Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON – The United States has charged a former employee of the U.S. construction giant Halliburton and a Kuwaiti subcontractor with defrauding the U.S. government of millions of dollars in a contract scam in Iraq, one day after an international watchdog group warned that lax oversight was threatening the reconstruction effort there. Two men – … Continue reading “Is Iraq Becoming the World’s Biggest Cash Cow?”

WASHINGTON – The World Bank, an international development institution that says it has no political agenda, may be preparing to fund Israeli security checkpoints around a controversial separation wall under construction on occupied Palestinian territories. Israel is not eligible for World Bank lending because of its high per capita income, but Palestinians are. According to … Continue reading “World Bank and US: Palestinians Should Pay for Israeli Checkpoints”

The U.S.-run administration in Baghdad failed to keep track of nearly $9 billion of money it transferred to various Iraqi ministries, according to an official audit released Sunday. The report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says that the now defunct U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) did not exercise adequate managerial control … Continue reading “Iraq Audit Finds More Fuzzy Math”

U.S. management of the Iraqi economy was plagued by irregularities, corruption, failures, and the mishandling of billions of dollars, according to analysts and multiple recent audits. Sloppy accounting and lax oversight of contracts were routine under the now defunct U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which handled Iraq’s reconstruction funds and left blueprints for the economy … Continue reading “Mishandled Money Plagued US-Ruled Iraq”

Four years of an Israeli military crackdown on a popular Palestinian uprising, based on closures of towns and villages, have left the economy of the occupied territories in tatters and its people facing soaring poverty, the World Bank said Tuesday. Israeli army sieges of Palestinian towns and villages have severely smothered economic activity and restricted … Continue reading “Israeli Closures Crush Palestinian Economy”

Rich nations’ decision to accept a U.S. request and forgive part of Iraq’s debt will help the occupied country but also saddle it with a burdensome economic program that threatens to take decision-making power from Iraqis and put it in the hands of officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), say critics. The Paris Club … Continue reading “Iraq Debt Relief Weighed Down by IMF Burden”

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of the most powerful architects of the world economy and controlled by the planet’s wealthiest nations, marked its return to U.S.-occupied Iraq with a new loan worth $436 million. The IMF Executive Board approved the loan late Wednesday as Emergency Post-Conflict Assistance (EPCA), to the loud praise of the … Continue reading “IMF Delivers Iraq Loan; US Motives Questioned”

Three U.S. senators have called on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to account for $8.8 billion entrusted to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq earlier this year but now gone missing. In a letter Thursday, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota and Tom Harkin of Iowa, all opposition Democrats, demanded … Continue reading “‘Staggering Amount’ of Cash Missing in Iraq”

Hundreds of U.S. military and government officials routinely leave their posts for jobs with private contractors who deal with the government, a process that has eroded the lines between government and the private sector, according to a report released by a watchdog group on Tuesday. “There is a revolving door between the government and large … Continue reading “The Revolving Door Spins Away”

Billions of dollars of Iraqi oil money have gone unaccounted for by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), according to a new report released Monday. The British charity Christian Aid says that at least $20 billion in oil revenues and other Iraqi funds intended to rebuild the country have disappeared from banks administered by the CPA. … Continue reading “Did CPA Take the Money and Run?”