WashingtonPost.com: World Opinion Roundup
Harold's List
WashingtonPost.com
September 20, 2005
World Opinion Roundup
by Jefferson Morley
A Daily Survey of What the International Online Media Are Saying
Iraqi Corruption on the U.S. Watch
Stories about massive corruption on the U.S. watch in Iraq are not new. Nor are they going away. Iraqi officials told The Washington Post and other news organizations yesterday that they will soon bring charges against the country's former minister of defense Hazem Shaalan.
This story has been building for months. The Independent of London reported yesterday that U.S.-appointed officials in the country’s Ministry of Defense squandered hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraqi money on overpriced and outdated military equipment after the Bush administration transferred sovereignty to an Iraqi government in June 2004.
Patrick Cockburn’s dispatch adds some detail to the arms corruption scandal first reported in August by the Arab cable news site Aljazeera.net and the American newspaper chain Knight Ridder. Estimates of how much money has been wasted vary widely, but named sources in all three stories agree the amount was huge.
The reports underscore the continuing costs of the Bush administration’s failure to anticipate security problems after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. In the rush to build up the Iraqi armed forces in the face of the burgeoning insurgency, Iraqi officials, working closely with U.S. advisers, squandered more than $1 billion, Finance Minister Ali Allawi told the Independent. (Ali Allawi should not be confused with the pro-American Ayad Allawi who served as prime minister in 2004 but is no longer in the government.)
"The failure to notice that so much money was being siphoned off at the very least argues a high degree of negligence on the part of US officials and officers in Baghdad," Cockburn wrote.
"Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted on unnecessary and overpriced equipment for Iraq's new army at a time when the US and its allies are struggling to get the force in shape to battle fighters," Aljazeera.net reported Aug. 3.
On Aug. 11, Knight Ridder correspondent Hannah Allam reported that the Iraqi auditors had documented 89 weapons deals concluded in 2004 under U.S.-appointed interim Defense Minister Shaalan. At least, $500 million was wasted, Shaalan’s successor said.
According to the audit cited by Cockburn, the equipment purchased during Shaalan’s tenure included:
Twenty-eight-year-old Soviet-made helicopters purchased in Poland. The manufacturers said the antique choppers should have been scrapped after 25 years of service.
Armored cars "so poorly made that even a bullet from an elderly AK-47 machine-gun could penetrate their armour."
A shipment of what was supposed to be MP5 American machine-guns, costing $3,500 each, which "consisted in reality of Egyptian copies worth only $200 a gun."
Knight Ridder’s Allam reported that Iraqi procurement officials worked closely with up to 20 U.S. advisers at the time of these deals.
Col. John Martin, a deputy to U.S. Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, told Allam that senior American and British advisers warned the interim Iraqi government of "their concerns about the lack of transparency in MoD [Ministry of Defense] procurement, the uncoordinated manner in which MoD procurement was proceeding and the possibility for -- and rumors of -- corruption."
"At the end of the day, however, this was Iraqi money being spent by Iraqi officials of a sovereign country's ministry," Martin added.
Aljazeera.net, the Independent and Knight Ridder all reported that the auditors had found the dubious arms deals were arranged by the ministry's procurement chief, Ziyad Cattan. The three reports said he was fired in May.
Iraqi Defense Ministry procurement chief Ziyad Cattan, on Polish TV in 2004, is under suspicion.
The Polish Embassy in Washington announced last November that Cattan headed an Iraqi team that was negotiating with Polish arms firms for transport and medical helicopters. In December the Polish media reported that an agreement had been reached.
But "when Iraqi experts travelled to Europe to check on the purchase of the transport helicopters, they discovered the aircraft, which cost tens of millions of dollars, were 28-years-old and outdated," Aljazeera.net reported. "They refused to take them and returned home empty-handed. "
The corruption reports, ironically, serve as a measure of vindication of Ahmed Chalabi, a onetime ally of the Bush administration who has faced corruption accusations himself. Last January, Chalabi invoked Shaalan’s ire by charging that the interim government had sent a plane laden with $300 million in U.S. currency to Lebanon to buy arms.
"Where did the money go? What was it used for? Who was it given to?" We don't know," Chalabi said in an interview with the New York Times.
Shalaan responded by announcing Chalabi would be arrested on corruption charges. But the arrest never happened.
As is often the case in Iraqi politics, the Iranian subtext is important. Chalabi, a Shiite, had rehabilitated himself in Iraq by distancing himself from his neoconservative allies in Washington and forging alliance with one of the ascendant Iranian-backed Shiite parties.
At the time Shalaan was denouncing Iran for "meddling in Iraq."
The Iranian press responded that Shaalan had once collaborated with Saddam Hussein. The Mehr News Agency (MNA) in Tehran, citing sources in the holy city of Najaf, said Iraqi Shiite leaders had opposed the U.S. appointment of Shalaan as defense minister because he served as an informant for Hussein’s secret police in the late 1980s and early '90s.
MNA said Iraqi government documents showed Shaalan had delivered reports to Hussein’s security forces on Shiites in Najaf and Karbala that resulted in the interrogation, torture and death of 200 young Iraqi activists.
Shaalan left office early this year and now reportedly lives in Jordan. He denies any wrongdoing. Cattan’s whereabouts are unknown, according to the news reports.
Iraq’s armed forces continues to lack the basic equipment necessary to take over security duties from U.S. troops, and Shiite civilians bear the brunt of insurgent attacks. On Monday, the deputy chief of the the Iraqi National Assembly's Integrity Commission said the country had paid $226 million for the defunct helicopters. Corruption, he said, is "more dangerous than terrorism."
WashingtonPost.com
September 20, 2005
World Opinion Roundup
by Jefferson Morley
A Daily Survey of What the International Online Media Are Saying
Iraqi Corruption on the U.S. Watch
Stories about massive corruption on the U.S. watch in Iraq are not new. Nor are they going away. Iraqi officials told The Washington Post and other news organizations yesterday that they will soon bring charges against the country's former minister of defense Hazem Shaalan.
This story has been building for months. The Independent of London reported yesterday that U.S.-appointed officials in the country’s Ministry of Defense squandered hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraqi money on overpriced and outdated military equipment after the Bush administration transferred sovereignty to an Iraqi government in June 2004.
Patrick Cockburn’s dispatch adds some detail to the arms corruption scandal first reported in August by the Arab cable news site Aljazeera.net and the American newspaper chain Knight Ridder. Estimates of how much money has been wasted vary widely, but named sources in all three stories agree the amount was huge.
The reports underscore the continuing costs of the Bush administration’s failure to anticipate security problems after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. In the rush to build up the Iraqi armed forces in the face of the burgeoning insurgency, Iraqi officials, working closely with U.S. advisers, squandered more than $1 billion, Finance Minister Ali Allawi told the Independent. (Ali Allawi should not be confused with the pro-American Ayad Allawi who served as prime minister in 2004 but is no longer in the government.)
"The failure to notice that so much money was being siphoned off at the very least argues a high degree of negligence on the part of US officials and officers in Baghdad," Cockburn wrote.
"Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted on unnecessary and overpriced equipment for Iraq's new army at a time when the US and its allies are struggling to get the force in shape to battle fighters," Aljazeera.net reported Aug. 3.
On Aug. 11, Knight Ridder correspondent Hannah Allam reported that the Iraqi auditors had documented 89 weapons deals concluded in 2004 under U.S.-appointed interim Defense Minister Shaalan. At least, $500 million was wasted, Shaalan’s successor said.
According to the audit cited by Cockburn, the equipment purchased during Shaalan’s tenure included:
Twenty-eight-year-old Soviet-made helicopters purchased in Poland. The manufacturers said the antique choppers should have been scrapped after 25 years of service.
Armored cars "so poorly made that even a bullet from an elderly AK-47 machine-gun could penetrate their armour."
A shipment of what was supposed to be MP5 American machine-guns, costing $3,500 each, which "consisted in reality of Egyptian copies worth only $200 a gun."
Knight Ridder’s Allam reported that Iraqi procurement officials worked closely with up to 20 U.S. advisers at the time of these deals.
Col. John Martin, a deputy to U.S. Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, told Allam that senior American and British advisers warned the interim Iraqi government of "their concerns about the lack of transparency in MoD [Ministry of Defense] procurement, the uncoordinated manner in which MoD procurement was proceeding and the possibility for -- and rumors of -- corruption."
"At the end of the day, however, this was Iraqi money being spent by Iraqi officials of a sovereign country's ministry," Martin added.
Aljazeera.net, the Independent and Knight Ridder all reported that the auditors had found the dubious arms deals were arranged by the ministry's procurement chief, Ziyad Cattan. The three reports said he was fired in May.
Iraqi Defense Ministry procurement chief Ziyad Cattan, on Polish TV in 2004, is under suspicion.
The Polish Embassy in Washington announced last November that Cattan headed an Iraqi team that was negotiating with Polish arms firms for transport and medical helicopters. In December the Polish media reported that an agreement had been reached.
But "when Iraqi experts travelled to Europe to check on the purchase of the transport helicopters, they discovered the aircraft, which cost tens of millions of dollars, were 28-years-old and outdated," Aljazeera.net reported. "They refused to take them and returned home empty-handed. "
The corruption reports, ironically, serve as a measure of vindication of Ahmed Chalabi, a onetime ally of the Bush administration who has faced corruption accusations himself. Last January, Chalabi invoked Shaalan’s ire by charging that the interim government had sent a plane laden with $300 million in U.S. currency to Lebanon to buy arms.
"Where did the money go? What was it used for? Who was it given to?" We don't know," Chalabi said in an interview with the New York Times.
Shalaan responded by announcing Chalabi would be arrested on corruption charges. But the arrest never happened.
As is often the case in Iraqi politics, the Iranian subtext is important. Chalabi, a Shiite, had rehabilitated himself in Iraq by distancing himself from his neoconservative allies in Washington and forging alliance with one of the ascendant Iranian-backed Shiite parties.
At the time Shalaan was denouncing Iran for "meddling in Iraq."
The Iranian press responded that Shaalan had once collaborated with Saddam Hussein. The Mehr News Agency (MNA) in Tehran, citing sources in the holy city of Najaf, said Iraqi Shiite leaders had opposed the U.S. appointment of Shalaan as defense minister because he served as an informant for Hussein’s secret police in the late 1980s and early '90s.
MNA said Iraqi government documents showed Shaalan had delivered reports to Hussein’s security forces on Shiites in Najaf and Karbala that resulted in the interrogation, torture and death of 200 young Iraqi activists.
Shaalan left office early this year and now reportedly lives in Jordan. He denies any wrongdoing. Cattan’s whereabouts are unknown, according to the news reports.
Iraq’s armed forces continues to lack the basic equipment necessary to take over security duties from U.S. troops, and Shiite civilians bear the brunt of insurgent attacks. On Monday, the deputy chief of the the Iraqi National Assembly's Integrity Commission said the country had paid $226 million for the defunct helicopters. Corruption, he said, is "more dangerous than terrorism."
posted by Marko at 9/20/2005 04:19:00 PM
<< Home