US Ignored Iraq's Rampant Corruption: Ousted Iraqi Cop

Mother Jones:

IN MARCH 2003, Salam Adhoob, a prominent lawyer in the Iraqi city of Suwayrah, was glad to see US forces roll into his country. Iraqis, he felt, would be able "to rebuild our country again." But when he saw looters ransack Baghdad's National Museum on TV, he began to worry that the authorities could not protect his nation's public resources.

Read the whole story: Mother Jones

Comments

[motown67]

Iraq has continuously been ranked one of the most corrupt in the world. Transparency International which ranks corruption has actually placed Iraq lower and lower on its ranking. In the last one it was tied for second most corrupt in the world. There was mass corruption under Saddam, and it didn't stop under the Coalition Provisional Authority when the U.S. ran things because they were just handing out cash left and right with no accountability, and then went on under the successive Iraqi government right up to Maliki. He sees corruption as a public relations problem so he's blocked prosecutions, gotten rid of anti-corruption officials, and basically said that if the government does talk about it it will disappear rather than ending it. He's able to get away with this because the ministers can block any investigation and parliament has no real checks on the prime minister or ministries other than the budget. musingsoniraq.blogspot.com