One to Two Billion Dollars Missing at Ministry of Defense

"Hannah Allam of Knight Ridder broke the story this past summer that a billion dollars was missing at the ministry of defense, according to a government audit.

Patrick Cockburn of the Independent now confirms that report based on his own sources, saying that actually between one and two billion dollars were embezzled from the Iraqi ministry of defense under Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan...

...There is also the unsolved case of two US contractors who warned last fall of massive fraud in the ministry of defense. One wrote to Senator Rick Santorum about it, who in turn went to US SecDef Donald Rumsfeld. The contractors were driving near Taji when their car was rammed and then they were shot multiple times. Their personal effects were photographed and put up at a radical Salafi website. But then anyone can post to a website..."
Juan Cole