The US Federal Reserve sent record payouts of more than $4 billion in cash to Baghdad on giant pallets aboard military planes shortly before control was handed back to Iraqis.
The money, which had been held by the United States, came from Iraqi oil exports, surplus dollars from the UN-run oil-for-food program and frozen assets belonging to the ousted Saddam Hussein regime.
Bills weighing a total of 363 tonnes were loaded onto military aircraft in the largest cash shipments ever made by the Federal Reserve, said Henry Waxman, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
"Who in their right mind would send 363 tonnes of cash into a war zone? But that's exactly what our Government did," the California Democrat said during a hearing reviewing possible waste, fraud and abuse of funds in Iraq.
On December 12, 2003, $1.5 billion was shipped to Iraq, initially "the largest payout of US currency in Fed history", according to an email cited by committee members.
It was followed by more than $2.4 billion on June 22, 2004, and $1.6 billion three days later. The Coalition Provisional Authority turned over sovereignty on June 28.
