Anti-corruption official in Iraq accused of fraud

[DoYouEverWonder]

November 12, 2006

BAGHDAD — Iraq's top anticorruption watchdog, a high-profile judge whose efforts have been hailed by Americans as one of the few bright spots in the country, is himself the target of a corruption probe, officials said Saturday.

Judge Radhi Radhi, head of Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, is under investigation by court authorities, accused of turning his 1,700-employee agency into a personal fiefdom and padding his salary with an extra $50,000 a year.

Radhi denies the charges, arguing that they're part of a campaign of intimidation by government officials to quash his investigations, which include examinations of corruption in ministries controlled by Iraq's dominant Shiite Muslim parties.

He said he has come under pressure to shut down his commission or cede its independent status. The government has ignored his requests for information, threatened his legal mandate and demanded he halt his investigations, said Radhi, who is a Shiite, but secular.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-corrupt12nov12,1,7036838.story?coll=la-headlines-world

[Eugene]

1. Radhi has made enemies with the dominant parties.

Given the theft of billions of dollars in Iraq, the charges
are almost ludicrously small, cronyism and inefficiency.
It is telling that Parliament wants to take out the anti-
corruption watchdog but has been unable to charter
a new one.

It proposes to remove an official investigating Shiite
militia infiltration of the security forces, a problem
the government has consistently failed to act on.
Interesting.

[HaggardsMethDealer]

2. Cute.

Bush is going to hell for this war.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. He's under the delusion

that Poppy's friends can just waltz in and fix everything for him.

Hate to inform him, but that's not the way things are going to work.

Poppy and his Iran Contra pals should be under indictment along with his Dimson.