In the course of a flurry of allegations against Qatar in recent days, Egypt sought a UN inquiry into Qatar for having paid ransom to secure the release of a number of Qatari hostages, including members of the royal family, held by Shi’ite militants in Iraq. The suggestion was Qatar had paid these militants $1 billion, and that some of the money ended up in Iran.
Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder Abadi insists this is entirely false, saying that a $500 million payment made by Qatar is still deposited in the Iraqi central bank, and that not one dime of it was ever given to the militants involved, but remains untouched since the hostage release.
The group of hostages, a collection of Qatari falconry enthusiasts, were on a hunting trip in Southern Iraq when they were captured by the militants, and were held for some 15 months before their release was secured. The Iraqi government sent the hundreds of millions of dollars to Iraq in suitcases.
The Iraqi government was not told about the payment,and when they found the suitcases, they seized them, depositing them in the central bank pending the resolution of the situation. Ironically, the hostages were all released, but the militants never found a way to get the money out of the bank. Whether it will eventually be returned to the Qatari royal family or not is unclear.
Iraqi officials say that the future status of the money is legally unclear under Iraqi law. Many of the Shi’ite militant groups in the country are aligned with the government, but in trying to collect the ransom they’d have to admit they kidnapped the falconers, a major crime.
The Iraqi government is a criminal organization. Here you have half a billion USD sitting in the Iraqi central bank with not even a hint of returning the money to Qatar. In effect, any detective would infer that the Iraqi government itself performed the abductions! I wouldn’t put it past them. Billions they have stolen. Not a drop of aid to the victims of war in the north. Christian and Catholic charities are stretched and poor while the Iraqis hoard billions. This is why the Congress just passed a new law for new humanitarian aid to Iraqi Christians. All other monies were embezzled by the corrupt Iraqi government. They are a den of thieves.
“The Iraqi government is a criminal organization.”
But you repeat yourself.
good one.
And what exactly are we doing there, spending all that money. Wasting our money, bribing US friendly politicians, spending our money on THOUSANDS of so called “non-governmental” organizations? Are we ever going to leave and let them sort out their problems — providing that we tell our friends, Saudis, to quit sending weaponized Wahhabi cults to blow things up in Iraq and the rest of the world — as needed.
So, who is the biggest donator of lose money in the Middle East, and cannot account for trillions of dollars? We need to look ourselves in the mirror, and understand the simple laws of cause and consequence. No need to get excited over some “Shia” kidnappers, when the entire gruesome spectacle of ISIS and Al-Qaeda brutality is seldom prefixed with “Sunni”. So, we finally have it — a Shia terrorism!
I dot care what Iraqi government does. They are taking our money, the money going into the imperial rathole. Considering the false pretext for invading Iraq, and the chaos we caused by destroying their institutions, by poisoning their new generations with depleted uranium, by unleashing ISIS upon them, and by working so hard on splitting Iraq, and now even harder in trying to stay put on Iraqi-Syrian border. More nation-building, more interventions, more screw up. We need to ask questions of OUR politicians — what are we doing there, and how much longer they plan to pour our money into the Middle East bottomless pit. Blaming Iraq for our mess is the height of hubris. And while we are at it, how about leaving Afghanistan? If we cannot sort anything out all these years, somebody else needs to try. Let’s give the mess to India, Russia or China.
Somebody may find some kindness in their hearts and have mercy on us, to let us get out of the mess of our own making. Let’s get out of Libya, Syria — and now out of Gulf crisis — before we are led into one more mess of our own making. Let us grow up and for change STOP blaming others for our shame.