Where's Iraq's huge oil money going?

[RSLudlum]

Given the fact that oil is around $127/bbl and Iraq is producing 2.5million bbl/day that would mean that the total revenue from Oil sales per day could be roughly $300,000,000/day.

That's quite abit of money, and how exactly was this revenue suppose to allow this war to "pay for it's self"? Taxation of the companies, direct payments from the Iraqi government, outright theft like the gov't practices state-side...i'm lost in this area. :confused:

[Dieseler]

Good question and I'm sure its one they are not willing to answer.

[driller80545]

valero

[WRellim]

Can you say HALLI-BURT-ON?

[buffalokid777]

Given the fact that oil is around $127/bbl and Iraq is producing 2.5million bbl/day that would mean that the total revenue from Oil sales per day could be roughly $300,000,000/day.

That's quite abit of money, and how exactly was this revenue suppose to allow this war to "pay for it's self"? Taxation of the companies, direct payments from the Iraqi government, outright theft like the gov't practices state-side...i'm lost in this area. :confused:

Because there are people there actively stopping that Oil from getting to market......

When you start killing Innocents,,,,,people fight back.......

If the Bush administration really wanted to depose Sadaam and take control of the country......they could have paid Sadaam $1 billion to keep his mouth shut and allowed his exile in Egypt.....but the Bush administration didn't want that.....They would rather spend 3 Trillon+ of taxpayer money so they could get a bigger cut......Halliburton wouldn't profit from that scenario of buying out Sadaam.....The Bush administration needed to invade to make their cut.......the buyout would have been cheaper for America....but very unprofitable to not only Bush and Cheney.......but all the other entities inside the Military Industrial corridor complex.....that is why they chose invasion so those corporations inside the military industrial complex could make a profit....but so those inside the administartion could make a profit thru investments in the Military Industrial corridor complex........

[rapidtrends]

All those dollars are going to pay for things like this (http://www.rapidtrends.com/blog/2008/02/23/where-has-all-the-money-gone/)

[RSLudlum]

All those dollars are going to pay for things like this (http://www.rapidtrends.com/blog/2008/02/23/where-has-all-the-money-gone/)

:eek:

Yeah right, Muslims really hate us for our freedom and the way we live :rolleyes:

Dubai has got it going on!!! Those pics of the accomplishments there are insane!!

[OptionsTrader]

A story from 2005 that should not be surprising:

Video:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/6622441#6622441

Article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6621523/

What happened to Iraq’s oil money?
Former U.S. official
cites ‘pervasive leakage’

By Lisa Myers & the NBC investigative unit
NBC News
updated 3:17 p.m. CT, Thurs., Feb. 17, 2005
After the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the United States took control of all of the Iraqi government’s bank accounts, including the income from oil sales. The United Nations approved the financial takeover, and President Bush vowed to spend Iraq’s money wisely. But now critics are raising serious questions about how well the United States handled billions of dollars in Iraqi oil funds.

Iraq's oil resources generate billions of dollars — money the United States promised to protect after overthrowing Saddam Hussein.

Now, Frank Willis, a former senior American official in Iraq, tells NBC News the United States failed to safeguard the oil money known as the Development Fund for Iraq.

"There was, in my mind, pervasive leakage in assets of Iraq, and to some extent, those assets were squandered," says Willis.

Willis helped run Iraq’s Transportation Ministry. He says government agencies and private contractors had to be paid in cash because Iraq’s banking system was decimated.

"A lot of money did get to the Iraqi people at the grass-roots level, and a lot of it got into the wrong hands," he says.

In one photograph, Willis and colleagues showed off a $2 million payment to a security contractor.

"It was time for payment," he remembers. "We told them to come in and bring in a bag. It reminded me of the Wild West."

In a series of reports on U.S. management of the oil money, auditors working for the United Nation's Iraq Advisory and Monitoring Board and the Inspector General of the Coalition Provisional Authority found:

Insufficient controls
Missing records
Two sets of books at Iraq's Finance Ministry, which did not match
In one example of insufficient controls, the United States stored hundreds of millions of oil dollars in a vault in a Baghdad palace. Government auditors found that the key to the vault was kept “unsecured” — in a U.S. official’s backpack.

Iraq’s U.S. administrator, Paul Bremer, pledged last year to hire a certified public accounting firm to ensure proper controls. But the United States gave the contract not to an accounting firm but to a tiny consulting company, Northstar — which NBC News found is headquartered at a private home near San Diego.

"They violated the rules. They picked a contractor who didn’t meet their requirements," says Paul Light, a government contracting expert and professor at New York University.

Northstar’s president says the Pentagon knew Northstar was not a certified public accounting firm and that four experienced employees went to Iraq and did a good job. However, one audit notes that a single Northstar employee maintained spreadsheets tracking billions of dollars.

Bremer would not comment. His aides say Iraq is a war zone and their top priority was getting money quickly where it was needed, even if the accounting wasn't perfect.

But NBC News has learned that a draft government audit faults the United States for “inadequate stewardship” of up to $8.8 billion in oil money, handed over to Iraq’s ministries but never fully accounted for.

[RSLudlum]

^^ isn't funny how they can get away with transferring such a large amount of physical cash while we get flagged if we make a cash transaction of ~$10,000 or more

[Brian4Liberty]

Given the fact that oil is around $127/bbl and Iraq is producing 2.5million bbl/day that would mean that the total revenue from Oil sales per day could be roughly $300,000,000/day.

That's quite abit of money, and how exactly was this revenue suppose to allow this war to "pay for it's self"? Taxation of the companies, direct payments from the Iraqi government, outright theft like the gov't practices state-side...i'm lost in this area. :confused:

Where is the money going?

To the "Paul Wolfowitz Home for Retired Neo-Conservatives"? :rolleyes:

[Ozwest]

Transportation costs.

Supplied by the tax-payer.

[Ozwest]

Want to drive a truck in Iraq.

There's some high paying jobs about.

Any takers?

[buffalokid777]

Where is the money going?

To the "Paul Wolfowitz Home for Retired Neo-Conservatives"? :rolleyes:

If I had to make an educated guess....I would say Dubai.......

[newyearsrevolution08]

Want to drive a truck in Iraq.

There's some high paying jobs about.

Any takers?

With a big ol American flag truckers hat on, that should be on the deadliest jobs show.....

[WRellim]

:eek:

Yeah right, Muslims really hate us for our freedom and the way we live :rolleyes:

Dubai has got it going on!!! Those pics of the accomplishments there are insane!!

Ummm, yeah, except all of that stuff is being built on desert land, which is incapable of supporting 1/100 or maybe only 1/1000 the population they are attracting.

Those newly created Islands... good luck with them in 50 years -- whether the sea level rises or falls, or they just erode away, they probably won;t be worth much.

And they may as well inscribe "Ozymandias" on the foundation stones of those buildings, as the desert will likely reclaim them.

But hey, party while you got em, right! Woo Ha!

[WRellim]

^^ isn't funny how they can get away with transferring such a large amount of physical cash while we get flagged if we make a cash transaction of ~$10,000 or more

Well, you see it's not like they're handing it over to a bunch of potential muslim arab terrorists or something... oh shit! :eek: