Over lunch on a sultry Baghdad day, Iraqi businessman Mohammed Jawad talked camels and corruption. "Iraq is like a camel," he said. "If it is healthy, no one can kill it. But when it is sick on the ground, the camel dies by a thousand knives." The knives are wielded by corrupt ministers and their cronies - tribal and family - who force contractors to inflate tender bids for contracts worth billions so they can gouge millions for themselves. The new Iraq receives foreign aid worth close to $US100 billion ($A126 billion) and the corruption watchdog Transparency International says it could become "the biggest corruption scandal in history".

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