Mar 06 2009
War Costs and Profits
It just might be possible that some of the billions of dollars that have been spent in the oil wars has been soaked up by corruption. A US army captain, Michael Dung Nguyen allegedly laundered close to $700,000 since 2007. He would mail the money back home, in $100 dollar bundles. Some of the money was used to fuel the economy - Nguyen purchased luxury vehicles, electronics and furniture, and the rest was deposited into several bank account. The charges against him are theft of government property and money laundering, to which he could face up to 30 years in prison as well as a $500,000 fine. Nguyen has pleaded not guilty.
So far the cost of the War in Iraq adds up to $602,396,700,000, although that number is rising as quickly as the national debt. If Captain Nguyen took $700,000, who took the rest of the money? The total projections for the two oil wars together are in the trillions. Congratulations to President Obama for including the cost of war in the budget. We now know who is paying for the war - the American taxpayer, but what about the profits? The money is either going somewhere, or there are a hundred thousand Captain Nguyens out there.
According to a 2006 report, the biggest winners are……private contracting companies, CACI and Titan, the San Francisco construction company Bechtel, Aegis Defense Services, Custer Battles, General Dynamics, Nour USA ltd., Chevron, and ExxonMobil.
A very fitting cartoon indeed. A select few people have made a lot of money off of these wars.