Auditors: Billions Wasted in Iraq War

[sabra]

http://www.wral.com/news/political/story/1204470/

Auditors: Billions Wasted in Iraq War

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is at risk of squandering significantly more money in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has already wasted or otherwise overcharged taxpayers billions of dollars, federal investigators said Thursday.

The three top auditors overseeing contract work in Iraq told a House committee of $10 billion in spending that was wasteful or poorly tracked. They pointed to numerous instances in which Defense and State department officials condoned or otherwise allowed poor accounting, repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for work shoddily or never done by U.S. contractors.

That problem could worsen, the Government Accountability Office said, given limited improvement so far by the Department of Defense even as the Bush administration prepares to boost the U.S. presence in Iraq.

Given "the need for continued support for deployed forces, it is essential for DOD to address these shortcomings if the department is to increase its return on its investment in Iraq," said David M. Walker, comptroller general of the GAO, Congress' auditing arm, in prepared testimony.

[Auggie]

1. Throw the book at those accountable

[Amonester]

4. And they'll fly to Paraguay...

Or to Saudi Arabia??

At least, we'd be rid of these murderous crooks!

[ninkasi]

2. All of the money

being wasted in Bush's insane war is being taken from veterans, children, the elderly, the disabled, and the poor. Money is being shoveled into crony companies like Halliburton, further widening the income gap that is destroying the middle class here. This war must end now, and Bush/Cheney both need to be impeached now.

[zonkers]

3. G. BUSH = THIRD GENERATION WAR PROFITEER. RETURN THE MONEY!

[Shallah Kali]

37. Isn't he 4th or am I counting wrong - Samuel P.Bush, Prescott Bush, bush sr. and now W.

?

[zonkers]

39. I did not know about Sam. Thanks.

[leftwingnut]

5. It's all part of the "spending surge" eom

[pdefalla]

6. "Return on Investment"?

The comptroller tells us that the government need to address the shortcomings in order to "increase its return on investment". Yesterday George Bush tells us "Money trumps peace". Can anybody really tell me that this war is not about financial gain?

[ktlyon]

28. and then the little giggle

He knows what he is doing and doesn't care, in fact he thinks he is so clever. Best Little Hustler in Texas.

[OnyxCollie]

7. Is this in addition to the $9 billion they "lost"? nt

[sabra]

8. The 9+ billion was the "Iraqis" money that we managed, the 10+ billion

is our tax dollars.

[Lasher]

9. Same thing, if you think about it.

Our interim government pack of fools and worse, carefully selected by the Heritage Foundation, squanders literal tons of US $100 bills that just ended up missing. Like the two helicopter loads that were handed off to some guy in the Kurdish region that nobody ever heard from again. Nobody can remember what the looked like either.

So power plants didn't get rebuilt and sewage projects were never undertaken. Even worse, Iraqi revenues have fallen off. Maybe it's because all their oil production is unmetered now so that US oil companies can steal it. And what do we do about that? Why, the answer is always more funding in US dollars, yessir! Just empty out Fort Knox and send everything over there. We have done the equivalent of that several times over. That way we can pay over and over for reconstruction to not get done.

And remember, this is all 'defense spending'. Our Congressional representatives get blackballed if they ever vote against anything that's considered 'defense spending'. See, 'defense spending' is always something good, and the less accountability the better! We don't even have to get anything for the money. All you have to do is spend, spend, spend. Wheeeeeeeee!!!!!

[Wapsie B]

10. Just think, all that wasted $$$ is going to support some rwinger's lifestyle.

There has to be an entire community of blood-suckers living off taxpayer $$$ with things like this. This is graft and corruption that would make any mafia hood blush. And people bitch about someone on food stamps.

[Auggie]

15. Saudi royalty too.

[IWantAChange]

11. Didn't one of the Repugs at the comm. mtg. say "It's not much $$ in the big scheme of things"

another sterling example of Repug BizzaroWorld - AND - can you imagine if something like that had been said by a Democrat?????????????????????????????????

[GreenTea]

12. No one here can even comprehend how much even one billion dollars is...

Now look how much these fascist republicans have stolen from us, to fill their own lying greedy evil pockets! It's so outrageous that we can't even begin to tell, and they will get away with this planned rip-off (no one cares) and they are continuing to steal our tax dollars, ANYTHING to prolong the wars for profit!

[12string]

21. A Billion Dollars

For those that cannot comprehend that a thousand million
dollars is a billion dollars just think of it this way..A
million dollars is a stack of dollar bills that is 42 feet
high and a billion dollars is a stack higher than than four
world trade centers.

[TheMadMonk]

26. Or a cube 16.72 ft on each side.

Or just under 6 average 10' x 10' rooms (with 8' ceilings) stuffed solid.

Or as one Aussie lotto mob has it, a truckload of cash.

[ClintonTyree]

13. 10 billion here, 9 billion there......

pretty soon you're talking about some real money. ;) I don't suppose the money is really "lost". If one were to check the coffers of Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater etc. I'm sure it could all be accounted for. Oh, and don't forget the special civilian (Bush cronies) administrators, the ones that were playing football with bricks of $100 bills. I'm sure some of those "footballs" got misplaced along the way as well. :eyes:

[Karenina]

14. Never mind the 2.3 TRILLION

for which the Pentagon cannot account... or was that BRAZILLION? :silly:

[niceypoo]

16. How can you have a "reconstruction effort " in the middle of a war??

That is about the most flawed concept that I have ever heard of.

[pinniped]

17. It is no coincidence that the POS* dropped President Clinton's rule prohibiting....

the issuing of .gov contracts to crooked companies.

These criminals had everything planned from the start.

[Thor_MN]

18. Wasted? Bullshit. Stolen!!

Waste is ordering the wrong part and incurring extra freight and restocking. Waste is not using pershiables before they spoil.

Bush's Iraq war ahs been all about fraud and theft. There's probably a small amount of waste here and there, but the bulk is not poor management, it's criminal activity and should be treated as such.

[cassiepriam]

31. Bingo.Quite successful heist. Everyone got rich who was supposed to.

[Raster]

19. So tell me Halliburton, how's those non-bid secret contracts working out for ya?

BASTARDS!

[sellitman]

20. Can we Impeach them now?

If not now when?

[Tbobby]

22. How about an audit on domestic entitlement programs or foreign aide payments...

$10 billion wasted on Iraq reconstruction is a drop in the
bucket. Corruption, waste and overpayment are standard
operating procedure for anyone paid with US taxpayer money.

[niceypoo]

33. ten billion is a drop in the bucket?

Reeeeallly?

[tom_paine]

23. Not wasted....STOLEN

"poorly tracked" my ass.

You mean, like 363 TONS of $100 bills? The largest Mafia Envelope in world history!

[struggle4progress]

24. "Well, it sounds like FEMA was in charge of this," said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt.

Billions of Dollars in Iraq Contracts Marked as Suspicious
February 15, 2007
By Paul Kita
http://www.axcessnews.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=12996

[Warren DeMontague]

25. Well, sure, if you consider money being *flagrantly stolen* a "waste"

Someone probably appreciated it!

[cliss]

27. Here's the absolute worst part.

The absolute worst:

None of this missing money is from current funds. It was all BORROWED, from the future. Meaning, we never had the money to begin with. No wonder they acted like it was Monopoly Money. It was. But we still gotta pay it back.

We borrowed most of it from China, Japan.

Unbelievable.

[Doondoo]

29. as if this is really news

[SpiralHawk]

30. republicons are conservative. Bwaa ha ha ha ha ha

Another republicon lie to cover up the truth:
they are radical with US tax dollars, because

they are reaping Massive War Profits....

[blondie58]

32. outrageous

and the ironic thing is that we could have probably found alternative fuel sources if we could have used that much money to fund it.

[leftyladyfrommo]

34. I'm just glad someone is finally paying attention to the money!

The billions and billions that have been squandered.

I am hoping they continue to pay attention and keep this up front.

[IsItJustMe]

35. Great reason to cut all social programs in the future. Hmmm, maybee Bush's plan all along!!!

He has had a great desire, to cut these programs, all of his life.

[ArmchairMeme]

36. Bathtub analogy

Remember the *Bush advisor who before *Bush was even in office was saying that what was needed was to reduce government to a level where it could be drowned in a bathtub.

The more money that they "lose" puts government into debt to where all social programs must be abandoned, the sick, disabled, elderly, the young, unemployed, strong healthy people all suffer. The rich people whom *Bush protects with tax benefits are the winners. They will laugh at the poor people whom they have chosen to abandon. It was the plan long before the administrationbegan.

[rman]

38. Wasted but not lost

Money never disappears, it changes hands.
It's just that we didn't get anything useful for it in return.

Stolen indeed.

[goodhue]

40. follow the money

down the drain

[bjobotts]

41. Hire Iraq contractors

Hire Iraq contractors because they 'really' care, are desperately in need of work and the products and services they are building and creating. Only send bi-partisan experts in their respective fields to oversee the reparations...not political cronies like last time. Have strict accountability in place instead of rewarding shoddy work. Fine companies who have not delivered and recoup funds whenever possible. Stop the profiteering and price gouging. Fire those responsible for the fiasco created so far. Use mostly Iraqi labor force. Take some responsibility for being efficient instead of passing the buck. Start doing things right as we have much to make up for destroying their country and so far we've only demonstrated our overall ineptitude. That how you get'r'done.