US Embassy worried about Iraqi political corruption

Going ministry by ministry, the US Embassy in Iraq lays out the corruption that is going on in high levels of the Iraqi government.  The Nation magazine obtained a copy, and reported on it this week.  This is where our tax money is going:

The Ministry of Health, according to the report, "is a sore point;corruption is actually affecting its ability to deliver services andthreatens the support of the government." Investigations involving theMinistry of Oil have been manipulated, the study says, and the "CPI andthe [Inspector General of the ministry] are completely ill-equipped tohandle oil theft cases." There is no accurate accounting of oilproduction and transportation within the ministry, the report explains,because organized crime groups are stealing oil "for the benefit ofmilitias/insurgents, corrupt public officials and foreign buyers."

The list goes on: "Anticorruption cases concerning the Ministry ofEducation have been particularly ineffective???‚¬?¦.[T]he Ministry of WaterResources???‚¬?¦is effectively out of the anticorruption fight with little tono apparent effort in trying to combat fraud???‚¬?¦.[T]he Ministry of Labor& Social Affairs is hostile to the prosecution of corruption cases.Militia support from [Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr] has effectively madecorruption in the Ministry of Transportation wholesale according toinvestigators and immune from prosecution." Several ministries,according to the study, are "so controlled by criminal gangs ormilitias" that it is impossible for corruption investigators "tooperate within [them] absent a tactical [security] force protecting theinvestigator."

The Ministry of the Interior, which has been a stronghold of Shiamilitias, stands out in the report. The study's authors say that"groups within MOI function similarly to a Racketeer Influenced andCorrupt Organization (RICO) in the classic sense. MOI is a 'legalenterprise' which has been co-opted by organized criminals who actthrough the 'legal enterprise' to commit crimes such as kidnapping,extortion, bribery, etc." This is like saying the mob is running thepolice department. The report notes, "currently 426 investigations arehung up awaiting responses for documents belonging to MOI whichroutinely are ignored." It cites an episode during which a CPI officerdiscovered two eyewitnesses to the October 2006 murder of Ameral-Hashima, the brother of the vice president, but the CPI investigatorwould not identify the eyewitnesses to the Minister of the Interior outof fear he and they would be assassinated. (It seemed that the killerswere linked to the Interior Ministry.) The report adds, "CPIinvestigators assigned to MOI investigations have unanimously expressedtheir fear of being assassinated should they aggressively pursue theirduties at MOI. Thus when the head of MOI intelligence recentlypersonally visited the Commissioner of CPI???‚¬?¦to end investigations of[an] MOI contract, there was a clear sense of concern within theagency."

Over at the Defense Ministry, the report notes, there has been a"shocking lack of concern" about the apparent theft of $850 millionfrom the Iraqi military's procurement budget. "In some cases," thereport says, "American advisors working for US [Department of Defense]have interceded to remove [Iraqi] suspects from investigations orcustody." Of 455 corruption investigations at the Defense Ministry,only 15 have reached the trial stage. A mere four investigators areassigned to investigating corruption in the department. And at theMinistry of Trade, "criminal gangs" divide the spoils, with onehandling grain theft, another stealing transportation assets.

Four years into this misadventure, and this is the best we can do?  And no, the answer is not to stay the course for another four years.  When you mistakes, you learn from them -- let's learn from these mistakes by getting out.

Comments

[granny]

Us Embassy worried about Iraqi political corruption ?

Now THAT???‚¬?„?S gotta be a belly laugh!

After: Americans planned looting in Iraq -
US military censorship of blogs (THERE???‚¬?„?S a big surprise)-
Brits testing mustard gas on Indians (another big surprise from ???‚¬?“the Raj???‚¬??)-

Not to mention our own home grown performance over the same perios of time.

We could get a better benefit from that ???‚¬?“ministry by ministry???‚¬?? investigation of our own affairs.

And if they weren???‚¬?„?t already entirely adept at internal corruption, we certainly marched some good examples over there for them to emulate.

Bottom line: It???‚¬?„?s a good thing to have someone saying it out loud.
But I did have to guffaw at the concept of our "worrying" ~

[Chief Editor: Todd]

Great take, Granny! It's outrageous about this postwar planning, and the corruption in just about every agency in the Iraqi government. What's just as outrageous is the 23% of the country that will support President Bush NO MATTER WHAT HE DOES. Bush could nuke Iran and that 23% would still be behind him.