Armed with a Colt 5.56 mm M16A2 Rifle, US Marine (USMC) Sergeant (SGT) Brian J. Griffin, Task Force Yankee, Public Affairs Office (PAO) poses while firefighters fight an oil blaze on a wellhead at Gas Oil Separation Plant 6 in Southern Iraq during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. (USMC PHOTO BY LCPL DICK KOTECKI 030327-M-2306K-017)

PODCAST: What Happened to Iraq’s Oil Wealth?

What happened to Iraq’s oil wealth? That is the central question of the book: Pipe Dreams: The Plundering of Iraq’s Oil Wealth by my guest today Erin Banco.

Erin Banco is an investigative reporter at the Star Ledger in New Jersey, where she covers the intersection of money and government. She has reported from the middle east for years and puts her investigative skills to use by examining documents and cultivating sources who explain the sordid tale of corruption surrounding Iraq’s oil wealth, particularly in the Kurdish region.

Iraq sits on the world’s fifth largest oil reserves, but oil wealth has not trickled down to the Iraqi people. Erin Banco explains why.

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