Where the aid to Iraq went - your tax dollars at work

In the Middle East baksheesh (bribery and corruption) is a deeply ingrained way of life.

Radi al-Radhi runs the Iraqi government's Commission on Public Integrity. He has a job with certain occupational hazards.

Yesterday, he told the AP that $8 billion in Iraqi government funds was wasted or stolen in the past three years and that he received death threats after opening an investigation into Iraqi Oil Ministry employees.

These aren't empty threats either. Al-Radhi told the Associated Press that 20 members have been murdered since the organization began its work in March 2004.

In one recent case, an estimated $2 billion disappeared from US aid earmarked to rebuild the electricity infrastructure. Former Electricity Minister Ayham al-Samaraie, who holds both U.S. and Iraqi citizenship, was convicted in that case and sentenced to a mere two years in prison....which works out to a `salary' of $1 billion per year. He escaped from an Iraqi-run jail in the Green Zone on December 17 last year, turned up in Chicago on January 15 and said that the Americans helped him escape.

Sounds like he had a powerful partner here in the US.

Al-Radhi said the commission has investigated about 2,600 corruption cases since it was established a few months before the United States returned sovereignty to Iraq, and he estimated that at least $8 billion has vanished or been `misappropriated'.

What's more, the new Iraqi constitution Dubbya is so proud of makes the theft easy. According to al-Rahdi, clause 136 B in that constitution gives Cabinet ministers the power to block his investigations, and ministers have blocked probes into the theft of an estimated $55 million in public funds.

Senior government officials and Cabinet ministers are accused of promulgating a wide variety of scams.

Back in February, for example, U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili , a supporter of radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. While I reported back then on al-Zamili's use of Health Ministry records to make the kidnapping or and/or murder of anyone al-Sadr wanted out of the way a piece of cake, it appears that al-Zamili orchestrated kickback schemes on inflated contracts for equipment and services, with millions of dollars purportedly funneled to fund al-Sadr's Mahdi Army!

The Commission has issued arrest warrants for over 90 former Iraqi officials, including 15 ministers, on charges of corruption. Most have fled the country.

Another example was Iraqi legislator Mishan al-Jabouri who's been charged with siphoning off about $7 million a month intended to pay for food for three units of the pipeline protection force. No one knows where al-Jabouri is.

Then there's another name no one, least of all Radi al-Rahdi is mentioning, that of ex-Iraqi prime minister al-Jaafari, who's currently living the lifestyle of the rich and famous in an exclusive mansion in London. I wonder where all that money came from?

The recent Oil Ministry investigations involve over 180 Iraqi Oil Ministry employees in the southern province of Basra who are suspected of contract kickbacks, private oil sales and other fraud that could involve billions of dollars.

No wonder al-Rahdi is getting death threats.

Stuart Bowen is the head of the US government's Office of the Special Inspector-General for Iraq Reconstruction, the institution in charge of monitoring and tracking down corruption and theft among US contractors in Iraq.

He said Iraq government corruption could amount to $4 billion per year, over 10% of the national income.

Among other things, his office found that over 14,000 weapons destined for Iraqi government forces somehow went `missing'. Guess where they went....

Or, as Bowen said "I call it the second insurgency. This money that's stolen doesn't merely enrich criminals but frequently goes out to fund criminal militias or insurgents."

And the corruption is by no means limited to the Iraqi government.

Bowen's audit office began operations in March 2004 and has referred 25 criminal cases involving US contractors to the US Department of Justice. Only four have resulted in convictions - which means that either Bowen is totally incompetent or that the Bush Administration Justice Department has a limited interest in pursuing these cases.

I've already reported on Halliburton suddenly relocating it.s corporate headquarters and its CEO to Dubai to avoid taxes on its huge profits - and in the midst of investigations ongoing over the past three years over its overbilling the US government by millions for contracts undertaken in Iraq - an investigation, unfortunately, that was never effectively pursued by the Bush Administration and only heated up after the 2006 turnover in Congress.

There's also the interesting and little known case of Custer Battles, a contractor in Iraq who's two principals, Mike Battles and Scott Custer, overcharged occupation authorities by millions of dollars, double-billed for salaries and repainted the Iraqi Airways forklifts they found at Baghdad airport-which Custer Battles was contracted to secure-then leased them back to the U.S. government.

The Bush Administration Justice Department, to date, has made no effort to any of this stolen money back. Or to impede Halliburton fleeing the country.

One has to wonder why.

It's not pretty, ladies and gentlemen, but there it is...your tax dollars at work.