Viceroy Autoteller
by digby
The Bush administration went on a $5bn spending spree in Iraq in 2004 just six weeks before returning control of the government to Iraqis, according to a Democratic lawmaker investigating the payments.
Huge sums were doled out, sometimes in dollar bills from the back of pick-up trucks, it was alleged.
In a hearing before the chief House oversight committee, Democrats on Tuesday demanded answers from Paul Bremer, who headed the Coalition Provisional Authority, Iraq’s first post-occupation government, and oversaw the disbursement of $12bn in cash in reconstruction funds in the months after the invasion.
In his first appearance before Congress since leaving Iraq, Mr Bremer admitted making mistakes during his 13-month tenure. However, he emphasised that Iraq was in a “desperate situation” in May 2003 and that the CPA could not have waited to install a “modern financial system” before beginning the process of getting the defunct Iraqi government and various ministries reinstated.
The payments in question comprised of Iraqi funds that had been held by the Federal Reserve Bank in New York before the invasion and consisted of a fund that succeeded the United Nations Oil for Food programme and seized Iraqi assets.
“I acknowledge that I made mistakes and that, with the benefit of hindsight, I would have made some decisions differently. But on the whole, we made great progress under some of the most difficult conditions imaginable,” Mr Bremer told the committee.
And all these rightwing asses are still braying about the “corrupt UN oil for food program” when their own hand-picked GOP toady viceroy cannot account for billions.
But these guys don’t think there’s any need for such things:
What happened to billions in Iraqi funds that were overseen by the Coalition Provisional Authority? That’s not “important,” according to David Oliver, the former Director of Management and Budget of the agency.
A recording of the unfortunately candid remarks, previously made by Oliver to the BBC, were played during this morning’s oversight hearing by Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA). The hearing has focused on the CPA’s administration of nearly $9 billion in Iraqi funds in 2003 and 2004 — money that Stuart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, has said was inadequately accounted for.
“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 is important,” Oliver says on the tape . “Billions of dollars of their money disappeared, yes I understand, I’m saying what difference does it make?”
Keep that in mind when you hear these people braying about tax and spend liberals and personal responsiblity and all the rest of their patented, Luntz-grouped swill.
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