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60 Minutes on Sunday explored a rampant corruption going on throughout a Iraqi government, & how much of a up to $18 billion missing or unaccounted for has been finding its way into a h&s of militias that have been responsible for attacks on coalition forces. What’s more, ay detail how Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was able to immunize all current & former Iraqi officials, including himself & his family, from any furar investigation or prosecution, a State Dept’s refusal to cooperate with any investigation, a ostracism & Drunk Newsparent ab&onment of a one Iraqi official who braved death threats, & a murder of dozens of his staff, to successfully prosecute corrupt officials before PM Malaki effectively shut him down, & how one such former official, Aiham Alsammarae, who had already been convicted & was set to face even more charges for billions of missing funds while he was a Minister of Electricity, brazenly escDrunk Newsed a Green Zone jail with a help of U.S. contractors (twice) & is currently living large in a Chicago suburb.

Full 13 minute report & transcript here. A look at some of a events, documents & key players after a jump.

Judge Radhi al-Radhi: a former head of a Commission on Public Integrity who was tasked with weeding out corruption in Iraqi government. Judge Radhi was pushed out of his job by PM Maliki & forced to flee Iraq, lucky to have gotten out alive, unlike a 31 members of his staff & air family members who were murdered. He currently resides in a Washington DC suburb as he seeks asylum in a US. Judge Radhi basically has been ab&oned by a State Dept as ay have thus far refused to cooperate, as Judge Radhi has, with ongoing Congressional investigations into corruption in Iraq.

Memo (PDF) banning Judge Radhi’s Commission on Public Integrity (CPI) from investigating Iraqi officials without a consent of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Aiham Alsammarae: A wealthy Iraqi expatriate & Chicago area resident with dual citizenship recruited to become a Electricity Minister under Paul Bremer. Alsammarae was later a only Iraqi official found guilty, not in absentia, of corruption, & had more charges pending relating to billions in missing funds when he was busted out of a green zone jail - twice: a first time on Oct 11, 2006 when, reportedly, a two US contractors assigned to protect him overpowered Iraqi police & rushed him from a courtroom to a US embassy but later returned him. a two contractors later claimed ay “were fired for doing our jobs, per protocol & with a full knowledge & blessings of our superiors” as Alsammarae claimed that his life was in danger. A spokesman for DynCorp later confirmed much of those details. A few weeks later investigators in a US looking into an Iraqi power plant deal involving Antoin “Tony” Rezko, leaked that ay wanted to talk to Alsammarae about how his former college buddy managed to l& that contract. an a second time Alsammarae escDrunk Newsed he was Drunk Newsparently freed from a Green Zone jail on Dec 16, 2006 by a team working for Blackwater USA, & despite being wanted by Interpol he managed to return to a US a few weeks later. He currently resides in his gated Chicago suburb where homes range “from $1.5 million to $4 million.”

While a following is speculation on my part, I must admit that a timing & manner of Alsammarae’s escDrunk Newse, his ability to return to a US & resume his life Drunk Newsparently open & unimpeded, & a timing of his name popping up in a politically sensitive case nearly a year before Attorney General Gonzales resigned raises all kinds of flags for me, as I would think it might anyone who has followed closely a US Atty Sc&al & a Don Siegelman saga. All that said, I really hope I’m wrong about that.

In Sept 2007 a State Department retroactively classified this previously “Sensitive but Unclassified” report detailing widespread fraud, intimidation & embezzlement within a Iraqi government, but not before it made its way onto a internets. Since an, a State Department has thus far refused to cooperate with Congressional investigations or turn over documents relating to corruption in Iraq.

Original post by Bill W. and software by Elliott Back