Massive looting operation may be under way in Iraq

[cjbuchanan]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Military equipment as well as seemingly brand-new parts for oil rigs and water plants may be leaving Iraq (news - web sites) by truck every day in what could be a massive looting operation, the New York Times warned.

"This is systematically plundering the country," John Hamre of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a non-partisan Washington research institute, told Friday's edition of the paper.

While coalition authorities have approved the removal of scrap metal from Iraq, including thousands of damaged Iraqi tanks and military vehicles, material seen in scrapyards in neighboring Jordan include new material from Iraq's civil infrastructure.

The newspaper revealed that one hundred semitrailers loaded with what is billed as scrap metal arrive in Jordan every day from Iraq bearing legitimate scrap metal, but also inestimable amounts of plundered material.

The New York Times said one of its reporters saw "piles of valuable copper and aluminum ingots and bars, large stacks of steel rods and water pipe and giant flanges for oil equipment, all in nearly mint condition, as well as chopped-up railroad boxcars, huge numbers of shattered Iraqi tanks and even beer kegs marked with the words 'Iraqi Brewery.'"

The head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency's verification office in Iraq, Jacques Baute, told the paper that satellite photographs the agency uses to monitor hundreds of military-industrial sites for the removal of sensitive material show "jarring" results.

Entire buildings and complexes of as many as a dozen buildings have vanished from the photographs, he said.

More at: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/afp/us_iraq_jordan_looting

So over a year later and the looting continues.

Sorry if this has already been posted. I did a search, but could not find it.

[w13rd0]

1. Hell, sounds to me like...

...Halliburton is letting contractors make some money under the table, and then they make more money on overhead and re-stock...

[Streetdoc270]

2. Good news for Haliburton stock

"You're going to have to replace all of this stuff," he told the New York Times.

--------------------
Gee wonder who they'll buy the stuff from?

[bobthedrummer]

3. Ahmed and Salem Chalabi-The Family Ties

The fixers of Iraq, the source of neo-conservative traitor selective intelligence-the Sugar Daddies of Baghdad, the indespensible ones...

FRIENDS OF THE FAMILY
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1048205,00.html

[CWebster]

4. Like everything else

This news will come and go.

Who is gonna stop them?

[Dover]

5. Just more evidence of the wholesale rape of another nation under Bushco

And Jordan is one of the many recipients. According to one report the U.S. had been illegally getting oil from Iraq during the embargo period, and U.N. personel are wrapped up in their own investigation of pilferring Iraqi resources. There is no end to the corruption...

I remember reading that the mafia in NYC got an under-the-table contract to haul off the debris from the 9/11 Trade Tower scraps. Rats everywhere....and I'm not talking about the one's with long tails and whiskers.

[arcane1]

6. be sure to rate this one!

:grr:

[Gin]

7. Restocking at it's finest....Take away everything of value and haliburton

will replace it at "our" expense. With the thugs in office how could we expect anything else?

[bobbieinok]

8. after WWII, much of East Germ infrastructure etc looted to Soviet Union

[ze_dscherman]

16. Different story

German infrastructure, including complete factories, was moved as war reparations. Remember, the Germans had applied "scorched earth" tactics when forced to retreat. The Russians were especially keen and ruthless on dismantling German industry. But the western allies also took part in it.

In addition, many German factories left intact after WWII bombings were blown up as punishment. According to the Potsdam treaty, German industry was meant to be reduced to 50-55% of the pre-war status, and quotas on many items and raw materials were even much lower. Especially the war related heavy industries were destroyed.

When Germany was included into the Marshall Plan in 1948, the situation changed, and in 1949 the dismantling of German industries in the West stopped, after about 5% of the total industrial capacity in the western sectors had been removed.

[papau]

9. Restocking - Arab press is noting the great buys at junk yards - LOL

I wondered if and when this would make it into the US media!

They say that "used" stuff in Jordan is the greatest!

[Cocoa]

10. here's the liberation

Iraq's infrastructure has been freed to leave Iraq.

[Beetwasher]

11. Their Looting Whole Buildings, Not What's Inside, But The Actual BLDGS!

Now THAT'S looting!

"Entire buildings and complexes of as many as a dozen buildings have vanished from the photographs, he said."

I'd be willing to bet the Chalabi is involved in this somehow. Probably Halliburton too. What a scam.

This is how it works:

US pays Halliburton to build a building. Halliburton builds it, skimming money off the top by overcharging. Halliburtion employees get paid by Chalabi to look the other way and allow his guys to loot the bldg. Chalabi sells the loot to the scrap yard. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[struggle4progress]

12. DUPE

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=587536

[Bandit]

13. Pentagon can not account for two trillion dollars

Halliburton has record profits. Cheney receives over two hundred thousand back in taxes. Anyone paying attention????????????? I didn't think so.

[maggrwaggr]

14. it's dose guys from New Jersey

The sopranos have found their way to the middle east.

[FlaGranny]

15. Ahem, I think you mean

Joisey.

[maggrwaggr]

17. hm, they keep "demanding" and we keep "supplying"

it's good to see a black market economy, funded by the US taxpayer, at work!

[Joanne98]

18. The BFEE strikes again.

n/t

[Lou_C]

19. Could be our own guys are involved with the looting $$$$$

[indepat]

20. And some thought only oil would be looted: how naive we are to so

underestimate the arrogance and unquenched greed of so many. Wonder if any of the bestest friends of those who control the levers of power are benefiting from this wholesale plunder of another sovereign nation and its people? This is more and more reminiscent of an earlier time: the players are different but the methods have too many similar characteristics.

[bobthedrummer]

22. The Weimar Republic, for instance.

Imho.

[damnraddem]

21. Drip, drip, drip.

What one gets when one's foreign policy is run by ... drips.

I hope this is the next straw straining that camel's back -- the one that must be broken on November 2.