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Iraqi Judge Says Maliki’s Government Shields Officials Accused of Corruption
WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 (Reuters) — Widespread corruption in Iraq stretches into the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, an Iraqi investigating judge told United States lawmakers on Thursday, and an American official said that efforts by the United States to combat the problem were inadequate.

Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, who was named by the United States in 2004 to lead the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, said his agency estimated that corruption had cost the Iraqi government up to $18 billion.

Mr. Maliki has shielded relatives from investigation and allowed government ministers to protect implicated employees, said the judge, who left Iraq in August after threats against him. Speaking at a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Judge Radhi said that 31 employees of his agency had been killed.

He said that he did not have evidence against Mr. Maliki personally, but that the prime minister had “protected some of his relatives that were involved in corruption.”

One of these was a former minister of transportation, Judge Radhi said. The American official who testified, Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said he also saw a “rising tide of corruption in Iraq.” He said American efforts to combat it were “disappointing,” lacking funding and focus.

Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who heads the panel, questioned whether the Maliki government was “too corrupt to succeed,” and contended that American efforts to address the problem were in “complete disarray.”

He criticized what he said was State Department resistance to the panel’s investigation. Larry Butler, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, declined to answer questions publicly about whether Mr. Maliki had obstructed corruption investigations, saying he could respond only in a closed session.

Mr. Waxman called that condition “absurd,” but the State Department defended Mr. Butler’s position. Sean McCormack, the department’s spokesman, said that in corruption investigations it was best to handle matters privately at first to protect the rights of those under suspicion.

Judge Radhi said he did not return to Iraq because of threats to his security, but he also suggested that Mr. Maliki was behind efforts to prosecute him if he went back.

In his statement, he said that 31 of his co-workers and 12 of their relatives had been killed because of their work. “This includes my staff member, Mohammed Abd Salif, who was gunned down with his seven-month-pregnant wife,” he said.

The body of the father of another worker was found on a meat hook, he said.

Judge Radhi also said it had been impossible for the commission to investigate oil corruption adequately, contending that it was because Sunni and Shiite militias had control of the distribution of Iraqi oil.

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC 2007-10-05
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=201355