A former senior US official in Iraq on Monday accused the US State Department of recklessly misleading Americans over the country's plight and contributing to the deaths and maiming of US soldiers.
Retired judge Arthur Brennan alleged that poor performance by the department had led to the loss of billions of dollars, and warned some of the money could be funding outlaws, or insurgents, including the Mehdi Army.
Brennan, who served as director of the Office of Accountability and Transparency at the US embassy in Baghdad last year, testified before a Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing, which no Republicans attended.
He accused the State Department of failing in its mission to thwart widespread corruption in Iraq, and said its policies had instead allowed corruption to fester.
"The actual policies and performance of the State Department in Iraq were not what they are represented to be," he said, his voice shaking with emotion. "The Department of State has negligently, recklessly and sometimes intentionally misled the US Congress, the American people and the people of Iraq."
"In a sense, the Department of State has contributed to the killing and maiming of US soldiers, the deaths of thousands of Iraqi civilians; the bolstering of illegal militias, insurgents and al-Qaeda," Brennan said. "Billions of US and Iraqi dollars have been lost, stolen and wasted, it is likely that some of that money is financing outlaws and insurgents such as the Medhi Army."
The State Department rejected the charges on Monday.
"We recognize that corruption is a serious problem in Iraq and have worked continuously with the Iraqi government to respond to it," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said.
Brennan, who said he only served in Iraq for 25 days due to a family emergency, was asked by Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill whether US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker was intentionally misleading Americans over the level of corruption in Iraq.
"If he doesn't know then he is negligent, if he does know he is intentionally misleading Congress and the American public," he said.
Brennan said that one unnamed Iraqi leader, who was "corrupt and dangerous," had been involved in a leadership role in a ministry complicit in the abduction, torture and murder of hundreds of Sunnis in Iraqi medical centers.
He said he brought the issue to the attention of Crocker, but added: "That Iraqi leader is still in power."
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS