Deputy Treasury Secretary Wolin Snuck In and Out of Iraq

This just supports my belief that the only reason casualties are down in Iraq is not because Iraq has become more friendly to American occupying forces, but because the only land the occupying forces are occupying is the Green Zone and well fortified outposts. Beyond that no American soldier dare tread.

When you have an upper-level Treasury officer meeting with high level Iraqis and the Treasury Secretary has to sneak into the country, you no the place isn't secure.

The Treasury today announced that Deputy Secretary Wolin visited Baghdad on February 12 through February 14.

According to the Treasury, during his visit, Wolin met with Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Rowsch Shaways, Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani, Minister of Finance Rafi al-Issawi, Chairman, PM Advisory Committee Thamir al-Ghadhban, Central Bank Governor Sinan al-Shibibi and Council of Representatives Finance Committee Chairman Haider al-Abadi.

Says the Treasury:

His meetings focused on a range of issues, including strategies to help strengthen Iraq’s economic institutions and public financial management; financial sector reforms and efforts to improve the investment climate; and engagement with key international partners including the IMF and World Bank.

Deputy Secretary Wolin also discussed the significant threat associated with Iran’s increasing ties to Iraq’s developing financial sector and the need for the development of a sound anti-money-laundering/combating-the-financing-of-terrorism (AML/CFT) regime to protect against illicit financial activity, support Iraq’s integration into international markets and attract foreign investment.

While in Baghdad, the Deputy Secretary co-chaired a meeting of the Economic and Energy Cooperation Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) that was established under the U.S.-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement to strengthen U.S.-Iraqi bilateral economic and commercial ties.