Cockburn on Iraq reconstruction fraud

Patrick Cockburn reports on the NYT story about theft and fraud by US military officials during Iraq reconstruction.
He writes: "In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US -directed effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The exact sum missing may never be clear, but a report by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) suggests it may exceed $50bn, making it an even bigger theft than Bernard Madoff's notorious Ponzi scheme."

Further, an American businessman active in Iraq since 2003 said: "I believe the real looting of Iraq after the invasion was by US officials and contractors, and not by people from the slums of Baghdad"--good point.