The Mother Of All Heists

Steve Kroft Reports On Disappearance Of More Than $500 Million To Equip Iraqi Army

(CBS)  But the thing that really suggests this wasn’t on the up-and-up are audio recordings, which 60 Minutes obtained from a former associate of Ziad Cattan and the mysterious middleman Naer Jumaili.

When Kroft played the tape, Cattan acknowledged that it was his voice.

The recordings were made by the associate as he drove Cattan around Amman in 2004. According to two independent translations, they are talking about payoffs to Iraqi officials. At one point, Cattan talked about a top political adviser to the defense minister - a man who is also identified on the recordings as a representative of the president and the prime minister of the interim government.

"He wants to know...," Cattan says on the audio recordings.

"He wants to know how much they are going to place in his account …?" the associate asks.

"Yes, of course," Cattan says.

"How much?" the associate asks.

"45 million," Cattan says on the recording.

"He wants to know how much money is gonna be placed in his account and you say …'45 million,'" Kroft tells Cattan.

"Yes. But not dollar. I don't say dollar," Cattan replies. (Three Arabic translators say Cattan does say, "dollars.")

Asked what currency or units he was talking about, Cattan tells Kroft "I don't remember."

"Well, you're gonna give him 45 some of something," Kroft replies.

"Yes," Cattan acknowledges. "But, I don't remember what the matter was."

Cattan told 60 Minutes that U.S. and coalition advisors at the Ministry of Defense approved everything that he did, and he now believes that the recordings have been doctored. The audio experts that 60 Minutes consulted could find no evidence of it. Judge Radhi told Kroft that he too has a copy of the recordings and that one former Ministry of Defense employee confessed after hearing them.

Asked how the American advisors could have missed all of this, Rahdi says, "I think this question should be directed to the Americans."

60 Minutes certainly tried to, but no one in the U.S. government would talk on camera about the missing $800 million. Off-camera, 60 Minutes was told that this was Iraqi money, spent by a sovereign Iraqi government, and therefore the Iraqis’ business.

So where did all of the money go to? It is impossible to tell. The money trail disappears inside a number of Middle Eastern banks. 60 Minutes can report that Ziad Cattan, who was convicted in absentia in Iraq and sentenced to 60 years for squandering public funds, is building a villa for himself in Poland. And Naer Jumaili, who is wanted by Interpol, is said to be snapping up real estate in Amman and building himself a villa.

"A lot of these suspects are living outside of Iraq in comfort, and don't seem to be too concerned about the charges against them," Kroft tells Judge Rahdi.

"As you know, those people, they have a lot of money right now. So they use it to bribe anybody in the world," the judge replies.

Asked how much help he has gotten from countries like Poland and Jordan in either apprehending suspects or recovering money, Radhi says, "No help at all."

"We have not been given any serious official support from either the United States or the U.K. Or any of the surrounding Arab countries," Ali Allawi says.

Asked why he thinks this has received so little attention, Allawi says, "The only explanation I can come up with is that too many people in positions of power and authority in the new Iraq have been in one way or another found with their hands inside the cookie jar. And if they are brought to trial it will cast a very disparaging light on those people who had supported them and brought them to this position of power and authority."

Allawi left his post in early 2006 when the new government was formed, but Judge Radhi is still there. Along with having one of the most dangerous jobs in Iraq, he also has one of the heaviest workloads.

His investigators have opened 2,000 corruption cases involving 21 different ministries and $7.5 billion. Oil-smuggling is costing the Iraqi government billions of dollars a year, and according to one estimate, 40 to 50 percent of the profits are going to the insurgents.

[infam_rider]

I hope people reread this.

Maybe then.. they will point fingers at the countries allowing these thieves to spend that stolen money in their country. You know the rich guys building villas. Maybe those countries would expediate them to Iraq to stand trial and be accountable.

Amazing.. if I said Iraq had a sandstorm someone would find a way to point a finger at Bush.

I stopped blaming the President when Jimmy Carter was in office. That's why we have a system peeps.. checks and balances.

[bm6005]

What part of this surprises anyone? It's time, people, to march down Pennsylvania Ave. with pitchforks, shovels and torches, to take America back from this SCUM in Washington!!

[jjp735i]

"no one in the U.S. government would talk on camera about the missing $800 million. Off-camera, 60 Minutes was told that this was Iraqi money, spent by a sovereign Iraqi government, and therefore the Iraqis%u2019 business".

Our government is wrong! That was taxpayer money and yes our government should account for all of it. Shame on the media for not pushing the White House on this issue over the years. A simple report and repeat of old news is not reporting.

[mayihavemore]

Received training at National Defense University Washington, D.C. He doesnt remember! Can we train them or what? Priceless!

[formrusmcsgt]

Stabilizing Iraq could take as long as a decade, says the U.S. commander in Baghdad.

"In fact, typically, I think historically, counterinsurgency operations have gone at least nine or 10 years," Gen. David Petraeus said Sunday.

----

Petraus apparently is ignorant of Guatemala's 36 year insurgency or the 40 year old insurgencies in the Phillipines and Colombia that continue today.

[formrusmcsgt]

Yet more testimony to the absolute ineptitude of the Bush administration and it's absolutely woeful oversight.

Another disgrace for America at the hands of the neocons. If they couldn't take steps backwards, they'd take no steps at all.

[incog-nito]

DigitalGravy:

You have no clue what you're talking about. These funds are underwritten by the U.S. government. The U.S. taxpayers will have to pay for it, with interest.

[wogerwabbit]

"too many people in positions of power and authority in the new Iraq have been in one way or another found with their hands inside the cookie jar. And if they are brought to trial it will cast a very disparaging light on those people who had supported them and brought them to this position of power and authority."

which is exactly what's happing in America today and explains the grovelling neocon shills we suffer through here in order to attempt itelligent discourse about relevant issues.

Lars, patriot and the be-atch (can't remember her name), are just the most blatent sores on the noecon posterior so nakedly exposed to us in these surreal times. They're mooning us on the way out the door and I salute them, but these morons gotta go.

[pastdue1]

These monies are part of the "War on Terror," so mismanagement need not be justified nor traced. Besides, according to the Kentucky senator the blame is to be laid on the Iraqi. What a misnomer the "war on terror" phrase is. It was coined to confuse, defend and justify what is currently going on. Will we ever learn not to be deluded by slogans intended to instill fear.

[oleander8]

Same thing happened with a succession rulers in Viet Nam. The rich got richer and the US paid for it. And it may have been borrowed from China but the US still has to pay it back.

[digitalgravy]

Well folks, I got news for you. That money stolen or evaporated or whatever... is all borrowed, no taxes period. Everyone thinks its our tax dollars.
Its not, its Chinese, Arab and off shore funds.
These funds will never be payed back! It is lost forever the people who lent it only think its going to be payed back. Are they in for a surprise LOL.
America is banko, yup, banko... it all borrowed as in its only numbers carried over from one column to another. Borrowed as in its carried over onto the backs of real greedy types. Just try and cash it in for say real GOLD... never happen period.
So if Halliburton, KBR or Rockefeller think they glommed some extra money, think again.
Don't worry tax payers, you will never ever pay back those moneys.
Tomorrow's lesson "How 911 pays or the gift that just keeps on giving"!

[digitalgravy]

Well folks, I got news for you. That money stolen or evaporated or whatever... is all borrowed, no taxes period. Everyone thinks its our tax dollars.
Its not, its Chinese, Arab and off shore funds.
These funds will never be payed back! It is lost forever the people who lent it only think its going to be payed back. Are they in for a surprise LOL.
America is banko, yup, banko... it all borrowed as in its only numbers carried over from one column to another. Borrowed as in its carried over onto the backs of real greedy types. Just try and cash it in for say real GOLD... never happen period.
So if Halliburton, KBR or Rockefeller think they glommed some extra money, think again.
Don't worry tax payers, you will never ever pay back those moneys.
Tomorrow's lesson "How 911 pays or the gift that just keeps on giving"!

[erinyc]

The abominable disregard for US tax paying citizens and vulnerable Iraqi citizens aside, the question still remains - who is accountable. Perhaps if the Bush administration gets charged with the war crimes they have instigated, there might be some restitution for this heist as well. But alas, this too will probably remain wishful thinking.

[erinyc]

The abominable disregard for US tax paying citizens and vulnerable Iraqi citizens aside, the question still remains - who is accountable. Perhaps if the Bush administration gets charged with the war crimes they have instigated, there might be some restitution for this heist as well. But alas, this too will probably remain wishful thinking.

[erinyc]

The abominable disregard for US tax paying citizens and vulnerable Iraqi citizens aside, the question still remains - who is accountable. Perhaps if the Bush administration gets charged with the war crimes they have instigated, there might be some restitution for this heist as well. But alas, this too will probably remain wishful thinking.

[buddica]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain (the one stuffing large amounts of money into a brief case) The omni impotent Bush administration knows what's best for us. Billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives lost, all to "prove" that Daddy should have gone into Baghdad in '91 to scratch the thirty year itch of the neocons. I blame Babs. If she would have backhanded the smirking chimp when he was little we wouldn't have to suffer (and neither would the rest of the world) with a chicken hawk that could have, should have, but didn't man up during 'Nam. Nothing like trying to prove your man hood by killing other people's kids, destroying a sovereign nation, and bankrupting our own nation. Goddess, save us all.

[markdove1]

So, let me get this straight....they give our money to someone who cannot keep track of it...it gets stolen....and now I bet you I will have to pay taxes to make up for what was stolen. I bet if we would not have given so much away....well...we'd still have to pay taxes to give money to someone else who cannot manage it...the US Government....

[guyrugby]

This is a tiny drop in the bucket compared to what has dissappeared from our own Pentagon on the watch of Don Rumsfeld. see the following:
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1047.shtml
Following Zakheim and Pentagon trillions to Israel and 9-11
By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Associate Editor
Think of this as part two of Recherche du trillions perdu, my Online Journal article on Dov Zakheim, former Bush appointee as Pentagon Comptroller from May 4, 2001 to March 10, 2004. At that time he was unable to explain the disappearance of $1 trillion dollars. Actually, nearly three years earlier, Donald Rumsfeld announced on September 10, 2001 that an audit discovered $2.3 trillion was also missing from the Pentagon books. That story, as I mentioned, was buried under 9-11%u2019s rubble. The two sums disappeared on Zakheim%u2019s watch.

Yet on May 6, 2004, Zakheim took a lucrative position at Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the most prestigious strategy consulting firms in the world. One of its clients then was Blessed Relief, a charity said to be a front for Osama bin Laden. Booz, Allen & Hamilton then also worked closely with DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is the research arm of the Department of Defense. So the dark card was shifted to another part of the deck.
ABCNNBCBS doesn't have the balls to investigate
anything like this at all.

[mmeta]

God help us. Let me get this straight - there is 800 million dollars missing and some of this money may have ended up in the hands of the insurgents that are fighting against us? Gives new meaning to the word misappropriation. Well, not to worry. How many weapons, bombs, 737s, etc. can a lousy couple hundred million buy anyway? Er - the Admin's not worried about it, why should I be? I'm safer now that we've gone into Iraq. (Its just that pesky problem of getting out.)

One question though El Presidente - how are you going to tell American militay families that not only was it the unaccounted for/misused funds that probably killed their husbands, wifes, sons & daughters but oh yeah, we need an approval for more money to carry on this ridiculous & sad war. Just need the approval though, no real money - we can just use a little tool we like to call deficit spending. No good Republican would ever want to use the T word to have to actually pay for this foolishness.

Thanks George, ***, Don and Bremmer - doing a bang up job. It is absolutely F.U.B.A.R. boys. Have someone in cammo interpret that for you.

[bill_alex-va]

The lack of cooperation from US and other international authorities is accurate and disheartening Posted by MHardiman2 at 10:24 AM : Oct 23, 2006 This is a Great POST.
What are we doing mr. bush and mr. cheney? Please answer the g*d dammed question! We Want Answers