What is truly pathetic, and shows just how far gone America is, is how you hear 'nary a word about this in the MSM. Little blurbs here and there. Where is the outrage? Our "leaders" won't extend unemployment benefits, or fund public education, or put forth any $ towards moving towards a job-creating green economy, or ANYTHING that could get Americans working again and able to save themselves from foreclosue, but HELL YES they can give hundreds of billions of dollars every year to the Military Industrial Complex, which then LOSES billions and billions of that $.

The response from Congress/President: a huge collective shoulder-shrug.

Insanity. Every politician in Washington needs to be put in jail, and every soldier pulled out of every other country in the world. Burn the whole fucking place down and start over from scratch.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis, "It Cant Happen Here", 1935

This could be one of the important reasons the US goes to war.American tax payers money and the money looted from the invaded country can be cornered and shared between those who run the war.
It is a frightening situation.

This society has a huge problem with holding the military accountable. As more and more money is allotted to the military, more and more people's livelihoods depend upon it. This in part accounts for USAns great appparent apathy as regards the militarization of daily life-- there is no great incentive to bite the hand that feeds. Of course now it's not just the military per se, but the myriad of civilian contractors and Homeland Security-affiliated firms that are waddling up to the trough.
This was not always so. A largely agrarian nation of small landholders and tradesmen was far less interested in throwing their hard-earned money into the coffers of the Defense Department. As the ongoing financial and military debacle deepens, and it becomes apparent the empire is unsustainable, the economy will need drastic restructuring. Are we as a people capable of the sustained attention necessary to accomplish this? We need to wean ourselves off the corporate-military-empire teat. It is more and more clear that the alternative offers only dire consequences.
What skills do we have? How can we escape the clutches of the war machine and fashion an existence with meaning?

Someone found every one of those "Lost Billions". Those "Lost Billions" are now out working for a living. Some of those "Lost Billions" are being loaned back to US at Treasury Auctions. Billions don't just disappear. They become numbers on someone else's page.

Just like the Madoff money. It is still out there. He sheltered the money. He hid the money. He transferred the money to friends and relatives. There was too much money "lost" to have been consumed. Keep looking!

First place I'd look for the "missing" Iraq money is Cheney's bank account. Second place would be Bush's bank account, etc......... Just keep looking!

(The majority of Americans don't understand money. Yesterday on the radio I heard ED say that stocks have really come back since 2008 and that people are recovering a lot of the money they "lost" in their 401k's. Not true. I know of an account valued at $10,000 that went down to $1,000 in the 2008 crash. The $9,000 "lost" was actually stolen IMHO. In the two years since the crash how much has the remaining $1,000 appreciated. Let's say a huge 20% annual return. That's $200 a year appreciation. You are not getting your $9,000 back. Your $9,000 is still out there in someone else's name.)

Hymenaea -

Fortunately, we do not have to reinvent the wheel on the issue of criminal war profiteering. The remedies and skills are readily available. What is lacking is the political will to act.

Throughout World War II, Congressional inquiries such as the Truman Commission into fraud in the procurement process made regular headlines. What politician could possibly be opposed to a probe into massive theft of public tax dollars for personal or corporate gain? It was truly a bipartisan issue, demanding accountability in support of the national war effort while soldiers and civilians alike were making sacrifices. Harry Truman's credential as a crusader against fraud and abuse in no small measure made him a national figure worthy of being picked by FDR for the vice presidential slot.

There is absolutely no reason why Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid couldn't make a major partisan issue out of the theft of billions of dollars in broad daylight during the Bush administration's Iraq occupation fiasco. They could do so tomorrow. In terms of two major party politics, it would be a no brainer, win-win all around.

Why all the outrage about Bernie Madoff and such indifference to the missing billions in Iraq? I suspect the real culprit is fear that a serious Congressional probe, simply following the money, would expose some really, really big DC beltway players in the Pentagon and CIA as colossal crooks. That is no excuse. All that's needed is for Congress, and the Democratic leadership in Congress, to act.

Bill from Saginaw

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says $8.7 billion earmarked for Iraq reconstruction has gone. Precisely where, no one can tell him.

It has gone toward the self-destruction of the United States. Now there's something this nation really knows how to do.

Ms. Flanders, I regret to say that there's nothing ta see here. Billions are misssing? No one cares. Perhaps if you call your local news media, they'll look into the matter?

The American people have become the Eloi of the 21st Century.

and not a "DAM" thing is going to be done about the missing billions, N A D A ! Z I L C H !

War is now Peace, Ignornace has become Strength, and Orwell is rolling in his grave.

The monies in question were proceeds from the sale of Iraqi oil and sequestered Saddam properties...Iraqi money.
It was money held in trust for the Iraqi people by the US.
Water systems and sewerage systems and electrical systems could have been restored...the agriculture system. What they got for their money was Fallujah, cultural schism and the loss of their futures.

After WW1 the world changed, America changed. We got used to the idea of paying an income tax, we got used to the idea we need a ready military. Worse of all we got used to the idea of throwing away the lives of our fellow Americans for no return at all.

Then WWII came and we had to get used to the idea that war must be fought anywhere anytime. We got used to the idea of going off to fight someone who really couldn't hurt us. In fact Japan did us a service by wrecking all those obsolete battleships. Hitler, might have become a real threat some time in the late 1950s if they could avoid being rolled over by Russia, (Napolieans Mistake) never attack Russia in Winter! No England had a good holding action and Russia was attacking well, that European conflict would have burnt out by 1948 if we had done nothing but sit back and watch Hitlers errors.

Up to the moderen era, Korea.. more of the same. Vietnam! and the era of the $500 toilet seats and $100 hammers, thats when we learned to just keep quiet and pay! and we've been doing it ever since.

Since Sep 9/11 till Dec 2012. it would seem the best we can do is sit back and watch the show. Take care of each other the best we can, and make our peace with the Universe.

Dec,21, 2012 Game Over!

>^^<

When they admit to 8.7 it means the actual amount has to be at least 3 to 5 times as much.

- Billions of dollars and hundreds of pounds of explosives routinely go 'missing' in Iraq.

- Pakistan is *still* using it's intelligence agency in arming and equipping the Taliban in Afghanistan.

What is the link between these two facts?

The US, and especially the CIA are active in both countries, have installed corrupt puppet regimes, and there is oil involved.

Your fathers, sons and brothers are dying for the lies of a Corporate Elite.

Non Serviam - I will not serve.

Why is it so hard to follow the money?

Find out which Congress people are on which committees.

Find out their net worth when they began, and see how it rose each year, outside of speaking fees and any inheritance.

Find out the net worth of companies inolved in any war materials as of 2000.

Track their net worth each year, outside of mergers and stock, and ask where the big growth came from.

Real journalists would be doing this, I suppose, but then, where have all the real journalists gone?

I wonder if any future Wikileaks workers have the keys to the kingdoms on this. If we can't have a free press anymore, at least we'll have free inquiry from Wiki. I do suspect that these"unknowns" will be legion.

The answer has been known for some time - The most fantastic editor and reporter, Christopher Story, has been telling the public, whoever wants to read his intelligence reports - for YEARS about the money - the very money discussed in this report as well as other funds and events mentioned by the people who are posting comments to it.

Ironically, my eye was immediately drawn to a sentence in the second to the last paragraph ~

“It's not the same $9 billion but it is the [the] same old story . . .”

The fantastic Christopher Story used to say stuff like that. Too bad he is no longer available to us humans. I know he would be giving us the scoop on this newest announcement and we who anxiously awaited his new intelligence information, would read his words with eagerness.

Christopher Story had laws and his third law was ~
“Sooner or later, all covers and operations are blown” (quote taken from December 28, 2009 report).

At the time he mentioned this “law”, he was describing the criminals who control the countries and governments of our planet and he wrote:

“Indeed, an environment in which lies and a total lack of official credibility is the established norm, is just as helpful as 'ying-yang' from the criminalised cadres' perspective - except that it makes them doubly careless. And believe us these demented people are extremely careless, as well as being fundamentally STUPID. By definition, ALL LIARS ARE STUPID, as all lies decay, like plutonium.”

To those who really want to know what has been happening, I invite you to check Christopher Story’s news archive web site - but don’t dally, he was murdered on July 14, 2010. The general understanding among his followers is that “the powers that be,” TPTB, assassinated him via poison. Threats to his life had increased of late and his last post of July 10th was removed from his website after he was killed.

More than ever before, I hope Christopher Story was right ~ because it’s time to stop letting the stupid and demented people run chaotically amongst us, taking advantage wherever they can to steal and squander our resources, funds, style of living, etc.

Christopher Story’s News Archives Web Site ~ http://www.worldreports.org/news

~ He will be missed by many ~ RIP