Thursday, February 08, 2007

An Iraqi deputy health minister has been detained

This looks like a good start:

Iraqi forces on Thursday detained a senior Health Ministry official accused of being a central figure in alleged corruption and the infiltration of the ministry by Shiite militiamen blamed for much of the recent sectarian violence in the capital, the U.S. military said.

[...]

The detainee was implicated in the deaths of several ministry officials, including the director-general in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

He reportedly orchestrated several kickback schemes related to inflated contracts for equipment and services, with millions of dollars allegedly funneled to the Mahdi Army militia that is loyal to al-Sadr, according to the statement.

The official also was suspected of providing large-scale employment of militia members who used Health Ministry facilities and services for "sectarian kidnapping and murder," the military said.

[...]

A U.S. soldier told al-Zamili he was on a list of wanted names and handcuffed him before leading him away, the bodyguard said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
It's really upsetting that we have a list of names and they haven't done anything about it to this point. I'm sure they weren't able to do it for political reasons but I don't see why Bush let it get to this point. It's a shame that it took a political loss (the election) for us to do what was necessary over there.