Passport racket blows hole in Baghdad's security net

[leftchick]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/After-Saddam/False-passport-racket-blows-huge-hole-in-Baghdads-security-net/2005/02/07/1107625140485.html?oneclick=true

<snip>

But take the Iraqi passport pictured. The bearer's name is that of a Christian Arab. It names his Arab mother and it describes him as a merchant of Baghdad - but the picture is of a journalist of Sydney. It was acquired through a former Iraqi policeman who, when asked what his current line of business was, replied cryptically: "I'm retired".

The passport racket came to light last week in Herald interviews with insurgency and criminal elements, who revealed that Sabah al-Baldawi, one of the insurgency's top financiers and the man they say is behind most of the kidnapping in the city, moves freely between Baghdad and Damascus with the aid of up to 20 false passports.

<snip>

It was to cost $US100 and could have been turned around in a couple of hours, but it was ordered during the weekend and so had to be delivered 48 hours later. In the best opportunist tradition of the underworld, the price suddenly doubled at the point of collection - a premium to gouge a foreigner that does not apply to regular local customers.

Even at $US200, the cost is far from prohibitive when a fanatical suicide-bomber is dispatched by a well-financed insurgency - the car is usually stolen, they have low-cost access to huge munition stores left by Saddam, and the driver is a volunteer.




The real thing ... a plausible Iraqi passport can be acquired for only a few hundred dollars.

[DulceDecorum]

1. That bird --

Isn't that the Federal Reserve eagle?

[leftchick]

2. pretty damn close isn't it?

[DulceDecorum]

3. Wrong seal

I thought it resembled the seal on the new US money



but the wings in the Iraqi seal are different.
Perhaps I was confusing it with the stamp on the anthrax letters.
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/102301.htm

[jayfish]

5. I Thought It Looked A Bit More Like This One.

Jay

[DulceDecorum]

6. Totally!!

Thanks man!
Now I know I am not exeriencing early-onset Alzheimer's.

On Edit:
How did they wind up with the practically the same image?
What is the story behind THAT?

[jayfish]

7. I Don't Know..

the actual story behind the passport insignia. If I had to guess though, I'd say that BushCo. lacks conscience and the people they hire to be their conscience overlooked it. Remember the original name of GWII, "Operation Iraq Liberation", what's the acronym for that?

Jay

[leftchick]

8. omg....

that is it!! This is way beyond creepy!

[jayfish]

9. Yep, They Changed

the wings a bit, but there are other examples where the wings are a near match. Do a Google Images search for for "German eagle" or"Nazi eagle".

Jay

[bemildred]

4. "Baghdad security" is an oxymoron. nt