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McClatchy Newspapers:

Iraqi insurgents taking cut of U.S. rebuilding money

Iraq's deadly insurgent groups have financed their war against U.S. troops in part with hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. rebuilding funds that they've extorted from Iraqi contractors in Anbar province.

I reported on this back in January:

Yusef: "From Fallujah to the city of Abu Ghraib, the radicals control everything. Gas stations, power, contracts and, believe it or not, contracts with the Americans themselves. The Americans give a contract to someone and the insurgents extort their share. This is how they finance their operations. An oil distribution facility in al-Anbar, believe it or not, half of its production goes to those radicals and to finance insurgency activities. A Fallujah judge doesn't dare to judge someone. He's too scared. He's been threatened and he has no power to protect himself."

INDC: So how did the insurgents take control of these contracts and the city functions?

Yusef: "They don't do the actual work. They come with money. They find the contractor. That contractor is an innocent person, he is not involved with anything and most all of them now, they are from Baghdad. Like there are some Fallujans, they do their contracts in Baghdad because it's too dangerous to be here, so most all contractors (coming to work in Fallujah) come from Baghdad. The contractor gets the contract, he shows up here in Fallujah to do the job. He starts planning, getting equipment. The insurgents find out about him, they show up, and they tell him, 'you know what, either we get a portion of that amount or you are not finishing it.'"

INDC: It's like the mafia in America.

Yusef: "Yes. So what choice does the contractor have? He's going to be killed anyway, so he's going to accept that deal. He's going to finish the contract, take half the money, and give the insurgent the other half."

This is where counterinsurgency gets confusing in Iraq. Corruption is such a cultural standard that "law & order" can only seek to mitigate it and keep resources out of the hands of the insurgency. One marine regarded part of his job as "separating the good-bad guys from the bad-bad guys." And beyond corruption, straight-up robbery and extortion are other persistent destabilizers, sometimes tied to violent insurgents, sometimes not.

Why is this problem so difficult for Americans to address? The Iraqis won't give up the names of the criminals:

INDC: I interviewed a Fallujan [civil servant] and he said the insurgents control most of the contracts in the area - some guy comes here to do a contract, even an American contract. They show up, get supplies together, and insurgents show up and say, "Guess what? You're gonna give us half your money or we're going to kill you." Do you agree that that's happening?

Belshe: "I've seen that actually, with some of our contractors. If they don't pay, they get kidnapped. Right now we have five contractors that have been kidnapped. The weird thing is, usually a ransom comes out right away. With these, there isn't a ransom that's come out, so it's kind of a new tactic that's going through. They're more or less eliminating those that aren't paying (extortion money). Still, no bodies turned up."

INDC: What do you mean eliminating those who won't pay?

Belshe: "Those who refuse to give the money they're supposedly due. Fortunately, we saw this in our own country - in the United States as we were a young country and up-and-coming. You saw the same type of corruption we see. I think it just comes with a growing democratic society - I don't know if you want to put that much of a name on it. At some point, the Fallujan people are gonna have to stand up on their own and tell these people, 'get out. we're done.' You know, (that) they want their freedoms and they're tired of these people operating in their city."

"I tell the contractors that all the time. They're locals. They're the ones, they live out there with their families. Because they always tell us, 'security's bad. Why don't you do anything about it?' At some point we can't handle it because we don't know where they are. 'You guys live out there. You know exactly where they're at. You know who's approaching you for money. We don't know. You won't tell us. At some point, you as a community - you as a Fallujan people - are gonna have to stand up and squeeze them out of your own city. It seems impossible right now, but the day will come when you'll have to do that or nothing will get done in the city.'"

As the local pool of insurgents dry up in Anbar and security continues to improve, I suspect that tips will increase, the nature of this problem will shift somewhat from violent crime to corruption, and a greater portion of the crime will be for its own sake, rather than to fund jihad.

Posted by Bill at August 27, 2007 09:01 AM | TrackBack (0)

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