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US Embassy Report: Iraq Gov't Way Corrupt
"Anticorruption cases concerning the Ministry of Education have been particularly ineffective….[T]he Ministry of Water Resources…is effectively out of the anticorruption fight with little to no apparent effort in trying to combat fraud…."
That's not the assessment of some goo-goo liberal watchdog. It's the judgment of a team of officials in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, surveying what it considers endemic corruption throughout the Iraqi government. The Nation's David Corn obtained a copy of the team's 70-plus page report, which finds that militias and criminal gangs have turned government ministries into private sectarian fiefdoms.
The report, which was drafted by a team of U.S. embassy officials, surveys the various Iraqi ministries. "The Ministry of Interior is seen by Iraqis as untouchable by the anticorruption enforcement infrastructure of Iraq," it says. "Corruption investigations in Ministry of Defense are judged to be ineffectual." The study reports that the Ministry of Trade is "widely recognized as a troubled ministry" and that of 196 corruption complaints involving this ministry merely eight have made it to court, with only one person convicted.The Ministry of Health, according to the report, "is a sore point; corruption is actually affecting its ability to deliver services and threatens the support of the government." Investigations involving the Ministry of Oil have been manipulated, the study says, and the "CPI and the [Inspector General of the ministry] are completely ill-equipped to handle oil theft cases." There is no accurate accounting of oil production and transportation within the ministry, the report explains, because organized crime groups are stealing oil "for the benefit of militias/insurgents, corrupt public officials and foreign buyers."
Some of the biggest offenders are, unsurprisingly, in the ministries controlling the Iraqi security forces. The Ministry of Interior, in charge of the Iraqi police, "has been co-opted by organized criminals who act through the 'legal enterprise' to commit crimes such as kidnapping, extortion, bribery, etc." At the Ministry of Defense, there's "a shocking lack of concern" over disappearance of over $850 million from the Iraqi Army's procurement budget in an apparent theft. (That about rivals the alleged theft by Ayad Allawi's defense minister, Hazem Shaalan.)
Corn writes that "you can practically see the authors pulling out their hair" over the damage documented in the report. Visitors to Baghdad familiar with the U.S.'s diplomatic attempts to stanch the official illegality won't be surprised. In March, I attended a briefing in Baghdad with Boots Poliquin, the U.S. embassy's deadly-earnest top anti-corruption official, who explained with evident disappointment that an Iraqi public law called Article 136B allows any ministry to "essentially stop" a corruption investigation. The report Corn obtained is most likely authored by Poliquin's shop, the Office of Accountability and Transparency, and it promises to cast a long shadow over any upbeat assessment given by Ambassador Ryan Crocker next month about the ability of the Iraqi government to actually, well, govern.
Comments (14)
bill wrote on August 30, 2007 7:18 PM:They must be republiCONs.
Mooser wrote on August 30, 2007 7:28 PM:I see that liberals have now infiltrated the Iraqi government, probably by dipping their thumbs in bogus purple ink. And now they're picking at every little thing that's wrong, just like they do here.
If you want a sweet ending to transforming a country, ya gotta spread a little 'sugar' around!
johnnydoughey wrote on August 30, 2007 9:15 PM:Interesting article. The 1st thing I did was notice how we have taught those folks to lie, steal and cheat... not quite, but almost as well as we do.
Anyone seriously believe we can teach other nations to do something we ourselves have not a clue about? Case in point:
Just how much of out own money have been lost to theft (and waste) over there? Just how many weapons of ours are now missing. Now... just how much have we retrieved, and what penalties have the thieves paid.
As a matter of fact, just how many innocent men, women and children have been verified as being terrorized and killed by our own out of control soldiers. Now, how many of these terrorists are paying long term consequences?
We are now debating whether we do or not condone torture. Nonetheless, we have pictures and videos of some of the atrocities we have committed upon possible terrorists we have imprisoned (remember the Iraqi general everyone seems to have forgotten that was somehow beaten and smothered to death while being interrogated by us?).
So folks, the Iraqi are learning lots of valuable lessons from us. We should be proud of ourselves. Afterall, we are proving to be excellent teachers....
Too bad we are too stupid to learn anything ourselves... IMHO
Steve J. wrote on August 30, 2007 10:17 PM:In his July report, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction(SIGIR) came to the same conclusion:
"The Embassy made progress on several fronts to address the endemic corruption in Iraq, which SIGIR views as a “second insurgency.”
cherry flavored wrote on August 30, 2007 10:18 PM:http://radamisto.blogspot.com/2007/07/op-ed-ecstasy.html
"So folks, the Iraqi are learning lots of valuable lessons from us. We should be proud of ourselves. Afterall, we are proving to be excellent teachers...."
After watching Josh's new video it seems Iraq has learned so much from the republicans.
But I think Josh forgot someone in the list of repugs. Isn't the repug gov of Nevada under investigation too? Someone answer yes or no, please.
Uncle_Meat wrote on August 31, 2007 7:53 AM:Pot, meet Kettle. Kettle, this is Pot...
A DC Wonk wrote on August 31, 2007 10:07 AM:Yes -- GOP Gov Jim Gibbons
A quote from a Reno paper had a story on his low approval ratings, but including a single sentence about this: "An FBI investigation into whether he accepted bribes to help a Nevada company secure government contracts is pending."
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070821/NEWS04/708210353/1007/NEWS
A DC Wonk wrote on August 31, 2007 10:10 AM:Yes -- GOP Nev Gov Jim Gibbons is still under FBI investigation in that case with eTreppid, getting bribes from Warren Trepp (and that cruise to the Carribean
A DC Wonk wrote on August 31, 2007 10:10 AM:Yes -- GOP Nev Gov Jim Gibbons is still under FBI investigation in that case with eTreppid, getting bribes from Warren Trepp (and that cruise to the Carribean
cherry flavored wrote on August 31, 2007 11:59 AM:Thanks DC Wonk, I thought so. Josh update your list to 12 republicans.
Fred C. Dobbs wrote on August 31, 2007 12:02 PM:The Middle East Corrupt? To use a word I personally abhor: "DUH!"
The whole region has been as crooked as a snake's back since before there was a USA, so it's not new. The institutionalized practice of graft and theft is called, "the dash." Like, "la mordita," ("the bite") in the Spanish-speaking world.
Anyone else remember the difficulties getting contracts done in Kuwait in 1991-1993 because one relative of the honcho camel-jockey had control of a ministry and was taking a gargantuan bite out of all the contracts?
Just the numbers are bigger this time, and there's no Recession to dominate the news.
Dubai is the straightest place in the Middle East to do any business (Sheikh Mo has the dash under his control), and that's a pretty scary datum.
Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador could take Graduate-level courses in Crooked from the Middle East.
Security code: wind
As in, "I break wind in their general direction."
Anonymous wrote on August 31, 2007 12:49 PM:Great! Five years, tens of thousands killed, 2 -3 million displaced, billions of $$$ and Iraq is going to end up right where it was in 2003 - with a brutal strongman in charge (El-Sadr or Allwali or maybe Chalabi) a corrupt government, and sectarian violence. Plus we have managed to add, a broken infrastructure, the supression of women and thousands of new weapons to the mix.
The US will be paying for this for a generation - fiscally and karmically. Bush has broken everything he ever touched.
Anonymous wrote on August 31, 2007 4:30 PM:"The US will be paying for this for a generation - fiscally and karmically. Bush has broken everything he ever touched."
Yes, but remember... this is all God's work...
Tony Snow wrote on August 31, 2007 7:31 PM:The accusations of $850M missing from the Iraqi Army budget are politically motivated..., and reviewing budgets only helps the terrorists..., and the Iaqi Army is doing a heckuv a job..., and these are Iraqi budget problems created under Clinton..., the media is focusing on the missing $850M when they should be telling happy stories about the $850M that hasn't been stolen..., the Iraqi Army should cut taxes and open individual retirement accounts to avoid these problems..., and...