The Green Zone Always Wins

Counter-Terrorism Service sealed every entrance to Baghdad’s Green Zone and moved with military precision through the residential compounds within. When the sun rose, 47 people were in custody. Among them: twelve sitting members of parliament, a former governor, a senior adviser to the outgoing prime minister, and an array of oil ministry officials. The trigger was the confession of Adnan al-Jumaili, the Deputy Oil Minister for Refining Affairs, detained the previous month on corruption charges. Investigators say al-Jumaili’s testimony, accompanied by the prior seizure of more than $85 million in public funds, implicated an entire ecosystem of officials in schemes to misappropriate state revenues. The Commission of Integrity issued the warrants. Several suspects fled before security forces reached them; the […]