Rice Calls Corruption in Iraq ‘Pervasive’

This is what we are fighting and dying for, protecting a government that condones corruption:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice fought off tough questions from House Democrats Thursday over charges that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had issued an edict protecting top ministers, including a cousin, from corruption investigations.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who has held numerous Iraq-related hearings, raised claims that Maliki had issued a decree in April that no one in the top levels of the Iraqi government — including the presidential office, council of ministers and current and previous ministers — could be investigated for corruption without his approval.

At a hearing before the panel in early October, the former head of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, testified that al-Maliki had protected family members from corruption investigations, including Salam al-Maliki, Iraq’s former transportation minister and the prime minister’s cousin.

Huh:

Rice also said she didn’t want to discuss specific corruption charges because she was concerned about revealing intelligence sources in Iraq, although she offered to provide testimony and documents to the panel in closed session.