Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BAGHDAD1491
2009-06-07 12:51:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Baghdad
Cable title:  

ANTI-CORRUPTION FIGHT CLAIMS FIRST KARBALA VICTIM

Tags:  PGOV PREL KCOR KJUS IR IZ 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO2500
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #1491 1581251
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 071251Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3377
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 001491 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/07/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL KCOR KJUS IR IZ
SUBJECT: ANTI-CORRUPTION FIGHT CLAIMS FIRST KARBALA VICTIM

Classified By: Karbala PRT Team Leader John Kincannon for reason 1.4 (d
).

This is a PRT Karbala reporting cable.

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 001491

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/07/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL KCOR KJUS IR IZ
SUBJECT: ANTI-CORRUPTION FIGHT CLAIMS FIRST KARBALA VICTIM

Classified By: Karbala PRT Team Leader John Kincannon for reason 1.4 (d
).

This is a PRT Karbala reporting cable.


1. (U) According to a national radio station, former Acting
Provincial Council (PC) Chairman Abd al-Al al-Yasiri was
arrested on corruption charges on June 1. Radio Nawa
reported that Yasiri (ISCI) was charged with abuse of
authority stemming from a complaint filed with the provincial
Public Integrity Commission by one Adil Masikh. Masikh
asserts that Yasiri, while in office, confiscated his
automobile and refused to provide any compensation.
Concurrently, former Karbala Governor Aqeel Mahmoud
al-Khazali (Da'wa) has filed a defamation complaint against
the former Acting PC Chairman. There is no word yet on what,
exactly, prompted Aqeel's complaint.


2. (C) Comment: That the talk of action emanating from the
Karbala PC's Anti-Corruption Committee (headed by Ali
Mohammad al-Maliki, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's cousin)
has turned out to be more than empty rhetoric is good news.
Yasiri widely is regarded as corrupt and in the pocket of the
Iranians. He has spent much of his time since leaving office
attempting to insinuate himself into lucrative deals,
including the Middle Euphrates International Airport project.
We also have heard that he was involved in a deal to
privatize a large, state-owned cement factory here in
association with the prominent French cement company,
Lafarge.


3. (C) Comment Continued: Yasiri, out of power, affiliated
with an enfeebled Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, and
probably guilty of larger and more egregious instances of
corruption, is an easy target. Establishing that local
anti-corruption efforts are more than just another means of
settling scores with the political enemies of the ruling
Da'wa party will require tactics--and victims--that do not
smack of partisanship. End Comment.
FORD