282 million dollars was stolen from Dar Es Salaam bank in Baghdad yesterday.
I realize with everything else going on in Iraq, this may not seem like a big deal. But consider that the money--a quarter of a billion dollars, folks--was in American dollars. Nobody's talking about why an Iraqi bank would hold such a huge amount of foreign currency , or how the robbers knew that much American money was on hand.
Now I'd be the last person to suggest any kind of sinister conspiracy. Far be it from me to speculate the money might have been unreported profits from the oil fields, or mad money for Halliburton employees, or there to pay some of the Bushinista's shadowy special ops. Nor would I suggest that since the robbery was allegedly carried out by Iraqi bank guards--who somehow knew the place held a quarter of a billion American dollars--it somehow suggests karmatic payback for bridges burned, yet another howl of protest from the people whose country we occupy.
I would, however, observe that any reporter worth their salt should be all over this story. The only mention in the American press I've been able to find so far is in The New York Times, which buried it in with other Iraq-related news.
Of course, even if some dogged reporter unearthed serious malfeasance here, it probably wouldn't matter. Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales have clearly lied under oath and broken laws they swore to uphold, yet they still serve. Arrogance has its priveleges.
