Le “cash” en ballade

L’histoire de l’argent américain en ballade dans l’Irak libérée, notamment dans les derniers jours avant le transfert de l’autorité aux “nouveaux-Irakiens”, mérite dans d’être lue et méditée dans ses moindres détails. C’est une description simplement hallucinante, qui en dit long sur la situation générale en Irak, le fonctionnement de la machine de guerre américaine, du marché libre et de la globalisation en temps de désordre. (Sources européennes internes.)

« The United States handed out nearly $20 billion of Iraq's funds, with a rush to spend billions in the final days before transferring power to the Iraqis nearly a year ago, a report said on Tuesday. A report by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California, said in the week before the hand-over on June 28, 2004, the U.S-led “Coalition Provisional Authority” ordered the urgent delivery of more than $4 billion in Iraqi funds from the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York. One single shipment amounted to $2.4 billion -the largest movement of cash in the bank's history, said Waxman. Cash was loaded onto giant pallets for shipment by plane to Iraq, and paid out to contractors who carried it away in duffel bags. The report, released at a House of Representatives committee hearing, said despite the huge amount of money, there was little U.S. scrutiny in how these assets were managed. "The disbursement of these funds was characterized by significant waste, fraud and abuse," said Waxman.

» An audit by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said U.S. auditors could not account for nearly $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds and the United States had not provided adequate controls for this money. "The CPA's management of Iraqi money was an important responsibility that, in my view, required more diligent accountability, pursuant to its assigned mandate, than we found," said chief inspector Stuart Bowen in testimony. Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, a Democrat, questioned why so much money had to be transferred so fast. Senior defense official Joseph Benkert said an infusion of funds was needed to address a wide variety of needs before the new Iraqi government took over. Part of the challenge in tracking how money was spent was the cash environment and lack of electronic transfers. Contractors were told to turn up with big duffel bags to pick up their payments and some were paid from the back of pick-up trucks. One picture shows grinning CPA officials standing in front of a pile of cash said to be worth $2 million to be paid to a security contractor. Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut, a Republican, said the photograph disturbed him. "It looks a little loose to me," he said, of the smiling officials. In total, more than 281 million individual bills, including more than 107 million $100 bills, were shipped to Iraq on giant pallets loaded onto C-130 planes, the report said. »

Mis en ligne le 24 juin 2005 à 12H40