https://twitter.com/Otter223/status/1432411118744580100

How many Americans could have used this? People in burned-out area of Colorado, perhaps? But what does it matter when money grows on trees, it's not like people had to EARN it.

On 1/1/2022 6:15 AM, RichA wrote:
> https://twitter.com/Otter223/status/1432411118744580100
>
> How many Americans could have used this? People in burned-out area of Colorado, perhaps? But what does it matter when money grows on trees, it's not like people had to EARN it.

Sure a couple of photos with no context is totally believable. More
proof that you're a total vegetable. Probably an eggplant.

In article <16c62c65bfad0404$2$3913060$2d54864@news.newsdemon.com>,
trotsky <gmsingh@email.com> wrote:

> On 1/1/2022 6:15 AM, RichA wrote:
> > https://twitter.com/Otter223/status/1432411118744580100
> >
> > How many Americans could have used this? People in burned-out area of
> > Colorado, perhaps? But what does it matter when money grows on trees, it's
> > not like people had to EARN it.
>
>
> Sure a couple of photos with no context is totally believable. More
> proof that you're a total vegetable. Probably an eggplant.

It's a years-old stock photo of stacked Benjamins that's usually
associated with "what does $1 trillion look like?" pages. The money
has nothing to do with the Taliban.

On 1/1/2022 9:51 AM, A Friend wrote:
> In article <16c62c65bfad0404$2$3913060$2d54864@news.newsdemon.com>,
> trotsky <gmsingh@email.com> wrote:
>
>> On 1/1/2022 6:15 AM, RichA wrote:
>>> https://twitter.com/Otter223/status/1432411118744580100
>>>
>>> How many Americans could have used this? People in burned-out area of
>>> Colorado, perhaps? But what does it matter when money grows on trees, it's
>>> not like people had to EARN it.
>>
>>
>> Sure a couple of photos with no context is totally believable. More
>> proof that you're a total vegetable. Probably an eggplant.
>
>
> It's a years-old stock photo of stacked Benjamins that's usually
> associated with "what does $1 trillion look like?" pages. The money
> has nothing to do with the Taliban.

I was thinking it was the money given back to Iran. Either way you're
correct, and "Rich" is further transmogrifying into a vegetable.

On 1/1/2022 10:51 AM, A Friend wrote:
> In article <16c62c65bfad0404$2$3913060$2d54864@news.newsdemon.com>,
> trotsky <gmsingh@email.com> wrote:
>
>> On 1/1/2022 6:15 AM, RichA wrote:
>>> https://twitter.com/Otter223/status/1432411118744580100
>>>
>>> How many Americans could have used this? People in burned-out area of
>>> Colorado, perhaps? But what does it matter when money grows on trees, it's
>>> not like people had to EARN it.
>>
>>
>> Sure a couple of photos with no context is totally believable. More
>> proof that you're a total vegetable. Probably an eggplant.
>
>
> It's a years-old stock photo of stacked Benjamins that's usually
> associated with "what does $1 trillion look like?" pages. The money
> has nothing to do with the Taliban.

....taken from a Right-wing kids' game book: "Where's Biden?"

> A Friend
>
> It's a years-old stock photo of stacked Benjamins that's usually
> associated with "what does $1 trillion look like?" pages. The money
> has nothing to do with the Taliban.

I’ll agree that particular pallet of cash is a stock photo but the U.S.
did “lose track of” bazillions in cash in Iraq and has probably done
so again in Afghanistan.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1
7 Feb 2007

How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish

Special flights brought in tonnes of banknotes which disappeared into the war zone

The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent.

The staggering scale of the biggest transfer of cash in the history of the Federal Reserve has been graphically laid bare by a US congressional committee.

In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the handover.

Details of the shipments have emerged in a memorandum prepared for the meeting of the House committee on oversight and government reform which is examining Iraqi reconstruction. Its chairman, Henry Waxman, a fierce critic of the war, said the way the cash had been handled was mind-boggling. "The numbers are so large that it doesn't seem possible that they're true. Who in their right mind would send 363 tonnes of cash into a war zone?"

The memorandum details the casual manner in which the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority disbursed the money, which came from Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and seized Iraqi assets.

"One CPA official described an environment awash in $100 bills," the memorandum says. "One contractor received a $2m payment in a duffel bag stuffed with shrink-wrapped bundles of currency. Auditors discovered that the key to a vault was kept in an unsecured backpack.

"They also found that $774,300 in cash had been stolen from one division's vault. Cash payments were made from the back of a pickup truck, and cash was stored in unguarded sacks in Iraqi ministry offices. One official was given $6.75m in cash, and was ordered to spend it in one week before the interim Iraqi government took control of Iraqi funds."

The minutes from a May 2004 CPA meeting reveal "a single disbursement of $500m in security funding labelled merely 'TBD', meaning 'to be determined'."

The memorandum concludes: "Many of the funds appear to have been lost to corruption and waste ... thousands of 'ghost employees' were receiving pay cheques from Iraqi ministries under the CPA's control. Some of the funds could have enriched both criminals and insurgents fighting the United States."

According to Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, the $8.8bn funds to Iraqi ministries were disbursed "without assurance the monies were properly used or accounted for". But, according to the memorandum, "he now believes that the lack of accountability and transparency extended to the entire $20bn expended by the CPA".

To oversee the expenditure the CPA was supposed to appoint an independent certified public accounting firm. "Instead the CPA hired an obscure consulting firm called North Star Consultants Inc. The firm was so small that it reportedly operates out of a private home in San Diego." Mr Bowen found that the company "did not perform a review of internal controls as required by the contract".

However, evidence before the committee suggests that senior American officials were unconcerned about the situation because the billions were not US taxpayers' money. Paul Bremer, the head of the CPA, reminded the committee that "the subject of today's hearing is the CPA's use and accounting for funds belonging to the Iraqi people held in the so-called Development Fund for Iraq. These are not appropriated American funds. They are Iraqi funds. I believe the CPA discharged its responsibilities to manage these Iraqi funds on behalf of the Iraqi people."

Bremer's financial adviser, retired Admiral David Oliver, is even more direct. The memorandum quotes an interview with the BBC World Service. Asked what had happened to the $8.8bn he replied: "I have no idea. I can't tell you whether or not the money went to the right things or didn't - nor do I actually think it's important."

Q: "But the fact is billions of dollars have disappeared without trace."

Oliver: "Of their money. Billions of dollars of their money, yeah I understand. I'm saying what difference does it make?"

Mr Bremer, whose disbanding of the Iraqi armed forces and de-Ba'athification programme have been blamed as contributing to the present chaos, told the committee: "I acknowledge that I made mistakes and that with the benefit of hindsight, I would have made some decisions differently. Our top priority was to get the economy moving again. The first step was to get money into the hands of the Iraqi people as quickly as possible."

Millions of civil service families had not received salaries or pensions for months and there was no effective banking system. "It was not a perfect solution," he said. "Delay might well have exacerbated the nascent insurgency and thereby increased the danger to Americans."

On 1/1/2022 10:44 AM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
>> A Friend
>>
>> It's a years-old stock photo of stacked Benjamins that's usually
>> associated with "what does $1 trillion look like?" pages. The money
>> has nothing to do with the Taliban.
>
> I’ll agree that particular pallet of cash is a stock photo but the U.S.
> did “lose track of” bazillions in cash in Iraq and has probably done
> so again in Afghanistan.
>
> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1
> 7 Feb 2007
>
> How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish

I read about it at the time, during Bush's administration. He was in
charge when it was sent there.

>
> Special flights brought in tonnes of banknotes which disappeared into the war zone
>
> The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent.
>
> The staggering scale of the biggest transfer of cash in the history of the Federal Reserve has been graphically laid bare by a US congressional committee.
>
> In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the handover.
>
> Details of the shipments have emerged in a memorandum prepared for the meeting of the House committee on oversight and government reform which is examining Iraqi reconstruction. Its chairman, Henry Waxman, a fierce critic of the war, said the way the cash had been handled was mind-boggling. "The numbers are so large that it doesn't seem possible that they're true. Who in their right mind would send 363 tonnes of cash into a war zone?"
>
> The memorandum details the casual manner in which the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority disbursed the money, which came from Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and seized Iraqi assets.
>
> "One CPA official described an environment awash in $100 bills," the memorandum says. "One contractor received a $2m payment in a duffel bag stuffed with shrink-wrapped bundles of currency. Auditors discovered that the key to a vault was kept in an unsecured backpack.
>
> "They also found that $774,300 in cash had been stolen from one division's vault. Cash payments were made from the back of a pickup truck, and cash was stored in unguarded sacks in Iraqi ministry offices. One official was given $6.75m in cash, and was ordered to spend it in one week before the interim Iraqi government took control of Iraqi funds."
>
> The minutes from a May 2004 CPA meeting reveal "a single disbursement of $500m in security funding labelled merely 'TBD', meaning 'to be determined'."
>
> The memorandum concludes: "Many of the funds appear to have been lost to corruption and waste ... thousands of 'ghost employees' were receiving pay cheques from Iraqi ministries under the CPA's control. Some of the funds could have enriched both criminals and insurgents fighting the United States."
>
> According to Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, the $8.8bn funds to Iraqi ministries were disbursed "without assurance the monies were properly used or accounted for". But, according to the memorandum, "he now believes that the lack of accountability and transparency extended to the entire $20bn expended by the CPA".
>
> To oversee the expenditure the CPA was supposed to appoint an independent certified public accounting firm. "Instead the CPA hired an obscure consulting firm called North Star Consultants Inc. The firm was so small that it reportedly operates out of a private home in San Diego." Mr Bowen found that the company "did not perform a review of internal controls as required by the contract".
>
> However, evidence before the committee suggests that senior American officials were unconcerned about the situation because the billions were not US taxpayers' money. Paul Bremer, the head of the CPA, reminded the committee that "the subject of today's hearing is the CPA's use and accounting for funds belonging to the Iraqi people held in the so-called Development Fund for Iraq. These are not appropriated American funds. They are Iraqi funds. I believe the CPA discharged its responsibilities to manage these Iraqi funds on behalf of the Iraqi people."
>
> Bremer's financial adviser, retired Admiral David Oliver, is even more direct. The memorandum quotes an interview with the BBC World Service. Asked what had happened to the $8.8bn he replied: "I have no idea. I can't tell you whether or not the money went to the right things or didn't - nor do I actually think it's important."
>
> Q: "But the fact is billions of dollars have disappeared without trace."
>
> Oliver: "Of their money. Billions of dollars of their money, yeah I understand. I'm saying what difference does it make?"
>
> Mr Bremer, whose disbanding of the Iraqi armed forces and de-Ba'athification programme have been blamed as contributing to the present chaos, told the committee: "I acknowledge that I made mistakes and that with the benefit of hindsight, I would have made some decisions differently. Our top priority was to get the economy moving again. The first step was to get money into the hands of the Iraqi people as quickly as possible."
>
> Millions of civil service families had not received salaries or pensions for months and there was no effective banking system. "It was not a perfect solution," he said. "Delay might well have exacerbated the nascent insurgency and thereby increased the danger to Americans."
>

suzeeq <suzee@imbris.com> writes:

> On 1/1/2022 10:44 AM, Ed Stasiak wrote:

>> A Friend

>>> It's a years-old stock photo of stacked Benjamins that's usually
>>> associated with "what does $1 trillion look like?" pages. The money
>>> has nothing to do with the Taliban.
>>
>> I’ll agree that particular pallet of cash is a stock photo but the
>> U.S. did "lose track of" bazillions in cash in Iraq and has probably
>> done so again in Afghanistan.

So the Subject line is just another in a never-ending stream of
unsubstantiated lies.

>> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1
>> 7 Feb 2007
>>
>> How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish
>
> I read about it at the time, during Bush's administration. He was in
> charge when it was sent there.
>
>
>> Special flights brought in tonnes of banknotes which disappeared into
>> the war zone
>>
>> The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then
>> distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it
>> and how it was being spent.
>>
>> The staggering scale of the biggest transfer of cash in the history
>> of the Federal Reserve has been graphically laid bare by a US
>> congressional committee.
>>
>> In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million
>> notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for
>> disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130
>> planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the
>> biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the
>> handover.
>>
>> Details of the shipments have emerged in a memorandum prepared for
>> the meeting of the House committee on oversight and government reform
>> which is examining Iraqi reconstruction. Its chairman, Henry Waxman,
>> a fierce critic of the war, said the way the cash had been handled
>> was mind-boggling. "The numbers are so large that it doesn't seem
>> possible that they're true. Who in their right mind would send 363
>> tonnes of cash into a war zone?"
>>
>> The memorandum details the casual manner in which the US-led
>> Coalition Provisional Authority disbursed the money, which came from
>> Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and
>> seized Iraqi assets.
>>
>> "One CPA official described an environment awash in $100 bills," the
>> memorandum says. "One contractor received a $2m payment in a duffel
>> bag stuffed with shrink-wrapped bundles of currency. Auditors
>> discovered that the key to a vault was kept in an unsecured backpack.
>>
>> "They also found that $774,300 in cash had been stolen from one
>> division's vault. Cash payments were made from the back of a pickup
>> truck, and cash was stored in unguarded sacks in Iraqi ministry
>> offices. One official was given $6.75m in cash, and was ordered to
>> spend it in one week before the interim Iraqi government took control
>> of Iraqi funds."
>>
>> The minutes from a May 2004 CPA meeting reveal "a single disbursement
>> of $500m in security funding labelled merely 'TBD', meaning 'to be
>> determined'."
>>
>> The memorandum concludes: "Many of the funds appear to have been lost
>> to corruption and waste ... thousands of 'ghost employees' were
>> receiving pay cheques from Iraqi ministries under the CPA's control.
>> Some of the funds could have enriched both criminals and insurgents
>> fighting the United States."
>>
>> According to Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq
>> reconstruction, the $8.8bn funds to Iraqi ministries were disbursed
>> "without assurance the monies were properly used or accounted for".
>> But, according to the memorandum, "he now believes that the lack of
>> accountability and transparency extended to the entire $20bn expended
>> by the CPA".
>>
>> To oversee the expenditure the CPA was supposed to appoint an
>> independent certified public accounting firm. "Instead the CPA hired an
>> obscure consulting firm called North Star Consultants Inc. The firm
>> was so small that it reportedly operates out of a private home in San
>> Diego." Mr Bowen found that the company "did not perform a review of
>> internal controls as required by the contract".
>>
>> However, evidence before the committee suggests that senior American
>> officials were unconcerned about the situation because the billions
>> were not US taxpayers' money. Paul Bremer, the head of the CPA,
>> reminded the committee that "the subject of today's hearing is the
>> CPA's use and accounting for funds belonging to the Iraqi people held
>> in the so-called Development Fund for Iraq. These are not
>> appropriated American funds. They are Iraqi funds. I believe the CPA
>> discharged its responsibilities to manage these Iraqi funds on behalf
>> of the Iraqi people."
>>
>> Bremer's financial adviser, retired Admiral David Oliver, is even
>> more direct. The memorandum quotes an interview with the BBC World
>> Service. Asked what had happened to the $8.8bn he replied: "I have no
>> idea. I can't tell you whether or not the money went to the right
>> things or didn't - nor do I actually think it's important."
>>
>> Q: "But the fact is billions of dollars have disappeared without
>> trace."
>>
>> Oliver: "Of their money. Billions of dollars of their money, yeah I
>> understand. I'm saying what difference does it make?"
>>
>> Mr Bremer, whose disbanding of the Iraqi armed forces and
>> de-Ba'athification programme have been blamed as contributing to the
>> present chaos, told the committee: "I acknowledge that I made
>> mistakes and that with the benefit of hindsight, I would have made
>> some decisions differently. Our top priority was to get the economy
>> moving again. The first step was to get money into the hands of the
>> Iraqi people as quickly as possible."
>>
>> Millions of civil service families had not received salaries or
>> pensions for months and there was no effective banking system. "It
>> was not a perfect solution," he said. "Delay might well have
>> exacerbated the nascent insurgency and thereby increased the danger to
>> Americans."

It's almost as if the people in charge wanted the money to get into the
wrong hands (perhaps even into their own hands) and not have that traced
back to them. What was the last Republican administration that actually
practiced fiscal responsibility as opposed to faux-concerned histrionics
for the cameras? Bush Sr. when he raised taxes?

ObTV: Another plug for Stephen Bochco's _Over There_, in which the POV
U.S. Army squad in Iraq comes up against this very issue near the end.
And this was all the way back in 2005, when the fighting was still very
much going on in the real world.

-Micky

Micky DuPree <MDuPree@theworld.com.snip.to.reply> wrote:

>So the Subject line is just another in a never-ending stream of
>unsubstantiated lies.

A RichA Subject? Wow. Took you years to catch on to that. Huh.