Wednesday, April 21, 2004

A Sign of Dysfunction in Iraq If the Internet is any indication, reconstruction in Iraq isn't going so well. According to an e-mail that was just posted to the "Iraq crisis" list serve run from the University of Chicago, the Iraq Museum is unable to register its soon-to-be-launched Web-site under Iraq's country code (.iq), because the domain isn't operational. John Simmons, Chairman of the Baghdad Museum Project, explains in the e-mail: Although the dot-museum top level domain is appropriate for the Iraqi National Museum, and they are in good company using it, they should also make use of the dot-iq top level domain, which was designated for Iraq years ago. For example, the Louvre uses the top level domain for France -- www.louvre.fr -- and the Uffizi Gallery uses the top level domain for Italy -- www.uffizi.firenze.it -- as country codes on the Web. Inexplicably, the .iq top level domain is not operational, and this adds yet another dimension to Iraq's cultural crisis. At this crucial time in its history, Iraq is unable to enter the international and Internet economies with its own national identity on the Net. This applies to all Iraqi organizations: commercial, non-profit, governmental. In today's world this is like having no flag of your own. He then offers a run-down of a Google search for web pages using selected country codes: .de (Germany) - 66,700,000 hits .jp (Japan) - 41,800,000 hits .uk (UK) - 36,200,000 hits .it (Italy) - 18,900,000 hits .fr (France) - 17,500,000 hits .cn (China) - 16,900,000 hits .ca (Canada) - 13,800,000 hits .au (Australia) - 11,800,000 hits .us (United States) 11,000,000 hits .il (Israel) - 2,800,000 hits .tr (Turkey) - 2,110,000 hits .in (India) - 742,000 hits .ir (Iran) - 216,000 hits .pk (Pakistan) - 188,000 hits .ae (UAE) - 155,000 hits .sa (Saudi Arabia) - 146,000 hits .eg (Egypt) - 136,000 hits .cy (Cyprus) - 106,000 hits .lb (Lebanon) - 92,700 hits .jo (Jordan) - 67,000 hits .kw (Kuwait) - 43,400 hits .ps (Palestine) - 31,400 hits .bh (Bahrain) - 25,900 hits .om (Oman) - 21,400 hits .qa (Qatar) - 15,300 hits .ye (Yemen) - 13,600 hits .af (Afghanistan) - 5,420 hits .sy (Syria) - 1,700 hits .iq (Iraq) - 7 hits, all of them defunct Note that even Afghanistan has an active domain, even more active than Syria's. Is it too much to ask the CPA (nice Web-site, by the way) to give Iraq a more active domain than this modest blog of mine? Postscript: Although I'm a philosophy professor and no computer expert, I'd be happy to work on their code ... for the right price and with ample security, of course. UPDATE "Eric," a kind reader of Kevin Drum's site, directs us to an April 2003 article in the UK Register that provides some interesting background. The .iq domain is currently run an individual - a man called Saud Alani who gives a Baghdad telephone number yet is based in George Bush's home state of Texas. His company "the Alani corporation" is part of a group of companies all run from the same address in Richardson, Texas, including InfoCom and Valnet. All of these companies - and the .iq domain - have as their technical contact and/or owner one Bayan Elashi. Unfortunately, Mr Elashi is in federal custory in Seagoville jail, Texas, awaiting trial for allegedly funding anti-Israeli group Hamas. If found guilty he faces a crippling fine and most of the rest of his life in jail. It has been a year since the article was published. It would be nice to have an update, since it is clear that the situation has not improved. [Side note: The fact that Mr. Alani and Mr. Elashi are from Texas struck a nerve. I wonder whether anyone has done a study of where the companies given contracts in Iraq are based. Would it be surprising to find that the vast majority of them are from red states? It seems most, if not all, of the security companies are.] 3:53:53 AM    comment [] More Fables of the Reconstruction NPR's Marketplace is running a four-part series in collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting entitled "Spoils of War." It documents the widespread corruption in the distribution of construction contracts in Iraq. Check out the list of appalling details. Among other things, the series reveals: Iraqi private companies routinely pay bribes to get reconstruction contracts - often to Iraqi officials but sometimes to employees of U.S. contractors. Accountant Hekmet Ali-Khalil tells Marketplace that every ledger book he signs is a fiction, designed to hide bribes. At least 20 percent of U.S. spending in Iraq is lost to corruption, says Charles Adwan of the Lebanon of Transparency International. With little or no oversight, senior Iraqi ministry officials regularly pocket reconstruction money from the Central Bank, according to a bank official. Iraqi Ministry of Health officials sell hospital supplies on the black market, depriving sick people of vital equipment. Dr. Ali Rajeb, a young Iraqi cardiologist, takes Davidson to Sa'adoun Street in Baghdad, where a row of medical supply shops offer stolen goods. A version of this is happening in virtually all the ministries: Electricity Ministry officials sell equipment, too. Justice Ministry judges demand bribes for favorable rulings and the Housing Ministry workers take money to assign homes. Over the last three months, Congressional and Defense Department investigators have disputed at least $1 billion worth of Iraqi contracts for inflated charges, incompetence, lack of documentation to support invoices and kickbacks related to subcontract awards. How could this be happening with the most important project of Bush's presidency? Surely it must be the obstructionist Democrats in Congress! Think again. In Washington, congressional initiatives that would have sent a strong anti-corruption signal to contractors in Iraq were derailed by the House Republican leadership and the White House. These included amendments to the Iraq appropriations bill last fall that would have criminalized war profiteering and required ongoing audits by the General Accounting Office of contracts over $25 million. "The fact [those measures] were made and defeated signaled, 'We don't agree [this] oversight is necessary,'" says Jeffrey Jones, former head of the Defense Energy Support Center, in charge of purchasing fuel for the Pentagon. Jones watched as gasoline bills doubled when part of his job was outsourced to Halliburton. "So, it's laissez faire. That's the message that was sent." The Iraqi reconstruction is costing 10 times more per capita than the Marshall Plan. 20% of the allotted taxpayer money ($4.4 billion of $22 billion) is going down the drain of corruption. That's over and above the 10-25% going to private security costs: The authority initially estimated that security costs would eat up about 10 percent of the $18 billion in reconstruction money approved by Congress, said Capt. Bruce A. Cole of the Navy, a spokesman for the authority's program management office. But after months of sabotage and insurgency, some officials now say a much higher percentage will go to security companies . . . "The numbers I've heard range up to 25 percent," Mr. Bowen said in a telephone interview from Baghdad. Mark J. Lumer, the Pentagon official responsible for overseeing Army procurement contracts in Iraq, said he had seen similar estimates." At least we can be certain that the money that does manage to be used directly for reconstruction isn't being wasted. 3:24:00 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 David V. Johnson. Last update: 5/1/04; 4:44:31 PM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.