Bush Admin. "Silent" On Iraq Corruption

Former State Dept. Officials Tell Senate Democrats U.S. Ignored Corruption To Protect Al-Maliki

(AP)  The Bush administration repeatedly ignored corruption at the highest levels within the Iraqi government and kept secret potentially embarrassing information so as not to undermine its relationship with Baghdad, according to two former State Department employees.

Arthur Brennan, who briefly served in Baghdad as head of the department's Office of Accountability and Transparency last year, and James Mattil, who worked as the chief of staff, told Senate Democrats on Monday that their office was understaffed and its warnings and recommendations ignored.

Brennan also alleges the State Department prevented a congressional aide visiting Baghdad from talking with staffers by insisting they were too busy. In reality, Brennan said, office members were watching movies at the embassy and on their computers. The staffers' workload had been cut dramatically because of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "evisceration" of Iraq's top anti-corruption office, he said.

The State Department's policies "not only contradicted the anti-corruption mission but indirectly contributed to and has allowed corruption to fester at the highest levels of the Iraqi government," Brennan told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.

The U.S. embassy "effort against corruption - including its new centerpiece, the now-defunct Office of Accountability and Transparency - was little more than 'window dressing,"' he added.

Deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the administration takes the issue of corruption seriously and pointed to its recent appointment of Lawrence Benedict as coordinator for anti-corruption initiatives at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

Benedict's appointment "is another demonstration that we are working at very senior levels to help the Iraqis deal with this issue," Casey said. "Any assertion that we have not taken this issue seriously or given it the attention it deserves is simply untrue."

The Office of Accountability and Transparency, or "OAT" team, was intended to provide assistance and training to Iraq's anti-corruption agencies. It was dismantled last December, after it alleged in a draft report leaked to the media that al-Maliki's office had derailed or prevented investigations into Shiite-controlled agencies.

The draft report sparked hearings in Congress and prompted a showdown between Democrats and senior State Department officials on whether the public has a right to know the extent to which al-Maliki was involved in corruption cases.

Brennan charges the State Department never responded to his team's report, which was retroactively classified because agency officials said it could hurt bilateral relations with Iraq. Other recommendations by the group also were kept secret, including a negative assessment of Iraq's Joint Anti-Corruption Committee, Brennan said.

In July 2007, the OAT team concluded that the committee's only purpose was to provide a forum for complaints against Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, a top anti-corruption official in Baghdad whom many U.S. officials have hailed as the most effective in exposing fraud and abuse.

But information later released by the embassy ignored the team's assessment and ultimately "failed to even mention what a disaster" the committee "really was," Brennan said.

Brennan said he approved the embassy report against his better judgment but later regretted it.

Mattil, who worked with Brennan, made similar allegations. Specifically, he said the U.S. "remained silent in the face of an unrelenting campaign" by senior Iraqi officials to subvert Baghdad's Commission on Public Integrity, which had been led by al-Radhi. Then, the U.S. turned its back on Iraqis who fled to the United States after being threatened for pursuing anti-corruption cases, he said.

"Since we have done so little (to undercut corruption), it's easy to see why the government of Iraq has not done more," said Mattil, who left the accountability office last October after having served for a year as its chief of staff. "We have demanded no better."

Brennan was appointed as OAT director last summer and arrived in Baghdad in July. He left only a few weeks later after his wife was diagnosed with cancer. He stepped down from his position in August.

Iraqi government officials could not be reached for comment.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, head of the Democratic Policy Committee, said the testimony was critical in light of upcoming legislation that would appropriate more than $170 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate Appropriations Committee, of which Dorgan is a member, is expected to approve the legislation Thursday.

"It is a cruel irony if we are appropriating money next Thursday or did appropriate money last month or last year and that money ends up actually providing the resources for an insurgency in Iraq which ends up killing Americans," said Dorgan, D-N.D.

[ranger1948]

downstreamjim
McVet is right about FEMA.

[ioweign]

Bush Admin. "Silent" On Iraq Corruption


Misappropriation of Funds

In law, misappropriation is the intentional, illegal use of the property or funds of another person for one''s own use or other unauthorized purpose, particularly by a public official, a trustee of a trust, an executor or administrator of a dead person''s estate or by any person with a responsibility to care for and protect another''s assets (a fiduciary duty). It is a felony, a crime punishable by a prison sentence.


George - ignorance is not an excuse or a defense...

[timdgrim]

"Oh look Margaret....it''s another Bush Corruption story....I didn''t know it was RERUN season already.."

[ranger1948]

McVet
We will plan on getting tiogether then, woul like to meet you and skky. You live in the chicago area, right ? I have to go to New york, Florida, Kansas City, Texas and then on to Vegas where i plan to live again.

[firststate]

How is corruption and the rampant misuse of our government''s funds okay? This war is being fought on credit, thanks to the tax cuts, so our children will be paying for it unless we stop sniping at each other and try to get this mess resolved.

al-Maliki and his thugs have their hands in our pockets. They''re robbing all of us without regard to our political philosophy. If Americans are involved in the corruption or its cover it up, they should be prosecuted. There''s at least enough evidence to warrant a real investigation.

[downsteamjim]

Sorry McVet, I keep forgetting you create your own reality. You need to come to New Orleans and live north of I10 for awhile.

[apprxam]

Bush don''t talk about American corruption, why the hell whould he talk about anyone else''s.

[mcvet]

I wish people would look at some of the deals done with the Katrina cleanup. Since it is done under the watch of local liberals, it''''s not news.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by downsteamjim at 08:26 PM : May 13, 2008
+ report abuse

LOL Right! You CAN''T be this stupid! PLEASE tell me you KNOW FEMA is FEDERAL and locals have NO control over the FEDERAL Agency! Otherwise you have not one ounce of reason to be here!

[incog-nito]

No big deal. It''s only the U.S. taxpayers'' money.

[tylenol6]

Iraq corruption = Bush corruption......

SO WHAT''S THE PROBLEM??????????????????

[ioweign]

J-whitman: Of course Iran would never do anything nasty. After all Jimmy Carter helped establish this wonderful group of moderate religous folk.

Posted by downsteamjim at 08:56 PM : May 13, 2008

Actually jim, you have to go back to Eisenhower for that honor...

[pfd572]

downstream: since when is FEMA controlled by local authorities? The biggest blunders made after Katrina, and continue to be made, were by FEMA and other FEDERAL agencies. Just pretending or saying it isn''t so, doesn''t make it true. But if lying to yourself and others brings you comfort, then I pity you. The bush/cheney regime has been rife with corruption and major crimes. In a democratic republic the ends do not justify the means. I hope you someday are able to admit the truth about your people.

[j-whitman]

downsteamjim,,,, You are trying to get upstream & you have no paddle

[downsteamjim]

J-whitman: Of course Iran would never do anything nasty. After all Jimmy Carter helped establish this wonderful group of moderate religous folk.

[j-whitman]

McCain has been a major player in all of Bush''s lies, especially on the war

Major General Kevin Burgener (ph) convened a news conference in Baghdad last Wednesday to list 20,000 items of ammunition, explosives and weapons captured or uncovered by U.S. and Iraqi governmental forces in the last weeks of fighting, 45 rocket propelled grenades, 570 assorted explosive devices, 1,800 mortars and artillery rounds.

The point? This was the big day, this was the day, according to the %u201CL.A. Times,%u201D that the American military was to show the media of the world the conclusive evidence that at least some of the weaponry used by Iraqi insurgents had been supplied by Iran. The U.S. military spokesman confirming to that newspaper that that%u2018s what the dog and pony show was to include. They were all ready to show off Iran%u2018s tangible responsibility for some of the haul of the machinery of death, to establish the link between American fatalities and Iran, trademarks or company logos or made in Tehran stickers or something.

When U.S. explosive experts took a second look at all this stuff, they then said, none of this is from Iran. Twenty thousand blowing up things, hard count of those supplied by Iran, zero. Percentage imported from Iran, no percent! Amount of tangible evidence linking Iran to anti-American uprising in Baghdad? None.

[downsteamjim]

To Liberalme: Naigin prefers ''chocolate.''

[liberalme]

I wish people would look at some of the deals done with the Katrina cleanup. Since it is done under the watch of local liberals, it''''s not news.

Posted by downsteamjim at 08:26 PM : May 13, 2008


You''re right...."heck of a job there Brownie"

[liberalme]

AP
updated 34 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Tuesday he was disappointed in "flawed intelligence" before the Iraq war and was concerned that if a Democrat wins the presidency in November and withdrew troops prematurely it could "eventually lead to another attack on the United States."


This doesn''t sound like Bush has anything going with Obama!
Just another Bush scare tactic---the enemy is coming!! the enemy is coming! In reality--next January, the enemy will be leaving!

[downsteamjim]

I wish people would look at some of the deals done with the Katrina cleanup. Since it is done under the watch of local liberals, it''s not news.

[dobbershome]

Why am I not shocked?I''m not surprised by anything that happens with this administration anymore.