Pipe Dreams: The Plundering of Iraq's Oil Wealth

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Review "Pipe Dreams is a deeply reported account of an all-to-predictable state of affairs, with corporations and rapacious officials taking advantage of an institutionally weak and unstable country surrounded by war. Many characters in the book emerge with financial credit to their name, but few emerge with any moral credit." - William Armstrong, Hurryiet Daily News"With her trademark meticulous reporting, Erin Banco brings us the woefully untold story of theft in Iraq: the robbing of the Iraqi people's natural resource rights. She takes us behind the scenes of broken promises and charts an ongoing network of corruption and deceit that has continued to plunder not only Iraq's oil wealth, but the lives of its would-be beneficiaries. The result is a journalistic tour de force that can't be ignored." -- Lauren Bohn, Co-founder of Foreign Policy Interrupted and Middle East correspondent for The GroundTruth Project"Erin Banco expertly tells the complicated story of corruption that lies at the heart of the endless problems gripping Kurdistan and greater Iraq. Her investigative work on the country's troubled oil industry is deeply researched and engagingly told--and it shows how mismanagement and greed have turned a resource that should be a blessing into a curse. The book offers a unique and timely window onto the country's tumultuous past, as well as a lens for understanding the instability and violence that continues to plague it today." -- Mike Giglio, Buzzfeed"Investigative reporter Erin Banco reveals the complicated conspiracies keeping the richness of Iraqi oil from trickling down to the general populace....Banco's reportage vividly shows the human toll that deceit and subterfuge have taken on a land so rich in natural resources." - Kirkus Reviews Read more About the Author Erin Banco is an investigative reporter at the Star Ledger and NJ.com, where she focuses on the intersection of money and government. A former fellow at The New York Times and the Middle East correspondent for International Business Times, she has covered armed conflict and human rights violations in the Middle East for years. She is a graduate of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Read more