Guardian Unlimited | Columnists | George Monbiot: Fraud and corruption in Iraq

It seems as if the US government was playing both ends against the middle. To the astronomical costs of the Iraq war and occiupation (5 billion dollars a week) we have to add the huge sums that from Iraq disappeared while the Coalition Provisional Authority, under Paul Bremer, was in charge. George Monbiot of The Guardian of London tells how money was handed on pallets to the US generals running the occupation "without counting and without even weighing it." The oil that was being pumped, and remember it is not our oil but Iraq's, was sent unmetered through the pipelines, and the US Administration made the choice of knowingly ignoring the diversions from the UN's oil for food program. That is all in the Paul Volcker report about alleged corruption in the UN. The most vocal Republican UN bashers in Congress had to mute their comments and let their ire slowly leak away. Not a pretty picture.
Guardian Unlimited | Columnists | George Monbiot: Fraud and corruption