House chairmen chide Rice on Iraq corruption

Four powerful House chairmen sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday, charging that her department has stonewalled probes into corruption in Iraq.

{mosads}The corruption “may be fueling the insurgency, endangering our troops, and undermining the chances for success,” said Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and David Obey (D-Wis.), in the letter.

The quartet also expresses concern over the “refusal of State Department officials to answer questions about the extent of corruption in the government of Iraq.”

The lawmakers cited Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction; Government Accountability Office Comptroller General David Walker; and an Iraq official to support their claim that corruption has added to the woes of the war-torn country.

The chairmen accused Rice’s department of having taken steps “to suppress information about the extent of corruption within the Maliki government.” Examples included asking officials not to answer questions openly on such issues as the quality of Iraqi governance, the ability of the government to tackle corruption and the alleged suppression of probes for political reasons. The lawmakers also said that the department retroactively classified two reports on Iraqi corruption.

“It may be reasonable to classify some information containing allegations about specific individuals in the Iraqi government, but the wholesale and even retroactive classification of all information is wrong and a misuse of the official classification procedures,” the chairmen wrote.

“We urge you to reconsider these misguided directives so that we can work together to find solutions to the corruption that may well be funding attacks on our troops,” the letter said.

Waxman is chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; Skelton chairs the Armed Services Committee; Lantos heads the Committee on Foreign Affairs; and Obey is Appropriations chairman.