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Paul, Bernanke, Waxman and $12 Billion in Cash Squandered

Kurt Nimmo
February 25th, 2010

On February 24, Rep. Ron Paul asked Fed mob boss Ben Bernanke about $12 billion in cash. Paul said “a lot of cash was passed through — and a lot of people suppose it was passed through the Federal Reserve — when there was a provisional government [in Iraq] after the 2003 invasion. That money was not appropriated by the Congress as required by law.”

“Congressman, these specific allegations you’ve made are absolutely bizarre, and I have no knowledge of anything remotely like what you just described,” Bernanke responded.

Bizarre? Apparently Helicopter Ben does not have a grasp on the recent history of the “federal” agency he administers.

Paul makes his comments about money passed through the Federal Reserve at 2 minutes, 5 seconds into the above video.

Last July Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, addressed this very issue.

“In a 13 month period from May 2003 to June 2004, the Federal Reserve sent nearly $12 billion in cash, mainly in $100 bills from the United States to Iraq,” Waxman explained. “To do that, the Federal Reserve Bank in New York had to pack 281 million individual bills … onto wooden pallets to be shipped to Iraq. The cash weighed more than 363 tons and was loaded onto C-130 cargo planes to be flown into Baghdad.”

See the video below.

“The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent,” the Guardian reported on February 8, 2007.

Meanwhile, in the United States, the corporate media all but ignored the story and that is why it became the #13 story out of 25 selected by Project Censored in 2009.

“Beginning in April 2003, one month after the invasion of Iraq, and continuing for little more than a year, the United States Federal Reserve shipped $12 billion in US currency to Iraq. The US military delivered the bank notes to the Coalition Provisional Authority, to be dispensed for Iraqi reconstruction. At least $9 billion is unaccounted for due to a complete lack of oversight,” Project Censored wrote.

It is incomprehensible that Ben Bernanke would not know about this. If it is true he is ignorant of the facts, it is another reason for him to be bounced and the Fed Reserve closed down permanently.

His “bizarre” comment is disrespectful of Paul and the House Financial Services Committee. It is said the Federal Reserve is a federal agency and as such is answerable to the American people. It is, of course, nothing of the sort. It is a criminal organization established to fleece the American people.