House Government and Oversight Hearing Hearing Assessing the State of Iraqi Corruption

“The Committee held a hearing [October 5, 2007] to evaluate the status of corruption in the Iraqi government and whether U.S. government efforts to address this continuing problem have been adequate.”

From Chairman Waxman’s Opening Statement: “Todays hearing is one of the most important that we will have this year. President Bush has made Iraq our nations top foreign policy priority. We all know that has meant extraordinary sacrifices for our troops and their families. Over 3,800 of our soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and another 28,000 have been wounded. And we have already spent over $450 billion on the war, with hundreds of billions more still to come. The Iraq war is the number one issue in all our congressional districts and the issue we have spent the most time debating here in Congress. Most of our attention has been focused on military questions. Is the surge working? Can we reduce the number of troops? Should we set a redeployment date? Those are all important questions but they arent the only ones that matter. As General Petraeus has observed: there is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq. Political reconciliation is the key to achieving lasting peace in Iraq. And one of the keys to political reconciliation is combating corruption.”

Documents and Links:

Supplemental Memo

Testimony of David Walker

Testimony of Stuart Bowen

Testimony of Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi

Testimony of Ambassador Richard Butler

GAO Report: Stabilizing and Rebuilding Iraq

Testimony of Claudia Rosett

E-mail from State Department

Letter from Maliki dated April 1, 2007

Letter Number 1 from Maliki dated April 2, 2007

Letter Number 2 from Maliki dated April 2, 2007