Aisha Down

Oct 8, 2024 | occrp.org | Aisha Down |Lara Dihmis |Rana Sabbagh |Kevin Hall

In January, an attack drone detonated at a U.S. base near the Iraqi border in northeast Jordan, killing three soldiers and wounding dozens more — the most dramatic in a chain of strikes by Iran-backed militants since Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. The U.S. quickly cracked down on a financial network it said supported Kataib Hezbollah, the Iraqi militia blamed for the attack.

May 8, 2024 | occrp.org | Aisha Down |Lara Dihmis

Tweet this Share this on Facebook DONATE Swiss tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) obtained a stake in a company that won a disputed license to make and market cigarettes in Egypt, one of the world’s most desirable tobacco markets. The company’s full ownership details are not public, but one of PMI’s fellow shareholders is a PMI distributor.

May 8, 2024 | newarab.com | Jason McLure |Aisha Down |Lara Dihmis

This story is part of Smoking for the State, a The Examination series examining government-controlled tobacco companies supported in part, by a grant from the Pulitzer Center. The Examination is a nonprofit investigative newsroom covering global public health, which receives funding from Bloomberg Philantropies among others. This instalment was reported in collaboration with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

Jan 12, 2024 | occrp.org | Aisha Down

Iraqi authorities have deployed special forces to increase security at Baghdad International Airport. The move follows OCCRP’s December investigation that revealed the company contracted to secure the airport had no previous experience, and many of its staff claimed their salaries were not paid for several months. Reporters found that the Canadian company Biznis Intel was appointed to secure the airport in September 2022, but appeared to have misrepresented its credentials to Iraqi officials.

Dec 21, 2023 | occrp.org | Aisha Down

Employees of Canadian company Biznis Intel allege they are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars, and cast doubt on the company’s ability to secure the airport. Innocent Odar, a 37-year-old Ugandan security contractor and canine expert, says he was expelled from Iraq in late September after he and five colleagues wrote a letter to police complaining about their working conditions and trying to tell them that the country’s biggest airport was in danger.