A MEGA-CACHE OF US DOLLARS FROM IRAQ HIDING IN A BUNKER IN LEBANON

Frustrated with what he believes is American indifference, Stuart Bowen, the former US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, has disclosed that $1.2-$1.6bn, in brand-new US shrink-wrapped packages of $100 notes, was smuggled out of post-war Iraq, and into a bunker in Lebanon. Bowen assert that this is only the tip of the iceberg; additional billions in greenbacks, intended to pay bills of the new Iraqi Government, also ended up in Lebanon. Apparently, the Special Inspector General's investigation was shut down when the US refused to allow him and his staff to travel to Lebanon to see the bunker, which was said to also contain $200m in gold, belonging to the Iraqi Government.

If any Lebanese criminal element, or terrorist financier, needed US Dollars for any illicit reason, the availability of literally billions in hundred-dollar notes, certainly facilitated their operations. No wonder an embarrassed US Government stonewalled the Special Inspector General's investigation in Lebanon.

The location of this mysterious bunker is not identified, other to state that it is in a rural area. Considering that fact that the Iraqi Government is predominantly Shiite, one wonders whether some of this cash ended up financing Hezbollah's arms acquisitions.