"stuffing $2 million worth of crisp bills into his gunnysack"

The spoils of war, paid to some guy for
some reason... I don't know, this was a
while back maybe.

Turns out that some U.S. officials in "postwar" (mid-peace) Iraq just went around making cash payments from the back of a pickup truck, according to a recent AP article. And you thought this was a post about male strippers! Boy, were you wrong.

"Because the country lacked a functioning banking system, contractors and Iraqi ministry officials were paid with bills taken from a basement vault in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces."

Much of this cash has, of course, been impossible to track.

"...An inspector general's report that concluded the occupying authority transferred nearly $9 billion to Iraqi government ministries without any financial controls. The money was designated for financing humanitarian needs, economic reconstruction, repair of facilities, disarmament and civil administration, but the authority had no way to verify that it went for those purposes, the audit said."

Link to AP article.