iraqs-chalabi-who-sought-invasion.html
"Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi politician who played a key role in persuading the administration of President George W. Bush to invade Iraq and overthrow dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, said Tuesday that it's time for U.S. forces to go home..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/07/115413/iraqs-chalabi-who-sought-invasion.html