$18 Billion in Reconstruction Tax Dollars for Iraq Missing

Still think the war in Iraq was to fight terrorism? Then ask yourself why is nearly $18 billion of your tax dollars that was to be used in reconstruction efforts gone without a trace? What is the United States government doing in Iraq that they thought they could launder this kind of money and hope it will disappear without a trace?

Osama al-Nujaifi, the Iraqi parliament speaker, has told Al Jazeera that the amount of Iraqi money unaccounted for by the US is $18.7bn - three times more than the reported $6.6bn.

Just before departing for a visit to the US, al-Nujaifi said that he has received a report this week based on information from US and Iraqi auditors that the amount of money withdrawn from a fund from Iraqi oil proceeds, but unaccounted for, is much more than the $6.6bn reported missing last week.

The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Iraqi officials argue that the US government was supposed to safeguard the stash under a 2004 legal agreement it signed with Iraq, hence making Washington responsible for the cash that has disappeared.

Pentagon officials have contended for the last six years that they could account for the money if given enough time to track down the records.

The US has audited the money three times, but has still not been able to say exactly where it went.

Al Jazeera's Iraq correspondent, Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said: "It's an absolutely astonishing figure - this goes back to 2003 and 2004.

"Safeguarding the money was up to the Americans ... after the invasion, provisional authority here was run by the American military.

"Piles and piles of shrink-wrapped US dollars came here, but the cash coming in is not the important part - it is what happened to it after [it got here].

"There are no documents to indicate who got it, where it was spent and what was ever built from it."

Makes you wonder what is really going on, doesn't it? Could the US be using it to fund terrorism in order to expand its imperial wars in the region to gain greater control of the oil? You have to wonder at this point as losing $18 billion should not be an easy process for the United States government.

Meanwhile, the US is planning permanent occupation in Iraq and is building military bases there.