One wouldn’t think the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) for the US would have so much to do, now that ground troops are out of the nation. Apparently, however, the nation remains a black hole from which US cash vanishes.
And sometimes emerges, as the SIGIR is reporting today that it is believed $800 million in US currency is smuggled illegally out of Iraq every week, part of a massive money laundering operation.
There’s plenty of US currency in Iraq, of course, as during the height of the occupation the US was sending plane after plane loaded down with palettes of $100 bills, and SIGIR has been unable to figure out where a large portion of that went, terming it the “largest theft of funds in national history.”
SIGIR cited reports from Iraq’s new top auditor in today’s revelation. That auditor, Abdul-Basit Turki, has just recently taken over the job after his predecessor was fired over financial wrongdoing.
