The sudden death in / November 3, 2015 of the Chairman of the Finance Committee in the Iraqi parliament, Ahmad Chalabi, raises a lot of questions and doubts about the circumstances of his death and was in the process of his publication of the details of files to reveal the corruption networks in the country.
Chalabi , who since chairing the Finance Committee in the Iraqi parliament focused in more striking way on the issues of financial corruption in the Iraqi state , specifically the corruption of the central bank, and its financial policies , which he described as disastrous for the Iraqi economy, and on the reserve of hard currency, especially in the period of 2006 until late 2014, so that he raised a suitcase against the Central Bank of Iraq, and he said in one of its sessions that the central bank sold through auction currency in the period between 2006 to 2014 to $ 312 billion, 750 million and 598 thousand dollars, equivalent to 57% of the total oil imports amounting to 551 billion and 749 million and 957 thousand and $ 142.
Chalabi also revealed that (1) for a major corruption bargain and waste of state funds, a deal with the Czech Republic for the purchase of aircraft type L159 for training and light fighting , which have been manufactured since 1992, that it was 22 years old when it was bought , and they were present in the stores and had not been sold because they were not efficient in its work, and even the Czech Republic itself had not adopted it in the fighting or training, and considered it invalid.
Chalabi pointed out that it has been signed a contract between the Czech Republic and the Iraqi Ministry of Defense with approval of the Council of Ministers at the time, regarding the purchase of these aircraft in 2/2014, noting that in spite of all these observations of the inefficiency of aircraft, and are not fit even for training, a credit and financial allocations had been opened for the purchase of aircrafts by the end of 2014, considering it a clear evidence of the corruption of the suspicious deal.
It had been purchased of 10 aircrafts , and two spare parts because the factory has been closed and there were no spare parts, and actually the purchase was made amounted to $ 166 million, which means that the price per plane amounted to $ 13 million.
While there is a US company bought the same plane, at a price of 900,000 dollars per aircraft, this is clear evidence that the deal is rotten , and the question here is : Who is behind this deal, and beneficiary of it, and why Iraq ‘s money was wasted and to the benefit of whom the money of the country ‘s treasury was stolen ?
Chalabi indicated too to another face of corruption which is a pass of the law number 301, which is spending without a budget, and this is contrary to the Constitution and all applicable laws, the state budget and public debt, as it is not permissible to spend any amount of financial treasury of the state, without the approval of it in the budget, with the exception of 1 / 12 of each month from the operating budget.
On the other hand, at the time , Chalabi stressed on the corruption of auction currency , and that the state must to curb the dollar gangs , and a quick re – negotiate for the licenses with companies, otherwise Iraq will be in the face of significant financial problems of bad sequences , and this is what is proven now.
In the same context , Chalabi exploded a bomb of heavyweight, concerning the dossier that raised a broad political controversy, on the smuggling of foreign currency , as it was said that Iraqi officials , they make money laundering and smuggling to banks outside the country, and demanded an investigation into the Parliament, and the Supreme Judicial Council announced in a statement Tuesday, November 10, 2015, for an investigation of the files that Chalabi was put with the chairman of” al-Mada” foundation , Fakhri Karim (2).
He added that it ” has been dealt with file of currency smuggling between the head of the Supreme Judicial Council and the President of the Federal Cassation Court and the chief prosecutor and head of the judicial oversight body and head of Baghdad Appeal court , and decided to form an judicial investigate body , to look at those documents which the number of its pages amounted to 41 pages.
According to the source (3), Chalabi has put this file to the several dignities and personalities shortly before his death, including the Shiite cleric Ali al – Sistani, in addition to others, asking them to activate and disclosure of its secrecies , if something bad happened to him because he was being threatened.
Among important televised documents with Chalabi, he pointed to external pressures by Iran, and even America , which opposed, and pressed on the Iraqi government not to withdraw confidence from the prime minister at that time , due to the mismanagement and chaos in the country, and the important point, raised by the Prime Minister at the meeting at the headquarters of the US embassy, to form a government without the secretary of defense and the interior, and their assumption is acting, and he has got the approval from the US side, Chalabi added that Iran and America want to put a prime minister in power at the time.
He said, that the US administration does not have a commitment to the will of the Iraqi people, because the people accepted the corruption, and the electricity crisis and all the problems, pointing out that America is interested to the party who cares to save its interests only.
He said Chalabi , in another televised interview , (4) that there are corrupted files lie in the reluctance of the work of the Iraqi state at all levels, in the electricity sector , for example, as announced the year about spending on it in 2009 is just lies, reaching $ 27 billion and it was supposed to run 20 000 MW, and it was purchased 56 generator of productivity of 125 MW, and the amount was paid in cash, at a price per $ 44 million, stressing that the generators all did not work, the government attributed it to the lack of sufficient liquidity of cash to sign contracts with companies to build the stations, and concluded contracts with a Canadian company by one billion dollars, a company that does not exist already, and another with a German of $ 650 million.
Chalabi said that there is a corruption in Article 36 of the Budget (contracts on credit), and its value by $ 18 trillion, and does not spent properly.
Great corruption in the currency auction ..
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Chalabi revealed for some documents confirming corruption in this aspect, including the fact that traders have received millions of dollars from the auction currency using the names of dead people.
In previous statements Chalabi revealed that “political parties to put pressure on the central bank to raise banks ‘ allocations in the auction, in return for payments,” adding that “there are memorandums within the Central Bank of the names of these politicians from the House of Representatives and the government.”
A statement of the former head of the Integrity Commission Judge Rahim al-Uqaili on 08.09.2015 affirmed of what was said by Chalabi ,
(al-Gazeerah) (5), as he said: “There are reports of financial control in 2010 , about the corruption of money laundering in Iraq, but the authoritarian political influence of the corrupt has not allowed to prosecute and disclose the facts of those who tamper with state funds. ”
Finance Committee in the Iraqi parliament for its part confirmed , in a report, the existence of large financial corruption, (in the term of previous parliamentary ), noting that the symbols of corruption in the period 2006-2014 was made up banks, exchanging banks, companies, and personalities falsified documents to smuggle huge sums to several countries.
Ugaili pointed out that ” the then prime minister , removed Shabibi from the management of the Iraqi Central Bank and seized the wealth or the enormous treasure inside this institution; to control the Iraqi currency , and that is what happened later , ” as: “After the removal of Shabibi from the Iraqi Central Bank , the manipulation of the exchange rate was increased , noting that this speech was confirmed by the President of the parliamentary Finance Committee in the Iraqi parliament in 2013 , Dr. Ahmed Chalabi, as it talked about the manipulation of exchange rates of the Central Bank of Iraq and the crisis related to the low level of the Iraqi dinar and the rise of the dollar, as a result of the control of political party over the Central Bank to the difference of the exchange rate, which it has achieved a profit of billions of dollars. ”
Sudden death ..
There are speculations in the news of his death on November 3, 2015 , which form at the time a huge shock to the Iraqi political circles, and his family , which announced at the first moment that his death was a process of arranged and planned assassination the murder, because he was not suffering from any disease or health symptoms, and therefore the family rushed to assign the US Institute of Medicine in New York to the diagnosis of the cause of death , especially after the Iraqi government was quick to say in an official statement that the cause of death was a heart attack.
The US report, (6) who was handed to his daughter Tamara Chalabi, pointed out that the cause of death was taking a dose of poison put into his coffee before he died six hours, which led to complications and severe clotting of blood and then stroke and cardiac arrest and death directly.
Chalabi , 71, was found dead at his ranch north of Baghdad, on Tuesday, and was buried Friday morning in the holy city of Kadhimiya, north of the capital, Iraqi officials and lawmakers said he died of a heart attack, but his death has raised a storm of questions and speculations that he was killed because of the outstanding issues that were covered in media, which has known it during his presidency of the parliamentary Committee of Finance, which monitors the policies and mechanisms of outlets of government spending, and the annual budget and other financial related laws.
Sources close to Chalabi said that he was “investigating on the activities of private banks in Iraq , ” and it was suspected of its involvement for the operations of long – term money – laundering that have been financing of terrorist groups operating in Iraq.
Sources added that Chalabi was about to reveal the names of these banks, along with prominent officials , politicians , foreigners and Iraqis who took part in the operation, and Chalabi threatened before his death, to reveal details and secret documents about the Iraqi oil smuggling to Iran. (7)
As for the Iraqis, they were not able to do so much only to link between hid sudden death and what he was about revealing details about the “dollar gangs” who warned of the consequences of condoning their activities in his last televised meetings.
In the interview , which was conducted a month before his death, Chalabi said that the media campaign against him and threats against would not prevent him from “access to reservoirs of corruption and disclose the gangs , ” who took possession of the wealth of the people, especially to mention “Dollar gangs”, who are some influential people in the Iraqi Central Bank and some private banks, who have won a lot of money by buying the dollar at low prices and the smuggling of hundreds of billions of dollars out of the country, as they have got during the three years , 10 trillion and 880 billion Iraqi dinars , to say the least.
And Chalabi emphasized that the embezzlement operations are poisonous seed that the tree of corruption grew in it under which some people with great wealth and broad political influence are making use of it to reap the its bad fruits on the account of simple Iraqi citizen , who does not find a piece of food to fill his hunger or a ceiling to live under it. Chalabi added that nothing to protect the country from falling into an economic and social abyss unless effective “real actions are taken wisely and quickly” to eradicate the roots of the financial and administrative corruption . 8).)
Whether Chalabi was dead or killed, but the corrupt files and documents are still exist, and the Iraqis are still waiting for the detection of it from those whom Chalabi told them to publish it if something bad happened to him …. Or will they stay to keep it closed for fear that the dollar gangs to cause a sudden death for them ?
Shatha Khalil
Unit Economic Studies
Translated by : Mudhaffar al-Kusairi
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies