The Baghdad Job: Iraq’s Missing Billions - CNBC

This is on TV tonight, and sounds worth watching!

CNBC - The Baghdad Job: Iraq's Missing Billions - 9pm (ET) 12am
01/09/2012

CNBC SHOW TIMES
Premieres Monday, January 9th 9p | 12a ET

ABOUT THE SHOW
Beginning in the earliest days of the war in Iraq, the New York Federal Reserve in New Jersey, shipped billions of dollars in physical cash to Baghdad. The money came from Saddam Hussein’s assets frozen under global sanctions regimes and was sent to help restart the government and restore basic services. Much of it may have been used on the things it was intended for, but hundreds of millions, maybe billions of dollars are missing. As investigators are rushing to determine what happened to the money, CNBC tracked down the last American official responsible for delivering the cash before it disappeared inside the vaults of the Central Bank of Iraq.

SHOW HOST
Eamon Javers
CNBC Washington Reporter

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PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

The Money
In the first two years of the Iraq War, the US government shipped more than 281 million individual bills – 363 tons of cash. But soon after arriving at Iraq’s Central Bank, the paper trail documenting who controlled the money went cold.


The Convoy
Trucks loaded with cash traversed the “Route Irish,” a perilous seven-mile journey through downtown Baghdad across territory often controlled by insurgents. It was a potentially deadly task with enormous risk.



The Courier
His first name is Basel, a naturalized American citizen born in Saudi Arabia, who says he handled an astonishing $40 billion dollars in Iraq between 2003 and 2008. Basel may have been the last American to see the money before it disappeared into Iraq’s Central Bank.


The Investigation
Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, believes senior Iraqi officials stole millions, if not billions of dollars. Although there have been hundreds of reports, hearings and inquiries from Washington to Baghdad, no one can say with certainty what happened to the money.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45553107?__source=vty|baghdadbillions|&par=vty

Wouldn't it be interesting if the trail lead all the way back to the to the USA and to downtown Washington DC to whoever was in office at that time...
No one and I mean NO ONE loses 40 Billion dollars jut like that... there were more guards and security attached to that convoy then peanuts in Carter's plantation. The media would have us believe that the convoy turned left and the security turned right and presto, the money was gone and no one knows to this day where it went... Switzerland???? The Texas Ranch??? Belgium???
Any body missing some soldiers that are now living somewhere in the world, smokin a fattie on the beach, watching the babes?

I just got the cliff notes. Now I don't have to watch. Just kidding. I would watch but nothing will supercede the Alabama whupping of LSU.

Sorry Ponee! I just had to explain why I was declining the kind invitation to watch the show.

One small note I meant to ask?
If the money was deliberately sent to iraq, and it was meant to be in Iraq, and it is in the Central Bank in Iraq... How could it be considered Missing?

hahaha @devarondlh things that make ya say hmmmm..... and ditto what you said. i'm gonna dvr this one so i can hit replay anytime i need to...this is gonna be goooood!!

DevaronDLH wrote:One small note I meant to ask?
If the money was deliberately sent to iraq, and it was meant to be in Iraq, and it is in the Central Bank in Iraq... How could it be considered Missing?

Really? I hope you're not serious. If your employeer sent your paycheck to your acount at BofA and a branch manager took the money and transfered it to his account is it really missing? After all it's still at BofA.