Iraq politicos make millions. And die.
Michael Rubin passes on a report detailing the salary of some Iraqi officials:
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani pulls down a salary of approximately $12 million per year, and that doesn't include the money that is channeled through the Nokan Corporation, the company that handles his party's business interests. Masud Barzani, president of Iraqi Kurdistan -- which comprises Iraq's three northern provinces -- pulls in a salary of approximately $400,000 per month, and that doesn't include his extensive business holdings, the mountaintop resort he confiscated as a family compound, the public money he has absorbed from the treasury, or payments he receives from some neighboring states.
That said, being an Iraqi politician isn't all mountaintop resorts and multi-million dollar paychecks:
Some 150 politicians, civil servants, tribal chiefs, police officers, Sunni clerics and members of Awakening Councils have been assassinated throughout Iraq since the election â?? bloodshed apparently aimed at heightening turmoil in the power vacuum created by more than three months without a national government.
Freedom sure is untidy.
(AP Photo)
