Should we be surprised? Probably not. Should we be concerned? Absolutely. And, what is the Bush administration doing about it? Nothing.

Via the Christian Science Monitor:

The Pentagon agency in charge of investigating abuse and fraud in the spending of Department of Defense funds in Iraq actually “quietly left” the country a year ago. The Knight Ridder Washington Bureau reports that both government and public experts say this decision has left large gaps in “the oversight of how more than $140 billion is being spent.”

The DoD dropped the ball on this one claiming that other congressional agencies could handle the oversight. “But experts say those other agencies don’t have the expertise, access and broad mandate that the inspector general has – and don’t make their reports public.”

$140 billion ending up who knows where?

Unbelievable.

Yes, thanks to the neocons, Iraq is now the most corrupt country in the Middle East. The same neocons who are now beating the war drums over Syria.

THE United States has refused to rule out possible military action against Syria but says it has not exhausted diplomatic moves to get Damascus to change its ways over Iraq and Lebanon.

Addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said both Syria and Iran were allowing fighters and military assistance to reach insurgents in Iraq.

Now, I’m no foreign policy or war expert but I’d say rampant corruption in Iraq might be contributing just a tad to that increased insurgency.

Remember all of that screaming Republicans have done over the UN Oil-for-Food scandal? Especially, Norm Coleman, caped crusader against all things UN? Senator Coleman ought to read this:

In an article to be published in the Oct. 24 edition of The American Conservative, but currently available on its website, Philip Giraldi (a former CIA Officer and a partner in Cannistraro Associates, an international security consultancy) writes that billions of dollars have disappeared in Iraq. Mr. Giraldi alleges that the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which was in charge in Iraq until last year, bears a huge responsibility for what has happened.

The American-dominated Coalition Provisional Authority could well prove to be the most corrupt administration in history, almost certainly surpassing the widespread fraud of the much-maligned UN Oil for Food Program. At least $20 billion that belonged to the Iraqi people has been wasted, together with hundreds of millions of US taxpayer dollars. Exactly how many billions of additional dollars were squandered, stolen, given away, or simply lost will never be known because the deliberate decision by the CPA not to meter oil exports means that no one will ever know how much revenue was generated during 2003 and 2004.

Still wearing that self-righteous smirk, Coleman? Pot. Kettle. Black. Why don’t you work on reforming your damn Republican party first?

Freedom is on the march? Sure, if you consider bribery, lies, crimes, and torture as “freedom”.

(For further details about the corruption in Iraq, read the entire CSM article.)