The Unvarnished Truth

Again from a British Paper. How we helped suck Iraq dry before we invaded, and then had some officials fatten their cut post invasion.

[A]uditors have so far referred more than a hundred contracts, involving billions of dollars paid to American personnel and corporations, for investigation and possible criminal prosecution. They have also discovered that $8.8bn that passed through the new Iraqi government ministries in Baghdad while Bremer was in charge is unaccounted for, with little prospect of finding out where it has gone. A further $3.4bn appropriated by Congress for Iraqi development has since been siphoned off to finance "security"...

This has barely been touched in the American media, where the UN-Oil-for-Food program has been turned on the UN with barely any notice on how the United States, particularly some American corporations benefitted, and now stand to benefit even more in Chimptopia.

Both Saddam and the US profited handsomely during his reign. He controlled Iraq's wealth while most of Iraq's oil went to Californian refineries to provide cheap petrol for American voters. US corporations, like those who enjoyed Saddam's favour, grew rich. Today, the system is much the same: the oil goes to California, and the new Iraqi government spends the national wealth with impunity.

· Bremer maintained one slush fund of nearly $600m in cash for which there is no paperwork: $200m of it was kept in a room in one of Saddam's former palaces

· 19 billion new Iraqi dinars, worth about £6.5m, was found on a plane in Lebanon that had been sent there by the new Iraqi interior minister

· One ministry claimed to be paying 8,206 guards, but only 602 could be found

· One American agent was given $23m to spend on restructuring; only $6m is accounted for

The allegedly freed Iraqis suffer the most.

I can never get over the fact that those alleged "bleeding hearts" for Iraqi freedom like Wolfowitz so clearly actually could not give a shit about these people. They are just abstractions.