Where Did the Money Go?

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In the London Review of Books, Ed Harriman goes through the audits to tell the broader story of the looting-by-contractor scam that surrounded the reconstruction of Iraq. Notice that most of the money squandered—and we’re talking about billions and billions of dollars here—was Iraqi, not American taxpayer, money. All filed under “financial irregularities.”

Conservatives have spent so many years insisting that government bureaucracies are corrupt, inefficient, and wasteful. They finally decided to get off the couch and prove it in Iraq. Nicely done. And we wonder why they hate us!

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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