Monday, November 17, 2008

Last chance to stuff your luggage home with those Footballs of cash...

Quick, before the new Boss is sworn in!

The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is systematically dismissing oversight officials who were installed to fight corruption in Iraqi ministries by order of the American occupation administration, which had hoped to bring Western standards of accountability to the notoriously opaque and graft-ridden bureaucracy here.

The dismissals, which were confirmed by senior Iraqi and American government officials on Sunday and Monday, come as estimates of official Iraqi corruption soar. One Iraqi former chief investigator recently testified before Congress that $13 billion in reconstruction funds from the United States has been lost to fraud, embezzlement, theft and waste by Iraqi government officials.

My only question is one of grammar. Is Maliki dismissing the Oversight Officials by order of us Americans, or were the Oversight Officials installed at the order of us Americans? I confess that I'm a little lost.

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