Reconstruction Official on Iraq Billions:"What Difference Does It Make?"

TPMmuckraker

By Paul Kiel - February 6, 2007, 2:06 PM

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?"

    This is the shit that has permeated the Bush Crime Family from day one! We lost $9 billion, so what?

    Here is what Oliver had to say at the oversight hearing headed by Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA)., this morning. 

That was a clip, as I recall, after a thirty or forty minute conversation, and it comes back to the essence of I hope what Stuart [Bowen] has pointed out several times, is a question of transparency. He believes that the CPA should have ordered the information, we decided the best way to make sure we could withdraw as quickly as possible and for the safety of the troops was to rely upon the Iraqi system to distribute that money. Therefore, we made sure that it was transparent what we were doing with the money to the ministries and then relied upon the ministries system, the entire financial system they had, to do that. We had about, I had four to ten people, the country’s population is about the same size as California, which I think has 800 people in the same office. We thought this was the best way to make sure that the country’s safety was performed.

  Right!

 

Technorati tags: Reconstruction, Iraq, Billions

 

Will A House Resolution Pass?

    It may have gotten stuck in quicksand in the Senate, but the resolution on Bush's war escalation plan may be resurrected from death's grip over in the House.

YahooNews

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives will take up a resolution next week disapproving of President George W. Bush's decision to add 21,500 American troops in Iraq, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday.

Although the House had intended to follow the Senate's lead on the issue, Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said the House had decided not to wait any longer on the Senate to act after Senate Republicans blocked debate on a similar resolution in that chamber on Monday.

"The reason we're going ahead is not because we don't think the Senate will ever act, but we're not sure when the Senate is going to act," Hoyer told reporters.

"I think the resolution will clearly say we do not believe that the president's proposal of an escalation of 21,000 troops is the proper policy to be pursuing," Hoyer said. It was being drafted now, he said, and he expected a three day debate.

   Maybe it would have been a better idea if all of this had started in the House right from the start, where the Democrats have more than enough votes to get some kind of statement on this mess passed.

    I would go so far as to even dare any of the Democrats in the House to go for some watered down crap like they attempted to do in the Senate version of a resolution.

    We are watching you like hawks!

 

Technorati tags: The House, Resolution, Democrats