Rice calls corruption in Iraq ‘pervasive’

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice fought off tough questions from House Democrats Thursday over charges that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had issued an edict protecting top ministers, including a cousin, from corruption investigations.

{mosads}House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who has held numerous Iraq-related hearings, raised claims that Maliki had issued a decree in April that no one in the top levels of the Iraqi government — including the presidential office, council of ministers and current and previous ministers — could be investigated for corruption without his approval.

At a hearing before the panel in early October, the former head of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, testified that al-Maliki had protected family members from corruption investigations, including Salam al-Maliki, Iraq’s former transportation minister and the prime minister’s cousin.

Al-Radhi resigned last month and fled Iraq after he and his family were attacked and 31 of his anti-corruption employees were killed. He said corruption has affected “virtually every agency and ministry, including some of the most powerful officials in Iraq.”

Despite the incendiary charges, Rice remained calm and conceded that corruption was “a pervasive problem” in Iraq.

“There’s a problem in the ministries, there is a problem in the government, there are problems with officials,” she said. “It is our job to put in place anti-corruption efforts, to help the Iraqis do so themselves.”

She deflected questions about specific cases by refusing to respond directly. Instead, she repeated a blanket statement that U.S. officials took all allegations of corruption in Iraq seriously and pledged to review the cases.

“To assault the prime minister of Iraq or anyone else in Iraq with here to date unsubstantiated allegations or lack of corroboration, in a setting that would simply fuel those allegations, I think, would be deeply damaging,” she said.

Rice also said she didn’t want to discuss specific corruption charges because she was concerned about revealing intelligence sources in Iraq, although she offered to provide testimony and documents to the panel in closed session.

Waxman rejected the offer, arguing that he couldn’t make anything that occurs in closed session available to the public, since to do so would contradict his view of congressional oversight.

The hearing occurred three days after the White House asked Congress for another $196 billion in funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At times during the hearing, Democrats couldn’t contain their anger over the various corruption cases in the news, as well as a number of alarming incidents in which Blackwater USA contractors killed Iraqis.

“Our kids are on the ground now … in that country fighting and dying,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.). “And we want to know, as appropriators, whether it’s a good idea to send $196 billion to a country where the government has severe corruption.”

Republicans responded by defending Rice and arguing that Democrats were turning to corruption as a way to attack the war because the troop surge is improving security.

At one point, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) turned the tables on the Democrats.

“We here can’t work together to decide how we deal with Iraq, yet we lecture Maliki on why can’t he get his act together,” said Shays.
Rice responded by noting that the Iraqi Congress passed a budget this year.

“We haven’t done one here yet,” Shays interjected.

“That’s my understanding, Congressman,” Rice responded.