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Science Daily:

Fraud in Iraq costs $1 billion BAGHDAD

Aug. 12 (UPI) — Iraqi investigators have uncovered more than $1 billion of
fraud and waste in weapons deals arranged by middlemen, Knight Ridder news
service reported.

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The report, quoting a confidential report and interviews with U.S. and
Iraqi officials, said middlemen who arranged the deals reneged or took huge
kickbacks on the contracts to arm Iraq’s fledgling military.

The report said an Iraqi audit suggested that senior U.S.-appointed Iraqi
Defense Ministry officials used three intermediary companies to hide the
kickbacks. It said the contracts involved unnecessary, overpriced or outdated
equipment.

The audit board said the waste squandered more than half the Defense
Ministry’s annual budget for setting up a self-sufficient force.

“If one dinar is misspent, I ache for it, so just imagine how it feels for
such huge sums,” Iraq’s Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told Knight Ridder
in an interview.

The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that embassy officials “were advising
the Iraqis about our concerns relating to (the Defense Ministry’s) decisions
on procurement and the possibility of corruption.”

As our cost of living sky rockets and government services continue to
decrease at an alarming rate, it is good to know our money is being mismanaged
so well!