An investigation by the independent Government Accountability Project exposes accusations that a hidden network of corruption cost U.S. taxpayers billions.

​The Department of Justice is investigating a military contracting company, Sallyport Global Services, to find out if it played a role in the alleged bribery of Iraqi government officials in exchange for exclusive contracts that cost American taxpayers billions.

But even the Feds may not realize the depth of the suspected corruption.

An investigation by the independent Government Accountability Project for The Daily Beast raises disturbing questions that go far beyond rogue employees of a Pentagon contractor.

Iran's Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said Iranian private sector is going to contribute to rebuilding and overhauling Iraq’s damaged power plants, IRIB reported.

Ardakanian made the remarks after signing an initial agreement to boost cooperation in the fields of power generation and exports as well as the transfer of power industry technology with Iraqi Minister of Electricity Luay al-Khatib in Tehran on February 8.

According to the Iranian official, aligning the two countries electricity systems, construction of power plants as well as reduction of energy losses in Iraqi electricity network are among other provisions of this agreement.
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He further noted that a task force will be set up to follow up on the implementation of the provisions of this agreement, saying that the Iraqi government is ready to implement all the provisions.

The Trump administration is pressuring Iraq to stop buying energy from its neighbor and sole foreign supplier, Iran, in what has become a major point of conflict between Washington and Baghdad.

Iraqi leaders, fearing that a further shortfall in power would lead to mass protests and political instability in their electricity-starved country, are pushing back on the demand, which is rooted in President Trump’s sanctions against Iran.

The dispute has frayed American diplomacy with Baghdad as Iraq tries to steady itself after the United States military withdrawal in 2011 and the campaign against the Islamic State.
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Iraq’s defiance further jeopardizes Mr. Trump’s goal of getting all nations to comply with sanctions after withdrawing from the deal to limit Tehran’s nuclear program last year. Already, European nations have set up a legal financial mechanism to do business with Iran, and China and India are resisting American efforts at prodding them to cut off oil purchases.

Australian Report on US-led Coalition A Positive Step, but Questions Remain

​It is well known that civilians have been killed during the US-led coalition’s military operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria since 2014, but almost two years on from some of the heaviest bombing in the cities of Mosul and Raqqa, the coalition’s own estimates of civilian deaths are far below public estimates.

One coalition member deserves praise for choosing transparency over the normal wall of silence. As it has done in previous incidents, on February 1, 2019, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) acknowledged it might have caused between 6 and 18 civilian casualties in a strike on a Mosul neighborhood on June 13, 2017.

Australia has come a long way from March 2017 when the ADF admitted it did not track data on civilian casualties in Iraq and Syria.

​One day after Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh complained that Iraq has not paid billions of dollars for its imports from Iran after the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions, Iran's Central Bank Governor told reporters that he has reached an agreement with his Iraqi counterpart about the payments.

The chief banker Abdolnasser Hemmati arrived in Baghdad Tuesday evening for negotiations regarding bilateral banking relations and the payment of Iraq's debts for the electricity and natural gas provided by Tehran.

Hemmati told Tasnim news agency on Wednesday that a mechanism for the payments has been finalized thanks to an agreement he signed with his Iraqi counterpart Ali al-Alaq. The agreement, Hemmati said, also covers payments for Iraq's other imports from Iran.
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He said that based on the arrangements made, payments for natural gas, electricity and other commodities sold to Iraq by Iran will be made based on "payment orders" issued by the Central Bank of Iran. Iran’s Tasnim news agency quoted Hemmati as saying that the central bank will create accounts in Euros and Iraqi dinars to facilitate payment for exported natural gas and electricity.

Iraqis attack 'cheap and low' policy of shooting unarmed civilians by British occupation forces made public by MEE earlier this week.

​For Iyad Salim, revelations that British forces had in some circumstances allowed soldiers to fire at unarmed civilians during their occupation of the southern Iraqi province of Basra hardly came as a surprise.

“It’s all true,” he told Middle East Eye. "The British harmed us a lot.”

On Monday, MEE revealed that the British army had implemented rules of engagement in Iraq - as well as Afghanistan - that at times had allowed soldiers to shoot unarmed civilians who were suspected of keeping them under surveillance.

The report, based on the testimonies of former soldiers, has further cast a shadow on the legacy of the British forces’ conduct during the occupation of Basra, which lasted between 2003 and 2007 and saw numerous allegations of abuse against the province’s residents.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Before Islamic State militants were dislodged from Iraq in 2017, they stole thousands of ancient artifacts. Most are still missing, and an international team of archaeologists is turning detective to recover as many as possible.

​In 2014 and 2015, during its occupation of most of the country, the jihadist group raided and wrecked historical sites on what UNESCO called an “industrial” scale, using the loot to fund its operations through a smuggling network extending through the Middle East and beyond.
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“We’re trying to recover a lot of artifacts and need all local and international resources to work. Iraq cannot do this on its own,” said Bruno Deslandes, a conservation architect at the U.N. cultural agency.

He spoke at a workshop at Baghdad’s National Museum convened to coordinate international retrieval efforts.

In recent weeks, a parade of American officials visited Iraq, ostensibly to meet with the Iraqi leadership and to discuss U.S. policy toward Iran and the U.S. withdrawal from Syria. President Donald Trump’s visit focused on U.S. forces in the region; short notification precluded a meeting with Prime Minister Adil Abd Al-Mahdi. But the messages Secretaries Rick Perry and Mike Pompeo delivered were fleeting but the mechanics of their visits illustrates profound ignorance of Iraq and Iraqi dynamics inside the Trump administration and may very well have undercut Iraq’s long-term stability.

In early December, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry traveled first to Baghdad and then to Erbil, the seat of the Kurdistan Regional Government. In Baghdad, Perry met with key elected officials: President Barham Salih, Prime Minister Adil Abd Al-Mahdi, and Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Al-Halbousi, for example. He then traveled to Erbil where Masoud Barzani, the former president of the Kurdistan Region, received him prior to meetings with Masoud’s nephew Nechirvan Barzani and son Masrour Barzani. 

​Nechirvan is regional prime minister and was, a week prior to Perry’s trip, nominated to succeed Masoud. Masrour, meanwhile, is slated to succeed his cousin in the Barzani game of musical chairs. What Perry ignored or his handlers failed to tell him was that Masoud’s presidency ended in 2015 though he refused to step down until November 2017.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with many of the same Iraqi political figures in his subsequent visit to Iraq and, like Perry, flew up to Erbil to meet with Masoud Barzani before departing the country.

From the halls of parliament to the lightning-fast rumour mills of social media, pro-Iran factions are demanding US troops withdraw from Iraq in a challenge to the country's fragile government. 

The political wrangling is another indication of Iraq's precarious position as it tries to balance ties between two key allies -- the United States and the Islamic republic of Iran. 

Calls for a US pullout have intensified since President Donald Trump's shock decision last month to  pull troops from neighbouring Syria, while keeping American forces in Iraq. 

In recent weeks, pro-Iran parties have organised protests to demand an accelerated US troop withdrawal while affiliated media outlets published footage of alleged US reinforcements in Iraq's restive west and north.