Erbil archbishop named in federal lawsuit targeting Iraqi mob
ROME – A dual Iraqi-American woman has named Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda in a federal lawsuit in the United States over claims about his personal, political, and business ties to what is essentially the Iraqi mafia.
For years, Warda has been a point of reference not only within his Chaldean Catholic community, but for Iraqi Christians generally, especially in the wake of the violent persecution and mass displacement unleashed by ISIS in 2014.
Amid the ISIS-induced mass displacement and the ongoing effort to rebuild after the liberation of the Nineveh Plain in 2017, Warda gained a reputation as an avid entrepreneur and one of the strongest defenders of one of the world’s most persecuted Christian minorities.
This reputation has also won him strong ties in Washinton, developing a strong relationship with United States Republican Congressman Chris Smith, who visited camps for the displaced in Erbil in December 2016…