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 The Second InsurgencyPosted on Aug 18, 2008
By Anna Badkhen BAGHDAD—Every morning for a year and a half, Tariq Razzaq has been coming to the decrepit entrance of a neighborhood maintenance office in southern Baghdad with a single goal in mind: to get a job. Every morning, the office employees turn him down. It’s not that Razzaq, a 29-year-old former soldier in Saddam Hussein’s army, isn’t willing to do the lowest-paid manual labor: On a rare good day, the maintenance office asks Razzaq to perform one-time jobs cleaning trash and war debris out of gutters. It’s that he doesn’t have the money to bribe his way into a job. “It’s simple: To find a steady job you need to have connections, or pay cash,” explains Razzaq, who spends most days with a group of other unemployed men loitering in the shadow of the maintenance office parking lot, hoping that someone will ask him to pump up his tires or wash his car. The other unemployed Iraqis nod emphatically in agreement. By the end of this year, Iraq could have a $79-billion budget surplus, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. This sudden influx of petrodollars coincides with a dramatic decrease in violence, creating perfect conditions for Iraq to rebuild its war-ravaged infrastructure, health-care and education systems. But the government has spent only a fraction of its budget, and that means that in addition to an excruciatingly slow pace of rebuilding Iraq, job creation has been minimal. As many as half of all adult Iraqis are unemployed, economists here and in the U.S. estimate, making employment one of the highest-valued commodities in Iraq, on par with electricity and running water. This shortage of jobs, superimposed on a tradition of using personal connections to do business, has led to what Iraqis complain is an explosion in corruption and graft among their nation’s officials. Corruption is so widespread that the U.S. inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, called it the “second insurgency” in a recent interview with Cox newspapers. “If you don’t have money to pay bribes, you can’t get a job,” says Ahmed Ahmed, 24, who has not been able to find a steady work since he graduated from Baghdad Technological College with a degree in mechanical engineering two years ago. “I’d drive a garbage truck; I’d do anything,” says Ahmed, who gets by washing cars and changing flat tires and makes about $3 a day. He has to rely on his father, a government contractor who makes about $250 a month, to pay his monthly rent of $150 for his one-room apartment. Iraqi officials here say they are aware of corruption and extortion—particularly when it comes to finding jobs in Iraq’s fledgling security forces, which pay more than $500 a month. Iraqi police Capt. Ali al-Shimeri, for example, recently said that recruits paying bribes or using family connections to join the police is “the reality.” “I’ve heard that it’s very hard to get hired in security forces here in Baghdad,” says Lt. Col. Johnnie Johnson, who commands the 4-64 Infantry Battalion of the 4th Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, which patrols a section of the Rashid district in southern Baghdad. “The system of hiring and betting is not very good right now in Iraq.” Extortion by officials does not stop at the hiring process, Iraqis say. Some Iraqi contractors complain that they have to pay staggering bribes to officials on various levels—from local police patrolmen to high-ranking ministry officials—in order to complete projects for which they were hired by American forces. “I need to pay two or three bribes for each project,” says Muthana Ghazi, 29, an engineer and translator who works for the Jasmine Flower for General Contracts, an Iraqi company that U.S. military has hired to do several projects in Baghdad’s Dora neighborhood. “If it’s a school, to the Ministry of Education. If it’s a clinic, to the Ministry of Health. If I don’t pay, they will write a bad report for what I did and not accept my final product. “The first question they ask when you tell them you’re working on a project is how much your project is worth,” he said. For example, when he did a $143,000 project to refurbish a local library, he had to pay $18,000 in bribes to various Iraqi officials, Ghazi said. Such widespread corruption creates a threat that sectarian militias can bribe their way into Iraqi ministries and Iraqi security forces—or bribe them to look the other way, said one U.S. Army translator, who asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak on the record. “If police officers take bribes from recruits,” said the translator, “what will stop them from taking bribes from insurgents who want to place a bomb?” 
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By yellowbird2525, August 19, 2008 at 10:42 pm #
speaking of graft & corruption; go to yahoo news; & in the archives search corruption in iraq; in the midst of many counselors is wisdom found: alas it is now a free fraud zone: fraud for the people set up with bribes & flattery; who are told they can give $ to all friends, family etc; commit any/all crimes & never have to pay; after all, done in the USA every single day; the Pentagon, congress, & Corps sit down to deliberately preplan years in advance premeditated, cold hearted murder, & torture, of their own citizens, as well as other countries; until americans can SEE with EYES of UNDERSTANDING that Bush Sr tried to get Nau, & Nafta thru (rep); Clinton (dem) DID get it thru; Bush jr (rep) signed treaty to allow Mexican troops into USA & Canada troops in; in cases of civil unrest; heads of states there also bribed, & told the same; it is DICTATORSHIP folks: masquerading as “choice” claiming democracy which it is NOT; democracy means run by the WILL of the PEOPLE; this is NOT; we NEVER okayed Congress to bill the people for taxes instead of profits from Big Business; we NEVER voted for poisoning & exploitation to the maximum degree for the profit of a few at the expense of many; we NEVER voted or wanted torture, and training of torturers to any country; Big difference between Gov & people; the PEOPLE need to WAKE UP & get a new system in this country FAST! Environmentalists & folks that object to things like “birdflu” being released to kill millions; http://www.naturalnews.com will give you info on how to survive this as all OUR Gov does is HARM the people not HELP them: of THIS or any other country!
Report thisBy 911truthdotorg, August 19, 2008 at 6:57 pm #
Speaking of corruption and graft…...
NIST comes out with their explanation as to why the WTC7 building collapsed on 9/11 after being hit by NOTHING!
I wonder what kind of fairy tale they made up to finally explain WTC7.
It only took them 7 YEARS, for God’s sake!
Should be interesting.
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/calmed/wtc_081808.html
Report thisBy Fadel Abdallah, August 19, 2008 at 4:13 pm #
I was living and working in Saudi Arabia in the late 1970’s, and I had a chance to visit Iraq several times. I found that Iraq was not only very prosperous, but it was very secularly oriented. Every young man graduating from high school would receive free education in universities. And those who excelled were sent on scholarships to do graduate work in certain fields abroad, including the U.S. Iraq at that time was offering free college education, not only to its citizens, but to many poor and disadvantaged young men from other Arab countries, such as Jordan, Palestine, Yemen, etc. Iraq at that time looked to have the potential of reviving the Arab-Muslim civilization of the 8-12 centuries. True Saddam Hussein was a strong man governing with an iron hand, however, he was a benevolent nationalistic leader who was appreciated by the majority of Iraqis, if not loved, American propaganda not withstanding!
The enemies of Arabs and Muslims were determined to prevent this from happing. And I say this to let enlightened observers know that the destruction of Iraq was long in the making, long before 9/11.
The same thing was done to Egypt earlier in the 1950-1970, when the late Jamal Abde-Nasir (the beloved nationalist leader) has embarked on great projects of development and industrialization and, more importantly, on working towards creating a United Arab States. Again, Israel, Britain and France wanted to make sure that this would not happen, so they attacked Egypt in what is known the Suiz Canal War of 1956. The irony of this is that America stood against this trio-imperialistic attack, but later on they took the role of hostility and plotting against Egypt. This is a long history to which I was a witness. And I highlight some aspects of it here for free-thinking Americans who might still be wondering while the Arab-Muslim world do not trust political-military America! Political-military America looks at the Arab-Muslim world only as a market, and they would do anything to arrest national development and industrialization, so this area will continue to serve as markets for U.S. military products.
As to the so-called 79-billion Iraqi surplus, there are two points I would like to make in regard to that. One, this money is almost frozen in American banks, and is totally controlled by the American government. The Iraqi puppet government cannot use this money as it perceives suitable. Two, this money is already earmarked for selling Iraq billions of dollars worth of American weaponry. In fact, just today CNN had a short story on these weapons for Iraq and the first installment was estimated at several billion dollars. I imagined tomorrow, CNN will be scolded for divulging so-called “national security” information and they will be pressured not mention this again!
Report thisBy yellowbird2525, August 19, 2008 at 3:04 pm #
at 1st they welcomed us; then they saw & said we were a dictatorship thousands of times worse than Saddam Hussain; while he was bad, this is far worse & they wished he were alive again & they were under him; unfortunately most Americans are BLIND & misled, & cannot PERCEIVE that in 1996 under Clinton (dem) THIS was already planned to go into effect; & did & was carried out under BUSH a Rep; nor can they understand that our country has NEVER been run “for the people” as it was originally intended to be; the fraud & corruption at the TOP OFFICIALS was taught them very well by OURS with the SAME CORPS who bed with them; to profit AGAINST the people; the people get nothing; they get it all; running around the world like the NAU: bribing top officials & claiming “We have gotten away with it in USA for years”; when will ignorant Americans WAKE UP!!!!
Report thisBy msgmi, August 19, 2008 at 2:17 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
The neoCONs have no plans to reconstruct as was the case with the Marshall Plan. Their goals are for regime change with hope for the best; and who cares about the displaced, disposessed, and disenfranchised. Regime change is foremost and human suffering takes a back seat. They are chickenhawks of pure pedigree.
Report thisBy Kwaayesnama, August 19, 2008 at 10:30 am #
You mean they are not happy that we invaded their country to look for weapons of mass destruction?
I thought that we would be greeted with open arms.
Iraqi oil is paying for this needless war isnt it?
Report thisAfter all Sedam Hussein was responsible for 9-11, wasnt he?
By GW=MCHammered, August 19, 2008 at 6:39 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Anybody else feel that a neocon playbook burning is in perfect order? Fahrenheit 911. What a human disaster.
Report thisBy Fadel Abdallah, August 19, 2008 at 6:25 am #
To TD Technicians:
Report thisSomething is wrong with the last patch of posted articles. All of a sudden the articles are cut off half way. Please fix this problem!
By Big B, August 19, 2008 at 5:26 am #
It’s nice to see our benefactors in Iraq are following the US/capitalism model, that is, do business with your own kind, and to hell with everybody else. Keep your neighbors children hungry so that you have to start welfare programs to keep them from stealing from you, giving you one more reason to hold them in contempt. But hey, that’s our system, Capitalistic Feudalism. It’s worked for us for 200 years.
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