Thu, May 15, 2008 (2:06 a.m.)

Allegations this week by two former State Department employees that the Bush administration has ignored rampant corruption within the Iraqi government are believable, given recent events.

The allegations come from Arthur Brennan and James Mattil. Brennan headed the State Department’s Office of Accountability and Transparency at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and Mattil served as the office’s chief of staff.

Advising the Iraqi government on how to rid its ministries of widespread thievery of American money and supplies — which can make their way into the hands of insurgents — was the office’s mission.

The office, however, was shut down in December, four months after a draft report it had prepared was leaked to the press.

In the report were statements accusing the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of heading off corruption investigations of politically connected officials.

Two months after the report was leaked, the head of Iraq’s Commission on Public Integrity, Judge Radhi Hamza Al Radhi, resigned and fled to the United States, fearing for his life. He verified what had been stated in the draft report, that corruption has overtaken the Iraqi government and that al-Maliki obstructs investigations.

Although corruption within the al-Maliki government has been reported frequently over the years, the Bush administration’s policy has been to avoid the subject. An example was in October, during testimony by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

After being asked whether she thought al-Maliki was corrupt, she said, “To assault the prime minister of Iraq or anyone else in Iraq with here-to-date unsubstantiated allegations or lack of corroboration, in a setting that would simply fuel those allegations, I think, would be deeply damaging.”

Statements like that only give credence to the allegations by Brennan and Mattil, who said the State Department’s uppermost concern has been to keep relations with Baghdad on an even keel.

The State Department’s policies “not only contradicted the anti-corruption mission (of the Office of Accountability and Transparency) but indirectly contributed to and have allowed corruption to fester at the highest levels of the Iraqi government,” Brennan told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.

The seriousness of the allegations was summed up by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who spoke of a coming bill to appropriate even more billions for Iraq.

“It is a cruel irony ... (if) that money ends up actually providing the resources for an insurgency in Iraq, which ends up killing Americans,” Dorgan said.