Each and every day

I know I've been harping on the similarities between Iraq and the Central American wars of the eighties, but how much do you want to bet that some of this money has been siphoned off for other operations. The Iraqis pay $3500 for an American made MP5 and get a $200 Egyptian copy, and the other 16 copies, where did they go? Syria, Iran, Venezuelan opposition groups? Can't get funding through congress for some operations, but so far, congressional reps have been afraid to vote against Iraq funding.

One billion dollars has been plundered from Iraq's defence ministry in one of the largest thefts in history, The Independent can reveal, leaving the country's army to fight a savage insurgency with museum-piece weapons. ......

The carefully planned theft has so weakened the army that it cannot hold Baghdad against insurgent attack without American military support, Iraqi officials say, making it difficult for the US to withdraw its 135,000- strong army from Iraq, as Washington says it wishes to do. .....

Senior Iraqi officials now say they cannot understand how, if this is so, the disappearance of almost all the military procurement budget could have passed unnoticed by the US military in Baghdad and civilian advisers working in the defence ministry.

Government officials in Baghdad even suggest that the skill with which the robbery was organised suggests that the Iraqis involved were only front men, and "rogue elements" within the US military or intelligence services may have played a decisive role behind the scenes.