Iraqi guards steal $282 million.
Iraqi guards steal $282 million.
In an astonishing heist, guards at a Baghdad bank “made off with more than a quarter-billion dollars on Wednesday.”
The robbery, of $282 million from the Dar Es Salaam bank, a private financial institution, raised more questions than it answered, and officials were tight-lipped about the crime. The local police said two guards engineered the robbery, but an official at the Interior Ministry said three guards were involved. Both confirmed that the stolen money was in American dollars, not Iraqi dinars.
It was unclear why the bank had that much money on hand in dollars, or how the robbers managed to move such a large amount without being detected. Several officials speculated that the robbers had connections to the militias, because it would be difficult for them to move without being searched through many checkpoints in Baghdad.
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Whoa. That money buys quite a few camels…
July 12th, 2007 at 1:36 pmI don’t think those guys are going to get very far with that money!
If I were them, I would get the he11 outta there.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:36 pmi think this means that the surge is working.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:37 pmSURGE ON!
July 12th, 2007 at 1:37 pm“Both confirmed that the stolen money was in American dollars”
Of course it was. They ‘democracy’ established in Iraq was taught to mimic the Bush Regime – steal from the American middle class. They will tolerate it.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:38 pmWow! Now that’s bringing democracy to Iraqis!!!
… or something like that…
July 12th, 2007 at 1:38 pmYour hard earned tax dollars at ‘work’.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:39 pmal-quieda is as strong as ever AND they have $282 MORE million dollars. and we are safer now than we were before 9/11?
July 12th, 2007 at 1:40 pmwe just got surged.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:40 pmproof positive, no denying: THE SURGE IS WORKING!!!
July 12th, 2007 at 1:41 pmA quarter billion dollars? Hell, in Iraq, that’s chump change for thieves. These guys are pikers.
In an unrelated story, the guards were contacted by Hallburton and offered executive positions with the firm.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:43 pmWas this another one of those Halliburton ‘tax shelters’ ?
July 12th, 2007 at 1:44 pmNothing surprises me anymore.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:46 pmdon’t worry, the Keystone Cops are on the job
July 12th, 2007 at 1:47 pmHEY!! Why isnt TP reporting on all the GOOD stuff thats happening in Iraq!!??????
/sarcasm
July 12th, 2007 at 1:47 pm“In an astonishing heist”?
It’s only astonishing if you don’t recognize the pervasiveness of corruption in Iraq–among the occupiers as well as the occupied.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:48 pmThere went our National Health Care System…
July 12th, 2007 at 1:49 pm#11 & 12 They just finished their NeoCon BushCo advanced training program and this was their thesis project. (BTW, they graduated summa cum lada)
July 12th, 2007 at 1:49 pmHow many more banks available in Baghdad? I have a deposit to make..
July 12th, 2007 at 1:50 pmsmall change, compared to what corporate America is making out of this war.
btw, that was your money.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:54 pmOk wait.
How do three people carry 282 million dollars out of a bank in one day? That’s 2,820,000 $100 bills. Even in bundles of 100, that’s still 2,820 bundles. That’s a lotta trips with a wheelbarrow.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:55 pmMore than “connections” to the militias, I’d say. Somebody just paid for a whole buncha cool bang-bang shit.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:55 pmSo let me get this straight.
Our tax dollars were sent to Iraq, in cash, and are now stollen and probably in the hands of the militias who buys weapons to kill our soldiers
Hekuva a job Shrub.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:58 pmWhy was that much American money sitting in that bank?
Anyone?
July 12th, 2007 at 1:58 pmI guess that’s what George W. Bush meant when he said things were going well in Iraq. Now was it Al Qaeda or the Iraq police? Either way Americans don’t mine giving more money to Iraq aside from the 2 Billion dollars a day. Look it’s only money and we’re all ready in debt. I know the GOP must be real proud of their vote to stay the course we just didn’t know the course was robbing the taxpayers blind. But Americans support the Liar-in-Chief so it doesn’t matter what happens we will follow like dogs and jump with told to jump. Oh yes just put a picture of Osama up and have Chertoff get that gut/gas feeling and say the famous words Al Qaeda will attack the US and we fall in line. Now Connie said those words as Bush went on vacation.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:00 pmHow brazen. The Iraqis obviously haven’t learned anything from US. I mean, they should have invaded the bank, insisting there were forged bank notes somewhere in there, that the bank manager was abusing his employees, and that system by which the bank operates under is inferior…and while doing so, steal the truly valuable resources (Euros).
July 12th, 2007 at 2:01 pmTIME TO START KILLIN’ MORE OF ‘EM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 12th, 2007 at 2:01 pm#24
so it can be stolen… its quite simple if you remove all rational, ethical thought
July 12th, 2007 at 2:01 pmWow, just think of all the Americans they’ll be able to kill with that kind of money. Good thing the surge worked and the country is secure.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:04 pmThat was just KBR reps picking up some juice money. Nothing to see here.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:04 pmThose are some rich ass guards, now.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:07 pmThey can hire their own security forces who will in turn, rip them off and abscond, after torturing them with various tools.
In econ, that’s known as the multipliers effect
“It was unclear why the bank had that much money on hand in dollars”
—
Little more than a year, $12 billion in US currency removed from the vaults of the Federal Reserve and flown into Iraq, this money, mainly $100 bills, were packed into bricks, and each brick was worth $400,000 each. And I think we have a picture of the bricks on the screen. They were assembled into large palettes containing over $60 million in cash and flown into Iraq. In December 2003, Ambassador Bremer and the Coalition Provision Authority asked for a shipment of $1.5 billion to be flown into Iraq, and a Federal Reserve official described this in an email as the largest payout of US currency in US history. But this didn’t remain the largest for very long, because in June, $2.4 billion was sent to Iraq, and this time the Federal Reserve official wrote, quote, “Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the CPA is ordering $2,401,600,000 in currency.â€
The money was stolen either from us, or someone we paid out in legitimate contracts, but that doesn’t really matter: Given how many checkpoints the thieves went through without being stopped, either the money was stolen by us, or the authority to stop it was stolen from us. Either way, we’re no longer in control.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:09 pmGeez — even our banks here don’t have that kind of cash on hand. What was that money doing just lying around instead of being invested somewhere?
July 12th, 2007 at 2:10 pmHmmm, didn’t AQ recently announce that they were going to take on Iran soon? That would take money.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:11 pmIn a related story:
The AP is reporting that the CEO of the Arms Trading division of the Carlyle Group is en route to Iraq.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:13 pmIs this one of the benchmarks?
July 12th, 2007 at 2:13 pmDidn’t even know Cheney and Bush were in town yesterday…
July 12th, 2007 at 2:16 pmIs this one of the benchmarks?
Comment by bob’s your uncle — July 12, 2007 @ 2:13 pm
It is indeed – the Baghdad Bank Security Committee was successfully established, thank you very much! That’s PROGRESS!
July 12th, 2007 at 2:17 pmso it can be stolen… its quite simple if you remove all rational, ethical thought
Comment by hil — July 12, 2007 @ 2:01 pm
When you put it that way, it makes perfect sense. :D
July 12th, 2007 at 2:18 pmWho wouldn’t want to have been there to get some of that money? I wish I had been part of that.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:23 pmThe KING: Are you trolling, or have you ever trolled, on Slashdot?
You’ve got the persistence and the annoyance capabilities of such a world-class troll and your username tricks remind me of the good old page-widening trolls that roamed Slashdot several years ago.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:28 pmSince booshie thinks the main enemy in Iraq is Al Qaeda, he should logically assume that they were behind this heist. That would mean AQ is $282m richer. Gawd, i can’t wait to hear the spin on this one!!
July 12th, 2007 at 2:28 pmNot really related but interesting…that money could have been used to pay another 8257 public school teachers’ average yearly salary. Something to think about when discussing government waste.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:29 pmAdded to the $9 Billion (gave or take a few hundred million) that disappeared into thin air on Paul Bremer’s watch along with the billions handed out like lollipops to crooked contractor’s like Halliburton and Blackwater and you have to wonder when the American people are going to pull their collective heads out of their asses and realize what a den of thieves they have running their country.
Makes one yearn for the old days when public corruption was dealt with by angry mobs of victimized citizens who discovered novel ways to use tar & feathers, pitchforks and nooses. Sigh . . . one can only hope I guess….
July 12th, 2007 at 2:31 pmThis fits in with the neocon war philosophy. Banks always have a subtantial penalty for early withdrawl.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:31 pmNot really related but interesting…that money could have been used to pay another 8257 public school teachers’ average yearly salary. Something to think about when discussing government waste.
Comment by erock — July 12, 2007 @ 2:29 pm
How is this government waste? It’s a private bank, after all.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:32 pmThis fits in with the neocon war philosophy. Banks always have a subtantial penalty for early withdrawl.
Comment by NevadaBlue — July 12, 2007 @ 2:31 pm
Hehe :)
July 12th, 2007 at 2:33 pmAlternatively, that money could have been used to send 3989 students to a public university for 4 years.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:34 pmOk wait.
How do three people carry 282 million dollars out of a bank in one day? That’s 2,820,000 $100 bills. Even in bundles of 100, that’s still 2,820 bundles. That’s a lotta trips with a wheelbarrow.
Comment by toasterhead — July 12, 2007 @ 1:55 pm
Would you believe 28,200 bundles?
July 12th, 2007 at 2:34 pmIt’s the storyline for “Ocean’s 13.”
July 12th, 2007 at 2:36 pmAssuming it wasn’t an international heist, anyone want to speculate what kind of effect this is going to have on Iraqi currency?
July 12th, 2007 at 2:36 pmHow is this government waste? It’s a private bank, after all.
Comment by toasterhead — July 12, 2007 @ 2:32 pm
My mistake, I assumed this money was provided by the U.S. government. Though I’m not sure who else would be dumping money into Iraq at this point.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:37 pmWould you believe 28,200 bundles?
Comment by WaltTheMan — July 12, 2007 @ 2:34 pm
Eeek! Good catch!
Make that two wheelbarrows…
July 12th, 2007 at 2:37 pmSomebody oughta check Dick & George’s bank accounts. In the Cayman Islands.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:37 pmHow do three people carry 282 million dollars out of a bank in one day? That’s 2,820,000 $100 bills. Even in bundles of 100, that’s still 2,820 bundles. That’s a lotta trips with a wheelbarrow.
Comment by toasterhead
They had all night to do it. They were the night guards. My guess? Their ‘buddies’ showed up in a U-Haul (or the iraqi version of) and helped load it up.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:38 pmI can’t wait for the movie. Fox sunday movie or blockbuster with Brad Pitt and gang?
1/4 billion? That will buy a lot of WMD’s! Yup, Rove’s plan is moving right along.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:40 pmThey had all night to do it. They were the night guards. My guess? Their ‘buddies’ showed up in a U-Haul (or the iraqi version of) and helped load it up.
Comment by SGT Higgins — July 12, 2007 @ 2:38 pm
Perhaps it was an armoured vehicle with a black claw inside a red circle sign on the side.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:44 pm$282 million will buy a lot of EIDs.
So much for the improving security situation in Baghdad.
Heckuva job, George.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:50 pmIraqi guards steal $282 million…
Damn!!! I didn’t know there was an Iraqi branch of the GOP! Waaait a minute. Someone check and make sure one of those guys isn’t Cheney wearing a Saddam mask…
July 12th, 2007 at 2:56 pmEeek! Good catch!
Make that two wheelbarrows…
Comment by toasterhead — July 12, 2007 @ 2:37 pm
That’s about 10 cubic feet which is more like 3-4 wheelbarrow loads assuming a perfect packing methodology.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:59 pmWhat was that much American Dollars doing there in the first place, was it part of the billions that is missing?
July 12th, 2007 at 3:01 pmThis whole thing stinks to high heaven.
I have solved the mystery! Just ask yourself who has carte blanche in Iraq. Who moves around at will and beyond the law? The mercenaries of Blackwater that’s who. Now do I get a reward for solving this ‘who done it”?
July 12th, 2007 at 3:07 pmHey – you need American dollars to buy guns from American gun runners. It makes sense to me.
July 12th, 2007 at 3:08 pmProbably a Blackwater job. It will be used to finance the Chaney Branch of the U.S. Government (thats the secret branch…so secret that the Article in the Constitution providing for this mysterious branch was written in invisible ink.
July 12th, 2007 at 3:08 pm$282 million will also buy a lot of influence in the Iraqi government, support from the locals (for those who don’t yet sympathise with the insurgency), weapons, etc.
But, hey, the surge is working…
July 12th, 2007 at 3:10 pm> Alternatively, that money could have been used to send 3989 students to a
> public university for 4 years.
According to wingnuttery, that education would be “stolen from the american public”
So there.
July 12th, 2007 at 3:21 pmDamn.
July 12th, 2007 at 3:57 pmMajor Strasser’s been shot! …Er, 282 million dollars have been stolen! Round up the usual suspects!
July 12th, 2007 at 4:25 pmMarvel comics or Casablanca?
July 12th, 2007 at 4:41 pmThis comes on the heels of Dumbya saying he sees progress in Iraq?
July 12th, 2007 at 4:45 pmThere has been and will be no success for such a ‘botched from the get-go, war of choice.’
Freakin ignoramuses, every one.
The first story I read about this heist was around 3am last night, and included a paragraph comparing the 282 mil to what it cost us to run the war for a day (which is more than 282 mil), can’t find it anywhere, and I thought that was a potent detail. Anyone else read that, or was I that sleepy?
July 12th, 2007 at 5:18 pm…Blackwater Security…
…Ahmed Chalabi…
…Halliburton-Kellogg Brown and Root…
July 12th, 2007 at 7:01 pmThis theft is a further indication of the utter incompetence we have seen in Iraq. Whether it is Maliki’s attempt to not get anything done, illegal practices by defense contractors, the poorly planned surge or this theft. This goes to show how little has been done to remove corruption from Iraq. The administration needs to answer some questions. Congress should investigate this theft. How can the CEO administration let something like this happen on their watch?
July 12th, 2007 at 7:10 pmYou know if the legislature won’t do it, we should just quit paying taxed until the country is back in our hands. That was our tax dollars…that really pisses me off. Hang the whold damned administration.
July 12th, 2007 at 8:58 pmjust regular ole iraqis guarding 1/4 billion without american involvement. doesn’t seem plausible. i’d guess blackwater was involved.
July 12th, 2007 at 9:02 pmIt’s not that much, just a buck from every man, woman and child in America. It would be nice if the same crowd would be kind enough to mail a simular amount to me. It would certainly help with my expenses. Gas prices are getting high, you know, even with my Prius. Cucumbers are at fifty cents a pop these days. Please give to WaltTheMan! I will decide what to do with 564,00,000 cukes when the time comes.
July 12th, 2007 at 9:21 pmAnd sane people wonder why this war is costing so much?
July 13th, 2007 at 2:14 amCucumbers are at fifty cents a pop these days.
Comment by WaltTheMan
Dude, around here, cucumbers are @ $1.ºº each.
July 13th, 2007 at 3:06 amAs much as $1.29 apiece just a month or two ago.
Giving cred where credit’s due: the Major Strasser remark is a quote from Casablanca. Its just so appropriate for this theft. And remember, boys and girls, this theft was made possible by your tax dollars. One interesting observation, the major lack of coverage by the MSM.
July 13th, 2007 at 11:14 amI had the best belly laugh I’ve had in months when I read the heist story. Iraqi security guards? NO! I put my money (some of which has already been stolen) on the Boys from Blackwater.
July 13th, 2007 at 11:40 pm