I'm a loser because I lost the account potential with the cheap and clean IB, and now I have to have several separate accounts for the FX and futures trades. IB lost tens of thousands in commissions from a customer. We'll both survive, me with a little less money (extra charges), and they with a little less money (one lemming customer out).
It's well documented on Elite Trader that IB sucks like this. It's not you and it's not even really where you're from. Iraq is just one way to trigger it. They like to follow rules very strictly. When I opened up my account with IB four years ago, I was rejected and only managed to open up the account with persistance (the fees were worth it to me). My problem was they didn't like my paperwork. Apparently, they don't consider a month to month lease sufficient to prove my address and I didn't and couldn't possess anything else on their list of acceptable documents. It took me about five emails to get IB to finally say ok to me after providing them with account statements from another broker plus a voter registration confirmation to my address.