Congress seeks missing billions in Iraq

They might start their search in Pakistan, where al Qaeda has regained their financial health, with an influx of American dollars from Iraq!

FT.com / In depth - Congress seeks missing billions in Iraq:

Members of Congress dem­anded on Tuesday that the Bush administration explain how billions of dollars of US taxpayers’ money had gone missing in Iraq in what they called a disastrous effort to rebuild the country.

Responding to the latest report by Stuart Bowen, the special inspector-general for Iraq reconstruction, members of the House foreign relations committee also directed much of their criticism at the Iraqi coalition government, venting their frustration with corruption.

“It is simply outrageous that we are mired in the same mud of incompetence that we got stuck in last year and the year before that. But knowing the administration’s abysmal track record on Iraq reconstruction planning, this is no surprise,” Tom Lantos, the committee’s Democratic chairman, said.

Iraq was losing perhaps $5bn (€3.7bn, £2.5bn) a year through corruption, he said.