The New Zealand Herald has an article on the market in smuggling fighters from Syria into Iraq. From the NZ Herald: For years, he operated along Syria’s remote border providing young Arabs from as far away as Morocco and the Gulf with passports, guides and weapons as they slipped into Iraq to wage war. But recently, the Iraqi [...]

A contractor working in Iraq pleaded guilty for selling Iraqi fuel on the black market.  From the AP (via Google News): A former Army contractor pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing nearly $40 million worth of jet and diesel fuel from a U.S. Army base in Iraq and selling it on the black market. Lee W. Dubois, 32, of [...]

Amnesty International is reporting that thousands of small arms is flooding into Iraq with no monitoring or tracking done by the United States and the United Kingdom. From the Guardian: There is no clear accountable audit trail for some 360,000 small arms supplied to the Iraqi security forces, many by the US and UK, it says. Subcontracting [...]

A US contracting company in Iraq is being sued in federal courts for alledgdly trafficking men from Nepal to work in warehouses.  From the Washington Post: A Washington law firm filed a lawsuit yesterday against KBR, one of the largest U.S. contractors inIraq, alleging that the company and its Jordanian subcontractor engaged in the human trafficking of [...]

The Associated Press is reporting that more and more weapons are being found in Iraq. Via Yahoo News: Weapons caches are turning up with increasing frequency in public places in Iraq — from a bakery to a fish farm — as recent security gains embolden more civilians to come forward with tips, U.S. and Iraqi military officials [...]

According to a report in The Guardian, a smuggling organization in Iraq is estimated to make about $5 million a week from smuggling oil. Source: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, “Oiling the wheels of war: Smuggling becomes the real economy of Iraq,” Guardian, June 9, 2007.

40 to 50 percent of the profits from fuel smuggling is believed to end up in the hands of insurgents. Source: Robert F. Worth and James Glanz, ” Oil Graft Fuels the Insurgency, Iraq and U.S. Say,” New York Times, February 5, 2006.

Source: Associated Press, ” U.S. Troops Crack Down on Fuel Smuggling.” Yahoo! News, May 9, 2006.

In Iraq, the prices of small arms have increased since the U.S. invasion. According to a report by the New York Times, Kalashnikovs were priced between $75 to $150 in early 2003. By late 2006, the prices increased to the range of $210 to $650. In some areas of Iraq, the price has increased to [...]

Source: “Bullets ‘flooding Baghdad market’,”BBC News, June 15, 2006.