Most of my plots are inspired by news events or historic
facts. The plot for my thriller, The
Butcher’s Bill, was no different.
A sequel to my first Linus Schag, NCIS novel, The
Killing Depths, The Butcher's Bill revolves around one man's
attempt to uncover the truth behind the real-world theft of nearly $9 billion
in cash during the Iraq War. That theft was the biggest heist in history and it
has never been adequately investigated.
What follows is the true story that inspired the fictional
story in The Butcher's Bill.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Bush administration
made a controversial decision. Billions of dollars belonging to Saddam Hussein
and his government sat frozen in financial accounts in U.S. banks. After the
fall of the Baghdad government, the White House decided to confiscate those
funds and use them to pay for the rebuilding of Iraq.
That, itself, was not controversial. How the
administration did it was.
Rather than place the Iraqi funds in a holding account and
pay contractor bills as they came due, the Bush administration decided to convert
the holdings into $40 billion in U.S. greenbacks and send it to Iraq by the
planeload. Once in Iraq, the cash was handed out to contractors without much
regard to receipts for work performed. Some witnesses claim the money was simply
stuffed into duffle bags and handed over to contractors.
While the haphazard distribution of $31 billion was
controversial enough, there was an even greater outrage. Nearly $9 billion in
cash—$8.9 billion to be precise—simply disappeared, apparently stolen. Any
attempt to investigate the theft was blocked at the highest levels of the
government.
Graft and corruption plague every war, but the Iraqi
conflict may have seen the most overt war profiteering in history. The Bush
administration's excessive use of private contractors for everything from
operating mess halls to building bases set the stage for widespread illegal
activities. The president's granting of immunity from prosecution to all
contractors for any questionable activity only exacerbated the problem.
Contractor-operated mess halls knowingly served rancid
food to troops. Construction of facilities for both U.S. and pro-U.S. Iraqi
troops was at best careless. Several American service members died when
electrocuted by improperly wired barracks. Inadequately constructed plumbing
poured raw sewage into newly built buildings, rendering them uninhabitable.
The widespread use of so-called "security
contractors"—i.e., armed mercenaries—was the most controversial. These
private military companies claimed their personnel were highly trained former
military or law enforcement professionals. In fact, many of these security
contractors had little or no military or law enforcement background. Many had
criminal histories and some were known former members of Latin American death
squads.
Security contractors were responsible for some of the most
egregious acts. There were allegations of security contractors smuggling
weapons into Iraq, possibly to sell to insurgents. Some were accused of
smuggling drugs, which they sold to U.S. troops. Many security contractors were
accused of wantonly killing Iraqi citizens without cause. Only when a group of
security contractors machine-gunned more than 20 unarmed Iraqi civilians in
Baghdad in 2007 were any of these people prosecuted.
These are the facts behind the plot of The Butcher's
Bill. Now for the fiction.
NCIS Special Agent Bill Butcher found himself in the
middle of this byzantine environment when posted to Iraq during the war. A
former Navy SEAL, Butcher is a man of high moral standards, with a strong sense
of right and wrong, especially when it involves the welfare of serving men and
women.
Butcher was continually frustrated when Bush's immunity
proclamation prevented him from investigating the myriad acts of profiteering and
corruption he saw around him. When pulled off an investigation into the missing
$9 billion in cash, Butcher refused to give up. He continued to probe the theft
even after returning to the States. His obsession with the missing funds eventually
cost him his NCIS job as well as his marriage. When Butcher discovered the
truth behind the missing money, those responsible for the theft come after him.
Those who stole the money want Bill Butcher dead. The cops
want him for murder. Butcher's only hope is his former NCIS colleague and
closest friend, Linus Schag.
Torn between loyalties, Schag walks a thin line between
doing his job and helping his friend. Working from opposite ends, Schag and
Butcher peel back the layers of conspiracy, revealing a criminal enterprise
reaching into the highest levels of government.
Taken straight from today's headlines, the plot of The
Butcher's Bill ranges from the California mountains to the waters of the
Pacific and I hope, keeps readers on edge until its final, explosive climax.
The Butcher’s Bill
Meet
William Butcher, aka The Butcher, former Navy SEAL, now a disgraced ex-NCIS
agent.
Those
who stole $9 billion in cash from Iraq want him dead.
The
cops want him for murder.
Butcher's
only hope is his former NCIS colleague and closest friend, Linus Schag.
Together
Schag and Butcher tear away the veil of conspiracy, uncovering a criminal
enterprise reaching into the highest levels of government.
Ripped
from today's headlines, this sequel to Martin Roy Hill's highly praised The
Killing Depths takes the reader from the California mountains to the coastal
waters of the Pacific into the dangerous world of war-profiteers and
international mercenaries, and is guaranteed to keep readers on edge until its
final, explosive climax.
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