Audits say $100M in Iraqi funds missing due to US mismanagement or fraud News
Audits say $100M in Iraqi funds missing due to US mismanagement or fraud

[JURIST] US audits released Wednesday show that at least $100 million dollars from the Development Fund for Iraq [CPA backgrounder] are unaccounted for due to mismanagement or possible fraud. The US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction [SIGAR website] filed two audit reports pinpointing flaws in the US handling of Iraqi money from oil sales after the 2003 Iraq war, including contracters paid twice, misplaced files, and cash payments that were not recorded properly; problems magnified by Iraq's lack of proper banking and the resultant abundance of cash transactions. A January SIGIR report [PDF text] also attacked US handling of Iraqi funds, after at least $8.8 billion dollars was unaccounted for, spawning an investigation which is still ongoing. Iraq Revenue Watch, an initiative of George Soros' Open Society Institute, has attempted to track the mismanagement of the Development Fund for Iraq and has a comprehensive listing of past reports. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.