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May 12th,
2008 - Ex-State Officials Allege Corruption Cover Up |
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Ex-State Officials
Allege Corruption Cover Up By Anne Flaherty Associated Press May 12, 2008 Washington - The Bush
administration repeatedly ignored corruption at the highest levels within the
Iraqi government and kept secret potentially embarrassing information so as
not to undermine its relationship with Baghdad, according two former State
Department employees. Arthur Brennan, who briefly
served in Baghdad as head of the department's Office of Accountability and
Transparency last year, and James Mattil, who worked as the chief of staff,
told Senate Democrats on Monday that their office was understaffed and its
warnings and recommendations ignored. Brennan also alleges that
the State Department prevented a congressional staffer visiting Baghdad from
talking with staffers by insisting they were too busy. In reality, Brennan
said, the staffers were watching movies at the embassy and on their
computers. The staffers' workload had been cut dramatically because of Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "evisceration" of Iraq's top
anti-corruption office, he said. The State Department's
policies "not only contradicted the anti-corruption mission but
indirectly contributed to and has allowed corruption to fester at the highest
levels of the Iraqi government," Brennan told the Senate Democratic
Policy Committee. The U.S. embassy
"effort against corruption - including its new centerpiece, the
now-defunct Office of Accountability and Transparency - was little more than
'window dressing,' " he added. The U.S.-led Office of
Accountability and Transparency, or "OAT" team, was intended to
provide assistance and training to Iraq's anti-corruption agencies. It was
dismantled last December, after it alleged in a draft report leaked to the
media that al-Maliki's office had derailed or prevented investigations into
Shiite-controlled agencies. The draft report sparked
hearings in Congress and prompted a showdown between Democrats and senior
State Department officials on whether the public has a right to know the
extent to which al-Maliki was involved in corruption cases. James Mattil, who worked
with Brennan, also said the U.S. "remained silent in the face of an
unrelenting campaign" by senior Iraqi officials to subvert Baghdad's
Commission on Public Integrity. Then, the U.S. turned its back on Iraqis who
fled to the United States after being threatened for pursuing anti-corruption
cases. "Since we have done so
little (to undercut corruption), it's easy to see why the government of Iraq
has not done more," said Mattil, who left the accountability office last
October after having served for a year as its chief of staff. "We have
demanded no better." Brennan was appointed as OAT
director last summer and arrived in Baghdad in July. He left only a few weeks
later after his wife was diagnosed with cancer. He stepped down from his
position in August. The State Department did not
immediately provide comment. Copyright © 2008 The
Associated Press. External link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j9F8l8tbzv0Q3FWDokz-0PxKHvugD90K8SR83 |