SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2007, Issue No. 93
September 19, 2007

Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

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US EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD SEES WIDESPREAD IRAQI CORRUPTION

"Currently, Iraq is not capable of even rudimentary enforcement of anticorruption laws," according to a confidential draft assessment prepared by the United States Embassy in Baghdad.

As a result, corruption has become "the norm in many [Iraqi government] ministries."

"All indications point to corruption as undermining the support of the population for Iraq's government."

The new report presents the detailed findings of an Embassy review of corruption cases in major Iraqi government ministries and the ineffectiveness of the anti-corruption Commission on Public Integrity.

The Maliki government is an enabler of the spreading corruption, the report said.

"The Prime Minister's Office has demonstrated an open hostility to the concept of an independent agency to investigate or prosecute corruption cases."

"The Iraqi Government has been withholding basic support and resources" from the anticorruption Commission.

The 82-page document, which has not been approved for public release, is marked "Sensitive But Unclassified: Not for distribution to personnel outside of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Iraq."

It was first reported by David Corn in The Nation. See "Secret Report: Corruption is 'Norm' Within Iraqi Government," August 30:

A copy of the Embassy report was obtained by Secrecy News and posted today on the Federation of American Scientists web site.

"Corruption is rampant," according to the December 2006 Report of the Iraq Study Group (at page 20). "One senior Iraqi official estimated that official corruption costs Iraq $5 to 7 billion per year."

GUIDELINES ON FBI CONFIDENTIAL SOURCES

Late last year the Attorney General approved revised guidelines for the use of confidential informants by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The guidelines require that confidential human sources be subjected to a new validation process to help ensure that their information is reliable.

The guidelines also generally require that the FBI and prosecutors inform responsible law enforcement authorities if they discover that an FBI source is engaged in "unauthorized criminal activity."

"The FBI does not have any authority to make any promise or commitment that would prevent the government from prosecuting a Confidential Human Source for criminal activity that is not authorized....."

See "Attorney General Guidelines Regarding the Use of FBI Confidential Human Sources," approved December 13, 2006:

The Guidelines were included in voluminous FBI answers to questions for the record of a recently published Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "FBI Oversight," December 6, 2006 (14 MB PDF file):

FAS IS MOVING

Effective Monday, September 24, the new mailing address for the Federation of American Scientists (and Secrecy News) will be:

Telephone numbers and email addresses will be unchanged.

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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.

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