Corruption
The Demographic Trap Renewed: Identity Politics and the Failure of
Fakherddin Salih, a Kurd who returned to Kirkuk after 2003, is one of hundreds of Kurdish families threatened with eviction from their homes. For nearly a year, Salih and others guarded their homes, fearing forced displacement by the Iraqi army, pressured by "influential Arabs" seeking to reclaim residential and agricultural lands that the Ba'ath regime had granted them after seizing them from their original Kurdish and Turkmen owners. This is a deep-rooted and recurrent conflict over property, fueled by partisan interests and constantly shifting administrative and security power dynamics in the oil-rich province, which is home to a mix of…
“Smuggling rings lure and enlist them, how do Iraqis turn
In November 2023, Ali Qais, 23, from the Al-Kifah district in central Baghdad, took a surprising step by traveling to Russia after receiving an invitation to study the Russian language — a requirement for admission to Russian institutes. Months earlier, Ali, who held only a middle school certificate, had contacted an Iraqi resident in Russia involved in smuggling, known as “Aboud, the Son of Iraq.” Aboud persuaded him to travel for study or immigration, saying the study invitation cost $2,300, plus $700 for the flight ticket, and promised to handle all registration, residency, and accommodation arrangements. Two other young men,…
الأموال المشبوهة في دبي
كيف تتدفق الأموال المشبوهة نحو العقارات الفاخرة في لؤلؤة الخليج
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“Handled Internally”: When Corruption Becomes Inevitable
In Iraq, corruption didn’t just emerge from the absence of institutions; it arose because they adapted to new roles, no longer concerned with applying rules but with postponing accountability and re-arranging priorities far from the public interest. The question here isn’t about the nature of the flaw, but about the…
Investment Paralysis in Iraq is Fueling the Housing Shortage
With high hopes of owning a home for the first time in his life, Haider Abu Bilal (67), a retired employee of the Ministry of Electricity, signed a contract in 2020 to purchase a horizontal residential unit in the “Al-Firdous” investment housing project in Karbala, southwest of Baghdad. He was…
Under Official and Clerical Protection: The Boom of Fraudulent Shrines
Alawiya bint al-Hasan is the name given to a shrine established last year in the agricultural area of Al-Bu Hadari in Kufa district, Najaf governorate, southern Iraq. It joins hundreds of shrines, maqams, and religious sites that suddenly appeared in Iraq over the past two decades, which specialists describe as…
من يملك قرار حلّ الفصائل العراقيّة المسلّحة: بغداد أم طهران؟
على الرغم من توالي التصريحات والمواقف الرسمية بشأن السلاح خارج الدولة، التزمت الفصائل العراقية حالة من الصمت السياسي والميداني، إذ انسحبت من سوريا قبيل إسقاط نظام بشار الأسد في 8 ديسمبر/ كانون الأول 2024، وسبق ذلك وقف لهجماتها ضد إسرائيل قبل اتفاق وقف إطلاق النار بين إسرائيل وحزب الله اللبناني…
The Silencing Machine: Killings, Trials, and Isolation of Journalists Intensify
On December 22, 2024, the Karkh Court of First Instance issued a ruling fining Iraqi journalist Qais Hassan five million Iraqi dinars in a lawsuit filed against him by former Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi in August 2024 on charges of “insult and defamation.” Hassan is just one of dozens of…
Documents Found After the Fall of Assad Show Syrian Intelligence
A file discovered at General Intelligence Directorate headquarters details an operation to investigate SIRAJ, a Syrian journalist collective that is part of the OCCRP network.
