Iraqi officials may have colluded in Britons' kidnap

from The Guardian h/t HRW:

Iraqi officials may have colluded in Britons' kidnap
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Watch the video report of our investigation Link to this video

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.

Audio: Maggie O'Kane of Guardian Films explains the background Link to this audio
The investigation has also uncovered compelling evidence that the one of the key motives behind the kidnappings may have been the nature of the work the hostages were doing in fighting massive corruption in Iraq's government ministries.

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 [at the ministry of finance], this is the place where all the money to do with Iraq and all Iraq's financial matters are housed."

Last month the bodies of two British security guards, Jason Cresswell and Jason Swindlehurst, were handed over to the British embassy in Baghdad. And on Wednesday this week Gordon Brown said that the remaining two guards, Alan McMenemy and Alec MacLachlan were "very likely" to be dead.

Moore is still believed to be alive, although nothing has been heard from him for months.

Today Avril Sweeney, Peter Moore's mother, said of the Guardian investigation: "This is the only thing that makes perfect sense – the only thing that has ever made perfect sense since the kidnap began. If this evidence is correct then there are massive questions that need to be answered. There is no way that 40 armed policemen would be able to storm into that building and take my son. This was all planned.

"Everything has been so tightly controlled. I appeal to the Iraqi government to bring about the safe release of my son."

A Foreign Office spokesman today told the Guardian: "This is a highly complex and challenging case, illustrated by the scale of the original abduction. There has been widespread speculation in Iraq about many aspects of the case.

The kidnappers' tactics Link to this interactive

"We have never ruled out the possibility that the hostage takers may have received advance notice or other assistance from sympathisers who were aware of the hostages' visit to the ministry that day. But since the beginning we have worked closely with Iraqi counterparts at all levels that we can trust, including the police, and continue to have excellent co-operation with them."