‘Oil graft fuels insurgency’

In one example, a member of the Iraqi National Assembly has been indicted in the theft of millions of dollars meant for protecting a critical oil pipeline against attacks and is suspected of funneling that money to the insurgency, said Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, the chairman of Iraq’s Commission on Public Integrity. The indictment has not been made public.

The charges against the Sunni lawmaker Meshaan al-Juburi, are far from the only indication that the insurgency is profiting from Iraq’s oil riches.

On Saturday, the director of an oil storage plant near Kirkuk was arrested with other employees and police officials, and charged with helping to a mortar attack on the plant on Thursday, a Northern Oil Company employee said.

Ali Allawi, Iraq’s finance minister, estimated that insurgents reap 40 to 50 per cent of all oil-smuggling profits in the country. Offering an example of how illicit oil products are kept flowing on the black market, he said the insurgency had infiltrated senior positions at the refinery in Baiji and terrorised truck drivers there. This allows the insurgents to tap the pipeline, empty the trucks and sell the oil or gas.

“It’s gone beyond Nigeria levels now, where it really threatens national security,” Allawi said. “The insurgents are involved at all levels.”

American officials echo that view.

“It’s clear that corruption funds the insurgency, so you have a real threat to the new state,” said an American official involved in anti-corruption efforts.

Not all the corruption is related to the insurgency. But American and Iraqi officials say its scale is so broad as to be a serious threat to Iraq’s economic rebirth.

— The New York Times