Iraqi gov't officials may have colluded in British hostages' kidnap - multi-billion dollar fraud

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Iraqi government officials may have colluded in British hostages' kidnap
Guardian investigation suggests link to multibillion-dollar frauds
Meena Muhammed, Maggie O'Kane and Guy Grandjean guardian.co.uk,
Thursday 30 July 2009 17.59 BST

An investigation into the kidnapping of five British men in Iraq has uncovered evidence of possible collusion by Iraqi government officials in their abduction, and a possible motive – to keep secret the whereabouts of billions of dollars in embezzled funds.

A former high-level Iraqi intelligence operative and a current senior government minister, who has been negotiating directly with the hostage takers, have told the Guardian that the kidnapping of IT specialist Peter Moore and his four bodyguards in 2007 was not a simple snatch by a band of militants but a sophisticated operation, almost certainly with inside help. Only Moore is thought still to be alive.

Witnesses to the extraordinary operation which led to the abductions have also told us that they have been warned by superiors to keep quiet.

"This operation was on a state level, not al-Qaida. Only the state has the capability to carry this out," one of the sources said.

The Guardian can also reveal that there was a sixth westerner who was working with Moore at the time of the kidnap. The man – whose identity is known to the Guardian – managed to narrowly avoid being captured by hiding in a toilet at the Iraqi ministry of finance, where the abductions took place.

Over the past 10 months the Guardian has interviewed senior Iraqi figures and eyewitnesses as well as the former British military officer who investigated the kidnap for the men's employers. Their accounts allege that the hostage takers had contacts in the Iraqi government, and also that officials in the ministry of defence warned off witnesses to the kidnap.

WITH VIDEO:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/30/kidnap-men-uncover-corruption

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1. "Many people don't want a high level of corruption to be revealed."

Moore was employed to install a new computer tracking system which would have followed billions of dollars of oil and foreign aid money through the ministry of finance. The "Iraq Financial Management Information System" was nearly complete and about to go online at the time of the kidnap.

The senior intelligence source said: "Many people don't want a high level of corruption to be revealed. Remember this is the information technology centre , this is the place where all the money to do with Iraq and all Iraq's financial matters are housed."

Who is stealing all of that money, hmm? I could be way off base, but this reeks of more than just Iraqi government corruption.

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2. kick