Reuters:
The money, which had been held by the United States, came from Iraqi oil exports, surplus dollars from the U.N.-run oil-for-food program and frozen assets belonging to the ousted Saddam Hussein regime.
Bills weighing a total of 363 tons were loaded onto military aircraft in the largest cash shipments ever made by the Federal Reserve, said Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
"Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone? But that's exactly what our government did," the California Democrat said during a hearing reviewing possible waste, fraud and abuse of funds in Iraq.
ABC News quotes Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT); "They were handing out tons of cash from the back of pick up trucks."
In his defense, former US viceroy L. Paul Bremer told the committee, "We're talking about Iraqi money, not American money." Here's the thing, though -- it doesn't make any difference and, in the long run, it is american money.
Depending on who you ask, Bush's new budget asks for as much as $716.5 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. If billions were wasted in early payouts, wouldn't we be making up for that loss now?...
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Tags: news | politics | war | Iraq | congress | republican | democrat | crime | corruption | Coalition Provisional Authority | L. Paul Bremer | Bush
