$8.7 Billion Missing in Iraq

Some more red ink for the loss column in Iraq: The Los Angeles Times reports that the Defense Department cannot account for nearly all of Iraq’s oil revenue from 2004 to 2007—$8.7 billion out of $9.1 billion. For $2.6 billion of the missing money, there is no record at all. The rest was not deposited in special accounts, as the Treasury Department requires, making it near-impossible to trace. The news isn’t likely to sit well with Iraqis, who are still angry over the $8.8 billion in oil revenues the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority spent in 2003 and 2004.