Arrest Warrants Issued For 1,000 Corrupt Iraqi Officials-- Minister Of Trade In Prison

Iraq isn't the most corrupt country in the world. Somalia, which has no effective national government, is. Iraq is tied with Myanmar at #2. Last week, according to Sabah Saedi, head of Iraq's anti-corruption watchdog, the Commission on Public Integrity, arrest warrants were issued for some 1,000 corrupt officials.

Rule of thumb: where there are bribees, there are bribers. You never hear much about the bribers though. Until he was forced to resign a couple days ago, Abdul Falah Sudani was Iraq's Minister of Trade. Yesterday he tried to flee the country for Dubai and his plane was ordered back to Baghdad. He was promptly arrested. One of his brothers is already in prison and another has vanished, presumably to London, where all these crooked Iraqi politicians wind up (with the millions of dollars they've absconded with). Sudani, a member of the Embezzlement Party Dawa Party, which is also the party of Prime Minister of Nuri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister. Most Iraqi politicians who have been caught stealing have escaped to London and to the U.S. with nice chunks of the $9 billion in U.S. taxpayer money that the Bush Regime shipped into the country that has been unaccounted for.