Audit: Corruption in Iraq a 'Pandemic'

[sabra]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5987656,00.html

Audit: Corruption in Iraq a 'Pandemic'

WASHINGTON (AP) - Corruption is ``a virtual pandemic in Iraq,'' threatening rebuilding efforts, international aid and citizen confidence needed for a fledgling democracy, a government report said Tuesday.

One Iraqi official has estimated that corruption costs the country $4 billion annually. A recent survey indicated a third of Iraqis polled had paid a bribe to get products or services in the past 12 months and that they had a ``core mistrust'' of the army and police.

The details are cited in the quarterly report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

``Unless reforms are put in place, corruption may jeopardize the political stability of the new government,'' said an audit included in the report.

[Karenina]

1. NO!!! It can't be true!!!

The oil revenues will pay for the invasion! :sarcasm:

[Sherman A1]

2. Shocked, Shocked!

Corruption in the * run government? Could it be true?

[tanyev]

3. Al Franken was playing a clip today of some neocon mouthpiece

saying before the war that it would only cost us 1.7 billion for reconstruction. Yeah, right.

[PurityOfEssence]

4. Take the previous regime, add our bribe culture, and what do you expect?

Totalitarian systems are riddled with shady deals and greasy gangsterism, so they all have a long history of maneuvering outside of the law. Then again, our system has always been little more than well choreographed criminality and it's been amplified by the monarchists who hold sway now and prey upon us all.

Hell, these primitive backbiters are pikers in comparison to us: we've perfected the art of ugly domination and shakedowns. Given the confluence of the two systems, a new form of sophisticated pillage is to be expected.

Our boys and theirs just laugh at the bundles of hundreds and the contracts agreed upon without any review. The howling of laughter is only drowned out by the rivers of blood.

The beat goes on.