Corruption in America not as visible, but is disgusting

"The U.S. was one of 29 countries out of a 31-nation sample to score below 60 on a 100-point scale on questions regarding the enforcement of political finance laws, regardless of how strong or weak the country’s regulations were, according to the new report."

 We're tied with Tajikistan! And then there's this:

Corruption in Iraq is visible and disgusting

'The manager of one of the conference hotels said the summit reeked of corruption. The hotel he oversaw had cost more than $20 million to renovate, but there was no way all that money had gone into the project, he said, pointing out the many imperfections. He said his company could've built an 800-room deluxe hotel in Dubai for that price.

"So where did all the money go? In the bellies!" he said with a laugh, patting his midsection for emphasis.

On social media platforms, Iraqi leaders were ripped as tasteless for serving VIP guests a dessert of dates dipped in 24-karat gold in a war-ravaged country where thousands of women were forced to sell off their gold to pay their husbands' and sons' kidnap ransoms.'

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/05/2733854_p2/iraq-unstable-sectarian-with-signs.html#storylink=cpy

Economist's interactive "shoe thrower's" index

This is really cool. The higher you rate corruption as an indicator weight, the higher Iraq moves up on the unrest index.



Thanks Fareed Zakaria for posting on fb.

PS: If you set the democracy weight at 90%, Saudi Arabia ranks highest on the index.

Corporation's allegiance is to profits

not flags or morals. I'm watching The Corporation, an excellent documentary. Watch the clip below. I did not know about IBM's business with the Nazis and the Holocaust until I saw this.



In the 1980s, multi-national corporations sold weapons to Saddam.

Suddenly Iraqi journalists have perks

'Another success for the government in tamping down the protests has been its management of the media. In the months running up to the demonstrations, the government has given Iraqi journalists gifts including plots of land, low-interest loans for car purchases and cash handouts, all of them officially sanctioned and distributed under the auspices of the journalists' union.

Sabah Khadim Hamza, office director at the journalist's syndicate, was adamant the land allocations and car loans were not bribes, but instead perks the union had struggled to get for its members. "Many government employees in the ministries enjoy such benefits and we wanted to win them for hard-working journalists," he said. "It does not mean reporters will stop being independent." '

Lobbyists for Arab kings and dictators

should take a hike.

NYT: 'For years, they have been one of the most formidable lobbying forces in town: the elite band of former members of Congress, former diplomats and power brokers who have helped Middle Eastern nations navigate diplomatic waters here on delicate issues like arms deals, terrorism, oil and trade restrictions.

Just last year, three of the biggest names in the lobbying club — Tony Podesta, Robert L. Livingston and Toby Moffett — pulled off a coup for one of their clients, Egypt. They met with dozens of lawmakers and helped stall a Senate bill that called on Egypt to curtail human rights abuses. Ultimately, those abuses helped bring the government down.

Mr. Moffett, a former congressman from Connecticut, told his old colleagues that the bill “would be viewed as an insult” by an important ally. “We were just saying to them, ‘Don’t do this now to our friends in Egypt,’ ” he recounted.'

PS: The Angry Arab rightly notes "Notice that NYT did not say a word about Israeli expenditure on lobbying in the US"

Even Iraq's Kurds are sick of corruption

"There is no justice in the Kurdistan region. Most of the politicians have accumulated huge wealth due to the corruption," said one of the protesters, 25-year-old Hindrin Jabar, an unemployed college graduate. "The government keeps giving false promises with no action."

Corruption in Iraq is endemic

Iraqis protest corruption & lack of public services

"Several hundred Iraqi activists marked Valentine's Day with a protest for better services and governance in Baghdad on Monday, the latest in a series of small demonstrations across Iraq inspired by protester-driven upheavals in Egypt and Tunisia.

While most protesters here aren't aiming to topple the government – one that Iraqis voted for, despite its imperfections – they continue to complain of chronic corruption and lack of services."

Iraqis not happy with their democracy

"The circumstances in Egypt and Tunisia are very different from those in Iraq. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled by a foreign army, not a popular revolt, and the deep sectarian divide that triggered widespread internecine bloodshed in the wake of his fall persists, precluding the emergence of a unifying Iraqi point of view.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is beginning his second four-year term after elections judged largely free by the United Nations, in which multiple parties and a clear majority of the electorate participated.

Yet all the ills that provoked Egyptians and Tunisians to take to the streets are thriving in Iraq, too, demonstrating that it is possible to have both democracy and human rights abuses, an elected government and chronic corruption, and constitutional guarantees of freedom alongside intimidation and fear."

Arab "Shoe-Thrower's" Index

A strange name for an index of unrest in the Arab world, as if all Arabs throw their shoes in protest. Still an interesting article in The Economist, along with a graph of indexes of instability in Arab nations. It shows Yemen and Libya as more unstable than Egypt. I was surprised to see Oman right after Iraq on the list.

The article mentions that "Some factors are hard to put a number on and are therefore discounted. For instance, dissent is harder in countries with a very repressive secret police (like Libya). The data on unemployment were too spotty to be comparable and so this important factor is discounted too. We took out the Comoros and Djibouti, which do not have a great deal in common with the rest of the group, and removed the Palestinian territories, Sudan and Somalia for lack of data. The chart below is the result of ascribing a weighting of 35% for the share of the population that is under 25; 15% for the number of years the government has been in power; 15% for both corruption and lack of democracy as measured by existing indices; 10% for GDP per person; 5% for an index of censorship and 5% for the absolute number of people younger than 25."

Iraq's security at risk without more US aid

"Without more help — and quickly — Iraqi security forces may not be able to protect the fragile nation from insurgents and invaders after American troops leave at the end of the year, according to a U.S. report released Sunday.

The semiannual report by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction also cites data by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad showing that the nation's government, economy, legal systems and basic services like electricity and water remain unstable.

The 156-page report forecasts a dim outlook at best for Iraq's near future as the United States steps back after nearly eight years of war and billions of dollars in aid.

It largely blames corruption in Iraq's military and police forces for wasted resources and bad planning in running its bases and maintaining its equipment. Congress is still weighing how much money to give Iraqi forces this year."

Uprising in Tunisia

NYT: "This ancient Mediterranean hamlet, advertised as the Tunisian Saint Tropez, has long been the favorite summer getaway of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his large extended family, many of whom have built vast beachfront mansions here with the wealth they have amassed during his years in power.

But their new and conspicuous riches, partly exposed in a detailed cable by the American ambassador and made public by Wikileaks, have fueled an extraordinary extended uprising by Tunisians who blame corruption among the elite for the joblessness afflicting their country. And on Thursday idyllic Hammamet became the latest casualty of that rage, as hundreds of protesters swarmed the streets, police fled and rioters gleefully ransacked the mansion of a presidential relative, liberating a horse from its stable and setting aflame a pair of all-terrain vehicles.

That outburst was just a chapter in the deadly violence that flared around the country and in Tunis again on Thursday, making the government appear increasingly shaky. The mounting protests threaten not only to overturn a close United States ally in the fight against terrorism but also to pull back the veneer of tranquil stability that draws legions of Western tourists to Tunisia’s coastal resorts."

AT&T gives money to Tea Party

I just learned from this website that AT&T has given $377,500 to members of the House Tea Party Caucus. That's disgusting. I would not be as outraged if I were not a customer of AT&T. I give money to AT&T and AT&T gives money to Michelle Bachman. OMG! WTF?!

Unfortunately I'm stuck with AT&T wireless for another year. As soon as the contract expires, I'll be switching to another company, maybe to CREDO mobile. I discovered CREDO by reading this article: "After Giffords shooting, Credo Mobile issues petition against Sarah Palin's gun crosshairs".

Mugged by Iraq's reality

"The shipment of computer laptops that arrived in Iraq's main seaport in February was a small but important part of the U.S. military's mission in Iraq to win hearts and minds. What happened afterward is a tale of good intentions mugged by Iraq's reality.

The computers — 8,080 in all, worth $1.8 million — were bought for schoolchildren in Babil, modern-day Babylon, a gift of U.S. taxpayers. Only they became mired for months in customs at the port, Umm Qasr, stalled by bureaucracy or venality, or some combination of the two. And then they were gone.

Corruption is so rampant in Iraq — and U.S. reconstruction efforts so replete with their own mismanagement — that the fate of the computers could have ended as an anecdote in a familiar, if disturbing trend. Iraq ranks above only Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Somalia on Transparency International's annual corruption index."

Total bribed Saddam

"A French judge has charged Total SA (TOT) with bribery in connection with the oil major's involvement in the United Nations' Oil-for-Food program in Iraq during the late 1990s and early 2000s, company lawyer Jean Veil said Tuesday, confirming a statement in the group's annual report."

Corruption still plagues Iraq

Richard Engel is an excellent journalist, but his latest blog post seems to be incomplete in places and he claims that Iraq's political parties are sectarian and unpopular. If they are unpopular, why did so many Iraqis vote for them?

The third war (2004-2006): The Sunni insurgency. Sunnis favored under Saddam’s government were increasingly ostracized and isolated – basically punished by Shiite political parties. Iran’s influence grew dramatically. Al-Qaida militants moved in to western Iraq to incite [sectarian violence?] and help fellow Sunni Arabs fight the U.S.-backed Shiite government.

The fourth war (2006-2007): The Shiites hit back. Al-Qaida-led Sunni insurgents carried out so many atrocities that Shiite militias, some backed by the government, started to fight back. A civil war erupted and bodies piled up in hospital morgues. Neighborhoods were ethnically cleansed. Two to three thousand Iraqis were killed every month. Between 2 and 3 million Iraqis fled their homes, many left the country.

The fifth war (2007-2008): The American "surge." The U.S. military changed its strategy and added extra troops. The United States stopped the civil war.

The sixth war (2008-today): The war of corruption. Iraq’s political parties used the relative stability created by the surge to enrich and empower themselves, stealing from government projects big and small. Iraq is now considered one of the most corrupt nations on earth. The political parties, still mostly based on sectarian lines, are unpopular among most Iraqis.

....

Life for regular Iraqis

I am often asked about the lives of average Iraqis. Have conditions improved? It depends on what you use as a starting point.

Are Iraqis happier, richer and freer than they were under Saddam Hussein? Undoubtedly they are.

Are they better off today than two years ago when Sunnis and Shiite death squads were slitting throats in the street? Certainly, the answer is yes.

But do Iraqis have a stable government that people in Baghdad believe will bring them out of what has been a dark and tumultuous period? Not yet.

I like Engel's honesty. He acknowledges that Iraqis are happier, richer, and freer than they were under Saddam, but he also emphasizes the corruption and incompetence of the current government. I also appreciate his acknowledgment that Sunni insurgents committed many atrocities before Shiite militias hit back. This is something that Arabs and America-hating leftists are unwilling to do.

US Senators laud Iraq for joining transparency group

'US Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) and Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) expressed their strong support for Iraq’s commitment to make its oil and gas industry more transparent following Iraq’s Jan. 11 announcement that it plans to become an Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative candidate country.

EITI is an international coalition of governments, companies, and others that promotes good governance through publication of oil, gas, and mining revenues, the two Senate Foreign Relations Committee members noted on Jan. 12.

“Corruption remains a significant problem in Iraq,” said Lugar, the committee’s ranking minority member. “As oil and gas is the single largest source of revenue [there], it is important that the revenue generated benefit the people of Iraq and not just a handful of businessmen and officials. By committing to implement EITI, Iraq is creating a foundation for good governance in a sector critical to Iraq’s future stability.”

Cardin said, “This is a significant step toward a greater future for Iraq.” The senator also has promoted EITI as chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, more commonly known as the US-Helsinki Commission.'

Corruption in America

E-mails reveal Fed told AIG to keep quiet over bailout

Further damaging revelations about the US Government’s controversial rescue in 2008 of the insurer American International Group (AIG), suggest that the Federal Bank of New York, then headed by Tim Geithner, was behind a cover up.

Isn't this the same guy who forgot to pay his taxes? Is he an example of corruption? Shouldn't this man be fired by now?

Corruption in Iraq leads to terrorism

'Our country is now ranked by the global corruption monitor, Transparency International, as the third most corrupt in the world - and sadly for all of us this is not a statistic - It is a fact of life!

Our security is undermined because checkpoint guards are bribed. Our electoral commission is corrupted because the sects divide up offices of power amongst themselves so that their will, rather than the people’s, is ensured.

If you want a job to feed your family and have a roof over your head then you are expected to pay cash for the privilege of a government post. People in desperation feel that they have no alternative than to give corrupt officials a bribe.

People even have to pay to have their garbage collected. If they don’t pay they risk having garbage pile up in the streets. What sort of life is this for our families?

The corruption can be seen at every level of our society. At the highest level we have seen ministers of this government personally profit to the tune of millions of dollars. Funds meant for much needed electricity and water services are siphoned off and used to benefit ministers and their cronies and families.

Billions of dollars provided by countries that want to help our people are wasted or worse still stolen. Yet our current politicians and parties do nothing to deal with these problems because they are the very reason for them. We must have change. And we need bold change and an end to the cosy deals between sects and the current politicians who have brought our country to this.'