A billion dollars has been plundered from the coffers of Iraq's defense ministry, seriously affecting the government's ability to combat the insurgency, the Independent newspaper reported yesterday, citing the Iraqi finance minister.
"It is possibly one of the largest thefts in history," it quoted finance minister Ali Allawi as saying.
Most of the money was "siphoned abroad in cash and has disappeared" to finance the purchase of arms in Poland and Pakistan, according to the report. But rather than purchasing state-of-the-art weaponry Iraq had procured "museum-piece weapons," the Independent said.
The paper listed a series of problems with the arms purchased, including armored cars which "turned out to be so poorly made that even a bullet from an elderly AK-47 machine-gun could penetrate their armor." Other armored cars reportedly leaked so much oil that they had to be abandoned.
A shipment of the latest MP5 American machine-guns turned out to be Egyptian copies worth a fraction of the price.
"Many Iraqi soldiers and police have died because they were not properly equipped," it added.
The rip-offs were so huge, it said, that Baghdad officials estimate the Iraqis involved "were only front men and `rogue elements' within the US military and intelligence services may have played a decisive role behind the scenes."
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has been informed of the problem, "but the extent of the losses has become apparent only gradually. The sum missing was first reported as US$300 million dollars and then US$500 million dollars, but in fact it is at least twice as large," the paper said.
"It is nearly 100 percent of the ministry's procurement budget that has gone AWOL [absent without leave]," Allawi said, adding a further US$500-600 million dollars has allegedly disappeared from the electricity, transport, interior and other ministries.
"This helps to explain why the supply of electricity in Baghdad has been so poor since the fall of [former Iraqi president] Saddam Hussein 29 months ago, despite claims by the US and subsequent Iraqi governments that they are doing everything to improve power generation."
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
RSS