Thomas Veil
Apr 15, 2007, 08:23 PM
Divided Iraq has two spy agencies
Shiite officials wary of the CIA-funded, Sunni-led official intelligence service have set up a parallel organization.
By Ned Parker, Times Staff Writer
April 15, 2007
BAGHDAD — Suspicious of Iraq's CIA-funded national intelligence agency, members of the Iraqi government have erected a "shadow" secret service that critics say is driven by a Shiite Muslim agenda and has left the country with dueling spy agencies.
The minister of state for national security, a Shiite named Sherwan Waili, has built a spy service boasting an estimated 1,200 intelligence agents out of a second-tier ministry with a minimal staff and meager budget, Western officials say.
"He has representatives in every province," a Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "At the moment, it's a slightly shady parallel organization."
Shiite officials say the minister is providing information on Al Qaeda and former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party that isn't being supplied by the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, or INIS, Iraq's primary spy service.
The INIS was established in the spring of 2004 by the U.S.-led provisional authority and has been under the command of Gen. Mohammed Shahwani, a Sunni Arab involved in a CIA-backed coup plot against Hussein a decade ago. For the last three years, the agency has been funded by the CIA, U.S. military and Iraqi officials say.
The service reports directly to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, but coreligionists in his government distrust the agency, which has agents from the Hussein era. For most of 2005 and the first part of 2006, Shahwani said, he was banned from Cabinet meetings.
"The general feeling is that the intelligence service is not functioning or conducting its work in the proper way," said deputy parliament speaker Khalid Attiya, a Shiite.
The two spy agencies risk becoming open partisans in Iraq's civil war if vying political parties do not reach an agreement on how to rule the country, one analyst warned.
"If no critical compromise is reached, the security services are going to fall apart on ethnic, sectarian and party lines," said Joost Hiltermann, Middle East director of the International Crisis Group. "It will be a failed state situation like Somalia."LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-intel15apr15,0,3066724.story?coll=la-home-headlines)
Wonderful. Yet more evidence that it just isn't working over there.
Shiite officials wary of the CIA-funded, Sunni-led official intelligence service have set up a parallel organization.
By Ned Parker, Times Staff Writer
April 15, 2007
BAGHDAD — Suspicious of Iraq's CIA-funded national intelligence agency, members of the Iraqi government have erected a "shadow" secret service that critics say is driven by a Shiite Muslim agenda and has left the country with dueling spy agencies.
The minister of state for national security, a Shiite named Sherwan Waili, has built a spy service boasting an estimated 1,200 intelligence agents out of a second-tier ministry with a minimal staff and meager budget, Western officials say.
"He has representatives in every province," a Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "At the moment, it's a slightly shady parallel organization."
Shiite officials say the minister is providing information on Al Qaeda and former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party that isn't being supplied by the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, or INIS, Iraq's primary spy service.
The INIS was established in the spring of 2004 by the U.S.-led provisional authority and has been under the command of Gen. Mohammed Shahwani, a Sunni Arab involved in a CIA-backed coup plot against Hussein a decade ago. For the last three years, the agency has been funded by the CIA, U.S. military and Iraqi officials say.
The service reports directly to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, but coreligionists in his government distrust the agency, which has agents from the Hussein era. For most of 2005 and the first part of 2006, Shahwani said, he was banned from Cabinet meetings.
"The general feeling is that the intelligence service is not functioning or conducting its work in the proper way," said deputy parliament speaker Khalid Attiya, a Shiite.
The two spy agencies risk becoming open partisans in Iraq's civil war if vying political parties do not reach an agreement on how to rule the country, one analyst warned.
"If no critical compromise is reached, the security services are going to fall apart on ethnic, sectarian and party lines," said Joost Hiltermann, Middle East director of the International Crisis Group. "It will be a failed state situation like Somalia."LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-intel15apr15,0,3066724.story?coll=la-home-headlines)
Wonderful. Yet more evidence that it just isn't working over there.
