Global Tooth Fairies

With all of the economic problems on the homefront, isn't it comforting to know that we can afford to act with such largesse around the globe?

This from today's Washington Post:

Ex-Official: $9 Billion in Iraq Reconstruction Funds Lost to Fraud

Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 22, 2008; 5:11 PM

A former top Iraqi official told U.S. senators today that roughly $9 billion in American money meant for reconstruction projects was involved in waste, fraud and abuse.

Salom Adhoob, a former chief investigator at Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity -- which is considered the equivalent of the FBI in the United States -- said at a hearing of the Democratic Policy Committee today that he and his agency had done investigations showing the money was misused in fraud and abuse. In one case, he said the Iraqi Ministry of Defense helped create front companies to funnel the money.

Adhoob said that at the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, some Iraqi officials got kickbacks in contracts to buy such things as bulletproof vests and Humvees. Some of the deals, he said, involved U.S. contractors, and the equipment often didn't arrive or was damaged.

In other instances, U.S. reconstruction projects "never existed" or were poorly built or incomplete. He said in one case $24.4 million was spent on an electricity project that "existed only on paper."

Adhoob also said that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blocked corruption investigations into kickbacks that benefited Iraqi officials and that U.S. officials in Iraq "turned a blind eye" when told of the problems with U.S. funds.