From: jeff 

Yep - it was their money to begin with. It just took an unauthorized pause
in Saddam's palaces.

Now it's being used for it's proper purposes.

Adam Flinton wrote:
> Where the other guy is the Iraqi people.
>
> Adam
>
> jeff wrote:
>
>> .... with the other guys cash (Go read it all):
>>
>> http://2slick.blogspot.com/2004/11/whats-next-for-fallujah.html
>>
>>
>> "Here's how it worked. About one week after we (the 101st) arrived in
>> Mosul (approx. May 8th), every major subordinate command in the 101st
>> (including mine, of course) received an order to report to Finance
>> Headquarters, draw $10,000 US cash (seized assets recovered from the
>> old regime) and go out and spend it. There were rules and guidelines-
>> no single purchase over the amount of $2,000. Any expenditure must
>> benefit the Iraqi people only, and may not result in any kind benefit
>> to Coalition Forces whatsoever. No spending on entertainment for the
>> Iraqis. Other than that, it was pretty much go out there and spend. I
>> was selected to be my brigade's project manager because of my
>> experience handling budgets and my history of successfuly dealing with
>> Iraqis.
>>
>> I first went to a Civil Affairs guy who lived in the tent next to
>> mine, and asked him if he had any good tips. He told me that the
>> University had been severely looted, and that they could use some help
>> with ADP products (monitors, disk drives, etc.). We went to the
>> University, worked out the arrangements, made some connections, and
>> delivered the products the next day. The purchase was simple- we went
>> to a computer store across the street from the university, worked out
>> a deal, and had them deliver the goods at the agreed time and place,
>> at which time we paid them. We repeated this often. After our first
>> purchase for the university we still had $8,000, so we stopped at a
>> primary school and asked them how we could be of assistance. They were
>> very happy to see us, and we communicated through our interpreter. We
>> worked out a deal to get them school supplies, new school desks,
>> chalkboards, etc.
>>
>> When our $10,000 ran out, we drew more and repeated the process. Every
>> other major subordinate command in the 101st did the same thing we
>> did. This continued for about 3 weeks.
>>
>> Once it became obvious that this operation was working, Division
>> Headquarters decided to step things up. We were soon authorized to
>> draw $250,000 at a time (usually about one draw every two weeks- and
>> the maximum withdrawal amount continued to grow), and spend up to
>> $10,000 on a single purchase (more if we obtained the CG's approval).
>>
>> 
>>
>>
>> When it was all over, I had spent over $2.7 million, mostly on the
>> University. I'm told that other Division's throughout Iraq followed
>> our model, since we had so much success with it. As far as I know,
>> CERP is still ongoing."

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5