Apparently, The Waste, Fraud & Profiteering Is Bigger Than We Thought

U.S. Wasted Millions in Iraq Aid, Inquiry Says

As we have been collecting reports of waste, profiteering, theft and fraud in Iraq, we now learn that what we suspected may be only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The latest investigative and auditing reports indicate tens of millions in fraud, including weapons theft, misappropriation by US and Iraqi officials, and so much more... Our nation is in trouble because we are spending our tax dollars, and the money we owe interest on, in ways that do not benefit our nation or our interests overseas.

Major U.S. companies with multimillion-dollar contracts for Iraq reconstruction are being forced to devote 12.5 percent of their expenses for security due to spiraling violence in the region, investigators said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, tens of millions of U.S. dollars have been wasted elsewhere in Iraq reconstruction aid, some of it on an Olympic-size swimming pool ordered up by Iraqi officials for a police academy that has yet to be used.

The quarterly audit by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, is the latest to paint a grim picture of waste, fraud and frustration in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $300 billion and left the region near civil war.

Investigators: Millions in Iraq Aid Wasted

The U.S. government wasted tens of millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction aid, including scores of unaccounted-for weapons and a never-used camp for housing police trainers with an Olympic-size swimming pool, investigators say.

The quarterly audit by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, is the latest to paint a grim picture of waste, fraud and frustration in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has cost taxpayers more than $300 billion and left the region near civil war.