# $Billions given to CPA for Iraq reconstruction are missing. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 9, 2007, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538 "2007-02-09T19:54:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/1 "2007-02-09T19:54:28Z")
Paul Bremer can’t say where they went. His assistant and budget chief, David Oliver, says, “Frankly, it not important.” Because, “This wasn’t American money.” ( 😕 Wasn’t it appropriated by Congress?) But Rep. Henry Waxman, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, seems to think it is important. Story [here.](http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2007/02/waxman_hearing_reconstruction.html) And [here.](http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/08/1611246) Related [Pit thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=407506) 1. **Who got the money?!** 2. Why was it shipped to Iraq in the form of unmarked $100 bills? 3. Can/will anyone be brought to justice over this? Considering the indeterminate questions of whether the Coalition Provisional Authority was a U.S. government agency, and whether it ever had any legal existence? (See [these](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=306538) [threads.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=304863)) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/2 "2007-02-09T20:04:23Z")
Another story, in the UK’s [_Guardian._](http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2008189,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/3 "2007-02-09T20:09:28Z")
My WAGs: [QUOTE=BrainGlutton] 1. **Who got the money?!** [/quote] Starts with an “H” and ends in “aliburton.” [QUOTE=BrainGlutton] 2. Why was it shipped to Iraq in the form of unmarked $100 bills? [/quote] To make it easier to steal, duh. [QUOTE=BrainGlutton] 3. Can/will anyone be brought to justice over this? [/quote] Before the November elections, I’d have said “no way in hell.” Right now I’m upgrading it to a cautiously optimistic “don’t hold your breath.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/4 "2007-02-09T20:10:24Z")
And [Reuters.](http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=newsone&storyID=2007-02-07T024119Z_01_N06312951_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-USA-CASH.xml&WTmodLoc=IntNewsHome_R1_newsone-1) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/5 "2007-02-09T20:19:28Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] 1. **Who got the money?!** 2. Why was it shipped to Iraq in the form of unmarked $100 bills? 3. Can/will anyone be brought to justice over this? Considering the indeterminate questions of whether the Coalition Provisional Authority was a U.S. government agency, and whether it ever had any legal existence? (See [these](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=306538) [threads.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=304863)) [/QUOTE] 4. Anyone in Iraq who’d fleece us - which doesn’t exactly narrow it down 5. Would you like to mark that many bills? Also, who would look for them if they were marked? 6. Why do you hate America? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/6 "2007-02-09T20:19:30Z")
This money wasn’t \*\*given \*\* to the CPA and it wasn’t **for Iraq’s reconstruction**. It was Iraqi funds that belonged to Iraq and were being held by the US Government. Iraq had the right to ask for it, and to do with it whatever they wanted. That said, Bremer was in charge before the Iraqi government really established itself, so there’s a question of who exactly had the right to ask for these funds. It wasn’t the Iraqi president, nor was it any kind of legislative body - the request came from a single Iraqi official in the finance ministry. Bremer was also supposed to be assisting Iraq into becoming a Responsible Democracy, and one would expect “Preventing looters access to the national treasury” would be a responsibility which would, if not explicitly stated, at least be an implied part of that role. So would “Preventing the insurgency from gaining ascendency by throwing gobs of cash to random officials without accountability.” Any kind of responsible Iraqi government would use that money for reconstruction. Bremer (at the time) had the ability (and the White House support) to withhold the money until he knew what it was for and who it was going to. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/7 "2007-02-09T20:27:36Z")
[QUOTE=rjung] To make it easier to steal, duh. [/QUOTE] I think $1 billion worth of $100 bills is a bit harder to steal than you think. About eighty tons of cash doesn’t exactly fit in a knapsack. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/8 "2007-02-09T20:28:55Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] I think $1 billion worth of $100 bills is a bit harder to steal than you think. About eighty tons of cash doesn’t exactly fit in a knapsack. [/QUOTE] Not all at once, no. But with chaos in the streets, who’s gonna notice an extra looter or forty? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/9 "2007-02-09T20:37:38Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] I think $1 billion worth of $100 bills is a bit harder to steal than you think. About eighty tons of cash… [/QUOTE] [According to the US mint](http://www.moneyfactory.gov/document.cfm/18/106) > [@](#): > > The approximate weight of a currency note, regardless of denomination is (1) one gram. There are 454 grams in one (1) U.S. pound, therefore, there should be 454 notes in (1) one pound(Avoirdupois system). 10 million $100 dollar bills would thus weigh in at 11.02 short tons. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/10 "2007-02-09T20:38:55Z")
[QUOTE=Leviosaurus] This money wasn’t \*\*given \*\* to the CPA and it wasn’t **for Iraq’s reconstruction**. It was Iraqi funds that belonged to Iraq and were being held by the US Government. Iraq had the right to ask for it, and to do with it whatever they wanted. [/QUOTE] But where did it come from in the first place? It was the U.S. Treasury, was it not? Not the pre-invasion Iraqi treasury, I mean. Some of it came from post-invasion Iraqi oil revenue, but not all of it. [This post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8241289&postcount=42) breaks down the amounts. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/11 "2007-02-09T20:42:20Z")
This is outrageous. The Iraqis think they can build a stable, functional democratic government by handing out forkloads of cash without accountability? Have they learned nothing from observing the superior western democracies? Do they not know that a democracy should hand out money by means of a staggeringly huge bureaucracy that defies accountabilty by size alone? ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/12 "2007-02-09T21:35:30Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] But where did it come from in the first place? It was the U.S. Treasury, was it not? Not the pre-invasion Iraqi treasury, I mean. Some of it came from post-invasion Iraqi oil revenue, but not all of it. [/QUOTE] You seem to be implying that this was taxpayer money which was allocated by the US Congress. According to all sources who have to far been reported, this is absolutely not the case. This was Iraqi money, period. Whether it came from pre-invasion frozen assets or entirely post invasion oil profits, the reports do not currently tell us. If by “The US Treasury” you mean that the money was disbursed by the Fed, well, you’re partly right. The Fed did disburse the money, but the Fed is NOT the US Treasury. In fact, the Fed is only partly a government agency; the member banks which make up the Fed are privately owned. (Read more about the Fed [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fed).) The member banks hold money for all kinds of governments around the world. Remember Die Hard 3, when the robbers busted into a bank that had multiple piles of gold, each behind an individual steel door with a nation’s name on it? There was the “Saudi Arabia” pile of gold, the “Germany” pile of gold… that was supposed to be the Fed bank in New York city. To put it in Hollywood terms, you can think of this whole transaction as emptying out the pile of gold marked “Iraq”.\* [QUOTE=BrainGlutton] [This post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8241289&postcount=42) breaks down the amounts. [/QUOTE] I’ve just finished a short conversation with the person who wrote that post, and he assures me that he’s in complete and total agreement with everything I say. \*Apologies to any of you business major types who find my explanation hopelessly inadequate. Hey, nobody else was stepping up and responding. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/13 "2007-02-09T22:13:53Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] I think $1 billion worth of $100 bills is a bit harder to steal than you think. About eighty tons of cash doesn’t exactly fit in a knapsack. [/QUOTE] Does this remind anyone else of a scene from [_Goldfinger_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058150/)? I’m envisioning this dialogue in my mind (apologies to Richard Maibaum): INT. OVAL OFFICE - NIGHT George Bush: You’ll kill 60,000 people uselessly. Dick Cheney: Hah. American motorists kill that many every two years. George Bush: Yes, well, I’ve worked out a few statistics of my own. $12,000,000,000 in $100 bills weighs 363 tons. 10 men would take 2 days to load it onto 20 trucks. Now, at the most, you’re going to have 2 hours before the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines move in and make you put it back. Dick Cheney: Who mentioned anything about removing it? [Bush is stunned into silence] Dick Cheney: The julep tart enough for you? George Bush: You plan to break into Iraq’s biggest cash depository, but not to steal anything. Why? Dick Cheney: Go on, Mr. Bush. George Bush: [constipated] Mr. Kim, the North Korean at the factory, he’s a specialist in nuclear fission… but of course! His government’s given you a bomb. Dick Cheney: I prefer to call it an “atomic device.” It’s small, but particularly dirty. George Bush: Cobalt and iodine? Dick Cheney: Precisely. George Bush: Well, if you detonated it in Baghdad, the… the entire money supply of the Iraq would be radioactive for… fifty-seven years. Dick Cheney: Fifty-eight, to be exact. George Bush: I apologize, Cheney. It’s an inspired deal! We get what we want, economic chaos in the Middle East. And the value of your Halliburton stock increases many times. Dick Cheney: I conservatively estimate, ten times. George Bush: Brilliant. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/14 "2007-02-09T23:04:43Z")
[QUOTE=Leviosaurus] You seem to be implying that this was taxpayer money which was allocated by the US Congress. According to all sources who have to far been reported, this is absolutely not the case. This was Iraqi money, period. Whether it came from pre-invasion frozen assets or entirely post invasion oil profits, the reports do not currently tell us. If by “The US Treasury” you mean that the money was disbursed by the Fed, well, you’re partly right. The Fed did disburse the money, but the Fed is NOT the US Treasury. In fact, the Fed is only partly a government agency; the member banks which make up the Fed are privately owned. (Read more about the Fed [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fed).) The member banks hold money for all kinds of governments around the world. Remember Die Hard 3, when the robbers busted into a bank that had multiple piles of gold, each behind an individual steel door with a nation’s name on it? There was the “Saudi Arabia” pile of gold, the “Germany” pile of gold… that was supposed to be the Fed bank in New York city. To put it in Hollywood terms, you can think of this whole transaction as emptying out the pile of gold marked “Iraq”.\* I’ve just finished a short conversation with the person who wrote that post, and he assures me that he’s in complete and total agreement with everything I say. \*Apologies to any of you business major types who find my explanation hopelessly inadequate. Hey, nobody else was stepping up and responding. [/QUOTE] You’re probably right. I must have been confused because all the stories described the money being **shipped to** Iraq. So, we took Iraq’s U.S. reserves, and shipped them to Baghdad and put them in the hands of the CPA, all of whose top personnel were appointed by GWB . . . so responsibility lies . . . where? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/15 "2007-02-09T23:47:35Z")
BTW, **has** Congress voted any funds (out of the U.S. Treasury/Budget) for Iraq reconstruction? If so, how much, and how was it spent? Does anybody know? ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/16 "2007-02-10T00:20:26Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] You’re probably right. I must have been confused because all the stories described the money being **shipped to** Iraq. So, we took Iraq’s U.S. reserves, and shipped them to Baghdad and put them in the hands of the CPA, all of whose top personnel were appointed by GWB . . . so responsibility lies . . . where? [/QUOTE] Yes, the money was shipped to Iraq. It was the biggest disbursement of cash that the Fed had ever done. So, not only have we failed to build up Iraq ourselves, we deprived Iraq of one of their own biggest resources for building themselves up by facilitating what appears to be the biggest robbery in the history of the world. Responsibility lies with Bremer, and by association Bush. This was exactly the kind of thing Bremer was supposed to prevent, along with the looting of Iraq’s museum peices. He failed all the way across the board. You know what his excuse for giving them the money was? He thought it would help [stabilize the country](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/07/ap/politics/mainD8N4HSHO2.shtml). It actually makes a certain amount of sense if you look at it from a really bizarre angle - the entire country was in ruins and needed to get back on its feet. An influx of cash would certainly help. But Bremer literally - \*literally \* - threw billions of dollars at the problem with reckless abandon and no accountability whatsoever. Furthermore, he freely admits it. I can’t believe people like this are put in control of entire countries. Brings to mind visions of Bremer putting out street fires by burying them under mounds of cash. Couldn’t we have gotten a fireman or a cop who are used to handling emergency situations and know how to keep their head on straight to run Iraq instead of Bremer? > [@](#): > > BTW, has Congress voted any funds (out of the U.S. Treasury/Budget) for Iraq reconstruction? If so, how much, and how was it spent? Does anybody know? Short answer - yes, they have, and lots of it has come up missing too. Long answer - go look it up! You have an internet connection just like everybody else, dude! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/17 "2007-02-10T01:37:37Z")
[QUOTE=Leviosaurus] Short answer - yes, they have, and lots of it has come up missing too. Long answer - go look it up! You have an internet connection just like everybody else, dude! [/QUOTE] Smartass. OK, according to the Wikipedia article on [Reconstruction of Iraq:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_of_Iraq) > [@](#): > > Funding of reconstruction efforts began with the creation of the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund (IRRF) in April 2003. The IRRF is administered and funded by the United States. An initial allocation of $2.5 billion was made for immediate food, medicine and water relief. > > The “Madrid Conference on Reconstruction” held in Spain October 23-24, 2003 was organized by the United States to solicit donor pledges from the international community. About $33 billion in grants and loans were pledged. Of this, $18.4 billion was from the U.S. with another $5 billion from Japan, $812 million from the EU, $500 million from Kuwait and offers of loans from World Bank and the IMF amounting from $5.5 to $9.25 billion. Some countries pledged to reduce the debt that Iraq owed to them and to provide direct donations in forms such as food and fuel. The pledge by the United States was fulfilled in November 2003 by adding $18.4 billion to the IRRF. > > Much of the non-U.S. pledged money is managed through two additional funds that have been created under the facilitation of the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq.[1] The funds are managed by the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) and by the World Bank. Twenty-six donor nations participate in this effort with total pledges, as of June, 30 2006, of $1.4 billion. The United States donates a small amount to these funds but does not control their disbursement. > > As of December 30, 2005 the UNDG and World Bank Funds had expended about $0.51 billion and $0.39 billion, respectively. The United States managed IRRF had expended about $11.4 billion as of March 2006. According to the article on the [Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Relief_and_Reconstruction_Fund) Congress in 2003 allocated $18.4 billion to the IRRF, its spending overseen by the [Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Inspector_General_for_Iraq_Reconstruction) (a position scheduled to terminate on 10/1/07). The current SIGIR is [Stuart Bowen.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Bowen) “As of March 29, 2006, approximately $16.3 billion, or 89%, had been obligated and $11.4 billion had been expended. The fund has come under some criticism due to the slowness with which the allocated money has been disbursed, largely because of the time-comsuming US procurement process.” (Which I guess is still better than throwing it around recklessly the way Bremer did with Iraq’s own assets.) The article mentions no controversy about whether what money has been spent has been well spent, or wasted, or “come up missing”. The [Development Fund for Iraq,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_Fund_for_Iraq) OTOH, was set up to take Iraq’s state oil revenue and disburse it to the CPA for reconstruction. [That doesn’t seem to have worked out too well either.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=306538) ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/18 "2007-02-12T18:24:56Z")
[Rebuilding Iraq funds squandered due to corruption](http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2007/s1837986.htm) [QUOTE=ABC News] …Mr Bowen cites the $50 million the US State Department paid to a private contractor to build a residential camp in Baghdad for Iraqi police trainers. Included in the project was an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The pool was not on the initial plans and the training camp has never been used. The report also reveals more than $40 million spent by the US on armoured vehicles and body armour has gone missing… …Along with the money that’s been squandered, there are billions of dollars earmarked for important reconstruction projects that have never been spent. [/QUOTE] This was just the first example I came up with after a brief search of news articles. The money I’m referring to here is US money (not Iraqi money) that was earmarked by Congress and the President for rebuilding Iraq. Money from taxes that US citizens (like me and most of the people on the board) paid out of our paychecks. Gone missing, or unused. There are plenty of other examples if you’re willing to do the news search. No cite, but I remember reading last week about some soldiers who were being investigated for corruption. Among other things, they had grabbed “Bricks of cash” from loads of shrinkwrapped dollars shipped to Iraq. The report (as I recall) identified the cash as being from the US funded reconstruction effort, not Iraqi cash (although I or the report may have been mistaken. Does it really matter which bucket was being stole from in this case?) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/19 "2007-02-12T19:52:11Z")
Of course it does. Stealing American money would be unpatriotic. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538/20 "2007-02-12T21:17:07Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] Of course it does. Stealing American money would be unpatriotic. [/QUOTE] But were the soldiers in question American or Iraqi? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-given-to-cpa-for-iraq-reconstruction-are-missing/391538.md?page=2)