They're Bandits. They're Supposed to Make Out Like Bandits.

The Pentagon and the Iraqi government are giving up trying to locate $6.6 billion in greenbacks that went missing in the chaos after the American conquest of Iraq.  Their conclusion - the cash was probably stolen.

It seems the money was shipped into Iraq in shrink-wrapped stacks of $100 bills.  A large, C-130 Hercules military transport stuffed with cash could carry $2.4-billion.  $12-billion was sent to Iraq that way and it seems roughly half of it went astray.

The Iraqi government is none too happy about this.   That cash was from the sale of Iraqi oil, liquidation of Iraqi assets and leftover UN money from the oil for food programme.   Baghdad is thinking about suing Washington to recover the loss.