Remember that $700 million in US currency found in the boxes in Saddam’s friends’ houses? It seems the temptation was too much for some GIs.
Three of the arrested GIs, members of an engineering unit attached to the 4th Battalion, are accused of skimming $600,000 of the war booty. They stashed it in a tree near a cottage where they and other members of their unit discovered 37 steel boxes, each containing $4 million in $100 bills.
The fourth busted GI, who had been assigned to drive some of the confiscated cash-filled strongboxes to brigade headquarters, is accused of swiping $300,000 and hiding it in a bag, a cooler and a glove box in his Hemmt cargo truck.
One senior officer acknowledged that the temptation can be so difficult when you see one stack of cash that can make your mortgage go away. Of course, all four will faces courts-martial.
It kind of reminds me of the George Clooney-Mark Wahlberg movie Three Kings. In that movie, set during Gulf War I, four soldiers try to steal gold that was stolen from Kuwait. Of course, they end up being heroes by overcoming their greed and helping people in need, yada, yada.
