REPORT: Missing Iraqi cash found in rural Lebanon

The New York Times published on Sunday a report, whereby it said that not long after the defeat the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein in 2003, “caravans of trucks began to arrive at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on a regular basis, unloading an unusual cargo of cash.”

“Over the next year and a half, $12 billion to $14 billion was sent to Iraq in the airlift, and an additional $5 billion was sent by electronic transfer. Exactly what happened to that money after it arrived in Baghdad became one of the many unanswered questions from the chaotic days of the American occupation, when billions were flowing into the country from the United States and corruption was rampant,” the report added.

According to the newspaper, Stuart W. Bowen Jr., a special inspector general to investigate corruption and waste in Iraq said that “much of the money was probably used by the Iraqi government in some way,” adding that his investigators discovered that $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion had been stolen and moved to a bunker in rural Lebanon for safe keeping.


For more details, watch Bassam Abou Zeid’s report in the video above