Pentagon/U.S. can't account 8.7 BILLION in Iraqi $ 4 rebuilding? Trillions missing

[revelarts]

Gov't at work...

Gov't audit says that 8.7 BILLION dollars went missing down the rat hole. the Pentagon and U.S. officials were suppose to be handling the rebuilding money for the pitiful and corrupt Iraqi's to make sure things got done the proper way. Well, oops now we can't really tell you where your money went. But umm Trust us were the good guys.

What's wrong with this picture.

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I mean we can't tell where all our own money as gone either. the pentagon is a black hole.

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[revelarts]

Shouldn't we just cut the pentagon's budget by a trillion dollars. then well see if they can find the missing money?

[revelarts]

Where's the outrage here?

Shouldn't we add this to the outrage about the bail outs.
trillions on the left trillions on the right.
Monies flying out of every door and through the floors in congress.
where's the tea party war on gov't waste and fraud here?

[revelarts]

Total War Funding since 2001
To date, $1.09 trillion dollars have been allocated to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This counter is designed so that on September 30, 2010, the end of the federal government's 2010 fiscal year, the counter will reach that total number. Likewise, counters found here for states and towns will also reach their portion of this number at the end of FY2010.

Cost of War in Iraq since 2003
To date, $749.9 billion dollars have been allocated to the war in Iraq since 2003. This counter is designed so that on September 30, 2010, the end of the federal government's 2010 fiscal year, the counter will reach that total number

Cost of War in Afghanistan since 2001
To date, $337.8 billion dollars have been allocated to the war in Afghanistan since 2001. This counter is designed so that on September 30, 2010, the end of the federal government's 2010 fiscal year, the counter will reach that total number.

from
http://www.costofwar.com

And that's just counting the money it's cost ... so far.

[revelarts]

From the Veterans for peace web site
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/


JUNE 30, 2010
VETERANS’ BANNER TAGS ABANDONED DETROIT BUILDING: "HOW’S THE WAR ECONOMY WORKING FOR YOU"

On June 26, at 2pm, a group of U.S. military veterans hung a large banner on the abandoned Eddystone Hotel, on Sproat St., between Cass and Park, to protest and reveal the effect of war spending on American cities.

Members of Veterans For Peace (VFP), attending the U.S. Social Forum, a gathering of over 8,000 activists from across the U.S., created and erected the 10 x 15-foot sign that reads, “HOW IS THE WAR ECONOMY WORKING FOR YOU?” in this city with an unemployment rate of 15 percent and 10,000 abandoned homes on the mayor’s demolition list.

Taxpayers in Detroit have sent a total of nearly two billion dollars to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The city’s 2011 general fund budget of 1.3 billion dollars contains an estimated deficit of 300 million dollars, even after years of cutbacks in services once assumed to be part of urban life. The budget for Detroit schools has a deficit in the same range.

“Detroit, like so many of our cities, is most certainly in distress,” said Mike Ferner, National President of VFP. This crisis is no different than a five-alarm fire and we should respond the same way. Instead, we watch America’s cities literally crumble while we pour thousands of lives and trillions of dollars into wars abroad.”

John Amidon, President of VFP Chapter 10, added, “It’s absolutely criminal that the people who built the U.S. auto industry have to watch their city collapse around them while they send $2,000,000,000 to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is indeed the purest form of madness and it’s coming to a city near you.”

VFP, with over 100 chapters, is beginning a campaign to work with local government officials to place “war counters” on city halls stating the amount of money each community has sent to the wars.

See videos: Cutting Detroit Emergency Technicians and Paramedics: How Is The War Economy Working For You? | "How Is The War Economy Working For You?" Banner Drop: Veterans For Peace | "How Is The War Economy Working For You?" Why Drop The Banner Drop: Veterans For Peace | Abandoned buildings in Detriot

[Gaffer]

Detroit was destroyed by the unions, not wars in other countries. Put the blame where it belongs. State's need to become business friendly with low taxes, as does the federal government. Nothing will happen however as long as the libs have control. Placating to the unions, over taxing and over regulating drove the auto industry out of detroit.

[revelarts]

What about all the trillions and billions in the post above that Gaffer. what should we do about that?

[Noir]

Yep, and it's nit just America, billions of dollars has been sucked out of Iraq, who knows where it went,

I memo when raised this issue a few years ago when he went to the US senate (and tore them apart) so I looked fir the video, the relievent bit is from 6:45 to the end of the vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lINNad6Njs&feature=youtube_gdata

[Gaffer]

What about all the trillions and billions in the post above that Gaffer. what should we do about that?

That's what has already been spent or is in the pipeline. Iraq is winding down. It will be costing less as time goes by. Also, we are talking totals here. They need to break down the costs and set aside the pork that congress always hides in its funding bills. I would bet fully three quarters of that trillion is pork to buy votes.

There's nothing we can do about any of it. The libs control washington. The repubs won't change much when they get in.

[Kathianne]

That's what has already been spent or is in the pipeline. Iraq is winding down. It will be costing less as time goes by. Also, we are talking totals here. They need to break down the costs and set aside the pork that congress always hides in its funding bills. I would bet fully three quarters of that trillion is pork to buy votes.

There's nothing we can do about any of it. The libs control washington. The repubs won't change much when they get in.

While Relevarts posts often and much about the waste in DOD, I don't really think it's the money that is his main point. I'm pretty sure it's any foreign war.

[revelarts]

Um trillions of dollars lost by any dept is a real problem kath, I've posted more frequently on the bail outs. waste is waste. But the DOD seems to be the biggest single source of major waste. the foreign war aspect adds insult to injury. It's a waste in principal. But don't get me started. However it would be one thing if the money was spent to outfit the troops but Rumsfield said they don't know where a trillion dollars went. that was 2001. Sorry 2.3 trillion dollars.

however I wouldn't mind if we dissolved the dept of education it's annual budget was $32 billion in 2009
Dept of energy $24.1 billion in 2009
maybe even the Dept of Interior $20 billion 2010

were at about $76 billion, that's a little short of 2.3 trillion

$1,000,000,000,000 = 1 trillion
___$76,000,000,000 = 76 billion

I think we should be concerned about gov't waste no matter where we find it don't you Kath?
Why are you trying to blow off a conversation on DOD waste by trying to point my "real" motives. It doesn't stop the bleeding financially or otherwise.

[Kathianne]

Um trillions of dollars lost by any dept is a real problem kath, I've posted more frequently on the bail outs. waste is waste. But the DOD seems to be the biggest single source of major waste. the foreign war aspect adds insult to injury. It's a waste in principal. But don't get me started. However it would be one thing if the money was spent to outfit the troops but Rumsfield said they don't know where a trillion dollars went. that was 2001. Sorry 2.3 trillion dollars.

however I wouldn't mind if we dissolved the dept of education it's annual budget was $32 billion in 2009
Dept of energy $24.1 billion in 2009
maybe even the Dept of Interior $20 billion 2010

were at about $76 billion, that's a little short of 2.3 trillion

$1,000,000,000,000
___$76,000,000,000

I think we should be concerned about gov't waste no matter where we find it don't you Kath?
Why are you trying to blow off a conversation on DOD waste by trying to point my "real" motives. It doesn't stop the bleeding financially or otherwise.

It's not this thread, it's the preponderance of your posts on the subject that made me make the observation.

I'm all for cutting out Dept of Ed and Energy. However, the biggest costs to all of us are entitlements.

[revelarts]

Among other issues of backing a corrupt, drug dealing, election stealing gov't not really in control of the country..



KANDAHAR CITY -- In its bid to win the hearts and minds of Afghanistan’s teeming population, the United States has spent more than $55 billion to rebuild and bolster the war-ravaged country.

That money was meant to cover everything from the construction of government buildings and economic development projects to the salaries of U.S. government employees working closely with Afghans.

Yet no one can say with any authority or precision how that money was spent and who profited from it. Most of the funds were funneled to a vast array of U.S. and foreign contractors. But according to a recent audit by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), there is no way of knowing whether the money went for the intended purposes.

“The audit shows that navigating the confusing labyrinth of government contracting is difficult, at best,” SIGAR said in releasing the audit. “USAID, the State Department and the Pentagon are unable to readily report on how much money they spend on contracting for reconstruction activities in Afghanistan.”

One large part of the problem is that the United States is not demanding accountability for outgoing funds from U.S. companies which have little incentive to fully disclose where the U.S. money is going. Add to this the many Afghan companies that have minimal accounting capabilities and you have a recipe for a massive misappropriation of funds. The money flows from Washington to Afghanistan, with little oversight and accountability, and at every step along the way someone else takes a cut.

“There’s no mechanism to track where this money is going,” said Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, an independent, nonprofit group that investigates government corruption. “Security problems persist and this money doesn’t seem to be accomplishing a real mission.”

As staggering amounts of U.S. tax dollars virtually vanish down a black hole, many of the government projects designed to foster improved relations with the Afghan people and undermine the appeal of the Taliban have fallen far behind schedule or simply aren’t completed. In October, SIGAR found that six Afghan National Police buildings were so poorly built that they are unusable. They were constructed at a cost of $5 million by Basirat Construction, an Afghan construction company.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-cant-account-for-billions-spent-in-afghanistan-2010-12#ixzz19hgvkM00

[PostmodernProphet]

Detroit was destroyed by the unions, not wars in other countries. Put the blame where it belongs. State's need to become business friendly with low taxes, as does the federal government. Nothing will happen however as long as the libs have control. Placating to the unions, over taxing and over regulating drove the auto industry out of detroit.

if you're going to place blame where it belongs then recognize that Detroit has been run by liberals for the last 40 years....it would be fucked up even if there were no unions......

[Gaffer]

if you're going to place blame where it belongs then recognize that Detroit has been run by liberals for the last 40 years....it would be fucked up even if there were no unions......

liberals and unions, samesame.

[logroller]

Where it went is a matter of conjecture; but I'll bet it was tax-free!:laugh2:

[revelarts]

Pentagon Reports Billions of Dollars in Contractor Fraud


Source: AOL Politics Daily

The Pentagon paid hundreds of billions of dollars to defense contractors engaged in criminal or civil fraud -- in some cases paying the companies after they were convicted, according to a new Defense Department report.

At least 91 contractors holding contracts worth $270 billion were the subjects of civil fraud judgments -- and in some cases criminal fraud convictions as well, many of which resulted in fines, suspensions or debarments. Even so, Defense Department contracting officers still assigned $4.9 billion worth of work with these companies after the fraud was uncovered, the report said.

The contractors identified in the report include such blue-chip entities as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Pratt & Whitney, IBM and even the Yale medical school.

The Pentagon said its own sloppy bookkeeping, missing records and inadequate training of acquisition officials were to blame for the mess. The Pentagon also acknowledged that the data in the report, which covers only 2007 through 2009, are probably incomplete because the Defense Department cannot accurately track individual contractors or how much is actually spent. And the report only tracks those fraud cases of over $1 million....

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/02/03/pentagon-admits-to-billions-of-dollars-in-contractor-fraud/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl3|sec1_lnk3|199051

I'll wait for the crickets to respond.