Report: Corruption Is 'Norm' Within Iraqi Government

[GeorgeGist]

Secret Report: Corruption Is 'Norm' Within Iraqi Government
By David Corn, TheNation.com
Posted on September 3, 2007, Printed on September 3, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/61459/

As Congress prepares to receive reports on Iraq from General David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and readies for a debate on George W. Bush's latest funding request of $50 billion for the Iraq war, the performance of the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has become a central and contentious issue. But according to the working draft of a secret document prepared by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, the Maliki government has failed in one significant area: corruption. Maliki's government is "not capable of even rudimentary enforcement of anticorruption laws," the report says, and, perhaps worse, the report notes that Maliki's office has impeded investigations of fraud and crime within the government.

The draft -- over 70 pages long -- was obtained by The Nation, and it reviews the work (or attempted work) of the Commission on Public Integrity (CPI), an independent Iraqi institution, and other anticorruption agencies within the Iraqi government. Labeled "SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED/Not for distribution to personnel outside of the US Embassy in Baghdad," the study details a situation in which there is little, if any, prosecution of government theft and sleaze. Moreover, it concludes that corruption is "the norm in many ministries."

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/61459/

[JeffR]

1. So we really have created an Iraqi democracy in our own image

Wow.

[JohnnyLib2]

2. Ya beat me to it.

:hi:

[JeffR]

4. First time in over four years here that's happened

;-)

[baldguy]

3. Corruption Is Norm

We knew that.

[tridim]

7. WTF? Please tell me that's photoshopped nt

[rodeodance]

5. Lets all do something constructive and call our Congresscritters!!

[AnnieBW]

6. Freedumb is on the march!

Wave those purple fingers, Iraqis!

[aquart]

8. Really? Ours, too.

[rodeodance]

9. 'Maliki is blocking corruption probes,..and....

By David Corn, TheNation.com. Posted September 3, 2007.

A Baghdad embassy study says Prime Minister Maliki is blocking corruption probes, his government is partly controlled by criminal gangs, and the U.S. is doing little to clean up the mess.