Armed factions support the "bank tycoons" and want to seize $10 million from Baghdad airport revenue

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[size=52]Armed factions support the "bank tycoons" and want to seize $10 million from Baghdad airport revenues[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]A dangerous turning point in which competition for senior positions entered, after indications of “deliberate actions” behind the successive fires at Baghdad Airport.[/size]
[size=45]At the same time, he revealed security documents talking about the involvement of a well-known armed faction in the war to control the airport in the past three years.[/size]
[size=45]Since assuming power more than a month ago, Prime Minister Muhammad al-Sudani has been carrying out a campaign to curb corruption, as he recently announced the arrest of one of the "banking tycoons" through the airport itself.[/size]
[size=45]However, according to leaks, Ali Ghulam, who became famous for the “Ishtar Gate” case, was released after the intervention of influential parties.[/size]
[size=45]Ghulam (40 years) runs three banks (Al-Ansari, Al-Qabid and Al-Sharq Al-Awsat), while the Central Bank had stopped dealing in dollars with these banks last week.[/size]
[size=45]According to what was circulated in political circles, Ali Ghulam's arrest came against the background of a "malicious invitation" due to a financial case that was settled 7 years ago.[/size]
[size=45]A statement by the Ministry of the Interior said, "The detachments of the passport department at Baghdad International Airport managed to arrest the accused director of the Middle East Bank (Ali Muhammad Ghulam) while he was coming to Baghdad airport, who is wanted according to the provisions of Article 456 of the Iraqi Penal Code."[/size]
[size=45]On the other hand, some news platforms affiliated with an armed faction that has representation in Parliament claim that Ali Ghulam's arrest came "based on a malicious claim by a Kurdish person named Shakar Fattah Abdullah."[/size]
[size=45]And it indicated, “The latter filed a lawsuit against Ghulam, despite the existence of a financial clearance since 2015, and he does not have any rights until he files a lawsuit.”[/size]
[size=45]And those websites published a document (which Al-Mada could not verify from an independent source) confirming the conclusion of a “discharge” between the two parties regarding previous financial obligations.[/size]
[size=45]And these platforms added, “Ali Ghulam was released on a financial bail of 25 million dinars, and he is ready to present all evidence before the courts to prove his innocence.”[/size]
[size=45]Some political activists close to the coordination framework are trying to suggest that Ghulam is close to the Sadrist movement, and has a relationship with the economic head of the Tamkeen al-Hasnawi movement.[/size]
[size=45]However, Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the movement, had called for an end to "currency smuggling" more than 9 months ago, and clearly named the three banks affiliated with "Ghulam" and accused them of smuggling.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Sadr said in a statement issued last February, and carried a directive to the House of Representatives to “stop smuggling the currency, and to reconsider the matter of some banks, such as: “Middle East, Al-Qabid, and Al-Ansari” belonging to some people who control the currency.[/size]
[size=45]And last August, Sabah Al-Saadi, the former deputy and leader of Al-Sadr, hinted that Ali Ghulam is close to the coordination framework.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Saadi said in a tweet on Twitter at the time, commenting on the “Ishtar Gate” case, which is a company owned by Ghulam, that: “It is amazing that some of the cadres rush to cry over public funds, and that is nothing but throwing ashes into the eyes.[/size]
[size=45]The Ghulam Company (Ishtar Gate) had demanded compensation from the Rafidain Bank at that time, amounting to 600 million dinars, due to the latter's non-compliance with the contract concluded between the two parties, before news circulated about the former's waiver of the penalty clause.[/size]
[size=45]Ghulam not only owns these three banks and the company, but he is a major partner in the Iraqi Qartas Bank, and he is also involved in the currency sale window of the Central Bank.[/size]
[size=45]Last year, a member of the Parliamentary Integrity Committee, Kazem Al-Sayadi, revealed during a television interview that Ali Ghulam gets about $90 million a day through the currency auction.[/size]
[size=45]The struggle over Baghdad airport[/size]
[size=45]In a related context, it is likely that the armed faction that supports Ghulam is the same one that is now trying to control Baghdad Airport after two fire incidents within 48 hours.[/size]
[size=45]Informed sources indicate to (Al-Mada) that "a new method has entered the line of conflict over the higher ranks, which is to cause confusion in some institutions so that officials are changed."[/size]
[size=45]Mysteriously, a fire broke out mysteriously during two consecutive days inside a cafeteria and a hall inside Baghdad Airport, despite the strict security measures.[/size]
[size=45]In light of these developments, Al-Sudani instructed, after a surprise visit to the airport, to dismiss 3 officials (Director of the Civil Aviation Authority, Nael Saeed, Director of the Airport, Ali Taqi, and Director of the Airport Security Division, Hussein Ali Hussein).[/size]
[size=45]Later, the Sudanese appointed Imad al-Asadi to head the aviation authority, Ali Shabib to manage the airport, and Amjad al-Jubouri to run the airport security.[/size]
[size=45]And the sources add, "Al-Sudani is under great pressure to turn faces, while the former wants to wait and study each position before replacing him."[/size]
[size=45]Electronic armies had helped distort some officials in the special grades and forced them to resign, as well as filing a lawsuit against other institutions to extract positions by force.[/size]
[size=45]Meanwhile, documents leaked from a security agency's investigations into the airport fire, indicating that an armed faction entered the line of appointments of officials at the airport, and targeted and expelled one of the protection companies there.[/size]
[size=45]According to documents published by one of the intelligence agencies (Al-Mada) could not confirm its authenticity), that in 2019, the Director of the Civil Aviation Authority at the time, Ali Khalil Ibrahim, was subjected to a direct threat from an armed party belonging to a faction (...), and the faction demanded the appointment of Zaid Munir An assistant to the first threatened to kill the son of the director of the aviation authority.[/size]
[size=45]As a result, Ibrahim was forced to cancel the assignment of Ali Muhammad Taqi (the director of the airport who was recently dismissed and is affiliated with another faction) and to appoint Zaid Mounir in his place.[/size]
[size=45]And the reports add that this action took place when "surveillance cameras captured a picture of Zaid Munir, accompanied by men belonging to a faction (....) as they entered the office of the director of the aviation authority to force him to appoint the first."[/size]
[size=45]Subsequently, against the background of news leakage of threats, then-Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi decided to freeze the decision to appoint Zaid Mounir and terminate his assignment 3 days after the order was issued.[/size]
[size=45]However, the security agency says: "After that, the faction (...) entered into talks with Abdul-Mahdi that ended in the dismissal of Ali Khalil Ibrahim and the appointment of Duraid Yahya after only two days."[/size]
[size=45]The security authority's report indicated that Duraid Yahya, who was appointed as director of the Aviation Authority, is close to the armed faction.[/size]
[size=45]About 4 months after Mustafa Al-Kazemi assumed the premiership, according to what the documents say, Yahya's mandate was terminated, and Nael Saad Abdul-Mahdi (the last director of the aviation authority who was dismissed) was appointed in his place.[/size]
[size=45]The documents confirm that despite this, the “faction” continued its attempts to control Baghdad Airport, especially since its annual revenues amount to more than $10 million.[/size]
[size=45]And the security agency stated that Abdul-Mahdi was subjected to threats and pressures to terminate the contract of the (G4S) company for airport protection, which in September 2020 had been bombed with “Katyushas” at its headquarters in the Qadisiyah area, west of Baghdad, and explosive devices were set up for it after that on the airport road. To target one of the company's wheels before the security forces discover the location of the explosives and dismantle them.[/size]
[size=45]In a "dramatic" scene, security forces had stormed the headquarters of the protection company at the airport and evacuated them by force, in a clip that was filmed at the time, which prompted the company to object to the method of terminating its work in a letter it sent to the airport administration and then spread on news websites.[/size]
[size=45]The documents say that the termination of the assignment of the (G4S) company and the awarding of the contract to a Canadian company, which is (Business Intel), which enters into a partnership with that faction, came as a suspicious deal, especially since the latter is registered in the Directorate of Corporate Affairs in the Ministry of Interior, and does not have a sufficient number of airport security personnel.[/size]
[size=45]A member of the Parliamentary Integrity Committee, Alia Nassif, had sent urgent news to the Integrity Commission, the Public Prosecutor, the Office of Financial Supervision and the Ministry of Interior about contracting with Business Intel, indicating that she did not have the financial competence to award a contract worth more than $22 million.[/size]
[size=45]The documents go on confirming that the armed faction (…) continued to put pressure on the airport, where at the end of last January it kidnapped the head of the airport division, Hussein Ali Hussein (who was recently dismissed), for one day, and then released him.[/size]
[size=45]And the security authority confirms that "the kidnappers threatened the head of the division with death if he did not cooperate with them," indicating that the latter: "courtesyated them for a limited period, and then began to reduce his cooperation with them without knowing the reasons."[/size]
[size=45]The report concludes that the faction (…) is behind the two recent fires at the airport in cooperation with (Business Intel) to control all the important joints and functions there.[/size]
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