Jihad Watch: Corrupt Iraqi officials are pocketing the pay of thousands of "ghost" policemen and soldiers who exist only on paper

June 14, 2007

Corrupt Iraqi officials are pocketing the pay of thousands of "ghost" policemen and soldiers who exist only on paper

Corrupt officials ain't what they used to be

Captain Renault: This is the end of the chase.
Rick: Twenty thousand francs says it isn't.
Captain Renault: Is that a serious offer?
Rick: I just paid out twenty. I'd like to get it back.
Captain Renault: Make it ten. I'm only a poor corrupt official.

In Iraq, evidently, the corrupt officials are anything but poor.

From "Human rights laws ‘apply to Iraq death,’" by Michael Settle for The Herald:

Meanwhile, corrupt Iraqi officials are pocketing the pay of thousands of "ghost" policemen and soldiers who exist only on paper, a senior US officer claimed yesterday.
Lieutenant-General Martin Dempsey, who until recently headed coalition military training teams in Iraq, said the payroll scam went as high as the governors of the Shi'ite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.

The general estimated up to 20% of the declared security force manpower in the two cities were part of the "ghost army" providing senior officials with a second income or retirement nest-egg.

But it also meant, when Iraqi units were mobilised for active duty, average turnout was 50% of their declared strength.

"Iraqi army rolls are also inflated by soldiers who have been severely wounded but are still being paid because the government lacks funds and a system for retiring them on a pension," General Dempsey added. "Units which showed up in Baghdad at half strength for 90-day rotations left US officers angered by the poor turnout."

Posted by Robert at June 14, 2007 8:31 AM
Print this entry | Email this entry | Digg this | del.icio.us |

Comments
(Note: The Comments section is provided in the interests of free speech only. It is mostly unmoderated, but comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying stand a chance of being deleted. The fact that any comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch, or by Robert Spencer or any other Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch writer, of any view expressed, fact alleged, or link provided in that comment.)

Billions of dollars are unaccounted for, and there are widespread allegations of waste, fraud and war profiteering. As 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft first reported in February, only one case, the subject of a civil lawsuit, has been unsealed.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/09/60minutes/main1302378.shtml

Sounds like a song:

Where have all the dollars gone,
Long time passing;

Where have all the dollars gone,
Long time ago ....

When will they ever learn;
When will they ever learn?

Posted by: witness

at June 14, 2007 8:57 AM

Thursday morning, the Hamas Executive Force occupied the building. Half-naked Fatah prisoners are being paraded in the streets, some reportedly executed there. Masked Hamas fighters seized their US-made and Israeli equipment vehicle number plates in the fortified building constructed with US military aid funds, atop which flies a green Hamas flag.

http://debka.com/

Quick george, grab some more US tax dollars so we can prop up Abbas; we can just do a direct deposit into his Swiss accounts.

Posted by: witness

at June 14, 2007 9:05 AM

...maybe a commission or merit pay system needs to be installed...

...like..bring in a captured rifle... earn $10.00
....bring in captured RPG.....earn $20.00
....bring in IED/IED triggers...earn $40.00
....bring in captured machine gun...earn $40.00
....bring in captured mortar...earn $50.00
....bring in captured Iranian "diplomat"earn $100.00
....bring in captured Syrian "diplomat" earn $100.00
....bring in captured Al-Qaeda "important leader" earn $100.00
....bring in proof of corrupt Iraqi officials, earn $100.00
....bring in dead terrorist, earn $50.00
....bring in captured Chinese or Russian Military officer, earn $500.00.

....we could make the Iraqi police very efficient...and it would cost us less money...

Posted by: exsgtbrown

at June 14, 2007 9:17 AM

Corrupt Iraqi officials are pocketing the pay of thousands of "ghost" policemen and soldiers who exist only on paper

Deja vu!

Remember round about the time Abbas was Prime Minister under President Arafat there were some 60 thousand security personel on Tenet and the CIA's books whereas there were only 40 thousand in actual fact?

Posted by: Cynic

at June 14, 2007 9:29 AM

I have to point out this is an improvement from Saddam times. Under Saddam the Iraq soldiers would not receive any pay. It was all kept by the officers.

Posted by: Ruebacca

at June 14, 2007 9:31 AM

General Petreaus;

There’s this thing, its called a muster. Most military units do them daily. If you look at the results of musters objectively, they tell you exactly who’s in your army.

If your army is unable to muster, you don’t have one. Us folks back home should be cut into the loop if the Iraqi security forces we are paying for are unable to muster. Thank you.

Posted by: pez

at June 14, 2007 10:01 AM

The road to where exactly?

http://sheikyermami.com/2007/06/14/the-road-to-where-exactly/

Posted by: sheik yer'mami

at June 14, 2007 10:14 AM

Somehow, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" doesn’t apply here.
But, "I stick my neck out for nobody" does.

Posted by: tgusa

at June 14, 2007 10:34 AM

Off-topic:

Robert, just the other day I bought a book with Claude Rains' ex libris. What do you think of that?

Posted by: Hugh

at June 14, 2007 1:46 PM

To Muslims, suckers/infidels are to be robbed, if not killed.

Since they can't kill us very efficiently at present, they have to be content with stealing our treasure.

To fund the future killing.

And our blind leadership is happy to oblige.

With dreams of embassies dancing in their empty heads.

(To be sharply removed if all continues on this demented course.)

Iraq is a tarbaby with a rathole for a navel.

As abysmal as Mohammad's heart.

Posted by: profitsbeard

at June 14, 2007 2:58 PM

Rick: "I'm staying here with him 'til the plane gets safely away."

Ilsa: "No, Richard, no. What has happened to you? Last night we said . . ."

Rick: "Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I've done a lot since then and it all adds up to one thing. You're getting on that plane with Victor where you belong."

Ilsa: "But Richard, no, I, I . . ."

Rick: "Now you've got to listen to me. Do you have any idea what you'd have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten we'd both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn't that true, Louis?"

Louis: (as he countersigns the papers) "I am afraid that Major Strasser would insist."

Ilsa: (to Rick) "You're saying this only to make me go."

Rick: "I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it."

Ilsa: "No."

Rick: "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life."

Ilsa: "But what about us?"

Rick: "We'll always have Paris. We didn't have it, we'd lost it, until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night."

Ilsa: "And I said I would never leave you!"

Rick: "And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Not now. Here's looking at you, kid." (Kisses her.)

Posted by: traeh

at June 15, 2007 12:35 AM

Comments are turned off and archived for this entry.