Iraq's Transnational Crime Fueled Guerrillas

There's a good article in the New York Times today (5 Feb): "Oil Graft Fuels the Insurgency, Iraq and US Say." by Robert Worth and James Glanz.

Here are some excerpts that should be familiar to GG readers:

Ali Allawi, Iraq's finance minister, estimated that insurgents reap 40 percent to 50 percent of all oil-smuggling profits in the country. Offering an example of how illicit oil products are kept flowing on the black market, he said that the insurgency had infiltrated senior management positions at the major northern refinery in Baiji and routinely terrorized truck drivers there. This allows the insurgents and their confederates to tap the pipeline, empty the trucks and sell the oil or gas themselves. "It's gone beyond Nigeria levels now where it really threatens national security," Mr. Allawi said of the oil industry. "The insurgents are involved at all levels."

Senior officials in Iraq's Oil Ministry have been repeatedly cited in the Iraqi press as complaining about what they call an "oil smuggling mafia" that not only siphons profits from the oil industry but also is said to control the allocation of administrative posts in the ministry. The former oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum, told the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat late last year that "oil and fuel smuggling networks have grown into a dangerous mafia threatening the lives of those in charge of fighting corruption," according to a translation by the BBC.

Comments

[BillSaysThis]

If these people are known to the government ("he said that the insurgency had infiltrated senior management positions at the major northern refinery in Baiji") then why are they left in place? Though this sounds naive to me its a reasonable question.

[dennis]

Hmmm....Remember when the administration was saying that Iraqi oil would for our war? Whoda thunk it'd pay for the other side instead...

[Stan Krute]

Hi John

When I saw this article in the Times,
I thought about how a reporter looking
for hot story topics would just have to
read your blog. You've been way out in
front on this sort of thing for a while.
Thanks for shining the lights.

-- stan

[John Robb]

Thanks Stan.