The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 35, August 31, 2003, Article 9

TRANSPORTING IRAQ CASH

  The Wall Street Journal also published an interesting
  report on how the U.S. transports greenbacks to Iraq:

  "The Air Force usually flies the cash straight to Baghdad,
  where it is stored in vaults until it is needed elsewhere. ...
  The first trick is getting the money out of Baghdad without
  getting mugged.  That job fell most recently to Sgt. Adrian
  Vrolyks, of the 870th Military Police Company. For the
  convoy leaving Baghdad Aug. 13, the sergeant gathered a
  5-ton Marine truck to carry the money itself, a captured
  SUV to carry the coalition's Iraqi bankers, and a small
  fleet of Humvees to carry rifles, light machine guns and
  automatic grenade launchers capable of spewing out
  grenades at a rate of up to 400 a minute.

  "To fill the kitty for the first day of payments, two female
  accountants from the Karbala pension office went to
  Rafidain with a government check and walked out with
  $888,000 in hundred-dollar bills, stuffed in bags and hidden
  under their ankle-length burkas.

  "It's camouflage," said one of the women. A pension office
  driver, armed with a pistol, gave them a lift back to work.
  "I recite verses from the Holy Quran to protect us from
  burglars," said the other woman.

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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