Iraq's dueling spy agencies could fuel sectarian rift; 'In Iraq, everybody spies on everybody'

Raw Story
Monday April 16, 2007

Shiite officials in Iraq have set up a "shadow" spy agency to counter the CIA-funded, Sunni-led official government intelligence outfit, reports the LA Times.

"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," writes Ned Parker.

"At the moment, it's a slightly shady parallel organization," the article quotes an anonymous western diplomat as saying of Waili's organization.

The official Iraqi spy agency, the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, is under the leadership of a Sunni, Gen. Mohammed Shahwani, who was involved in a CIA plan to overthrow Saddam Hussein in the 1990s. It is funded by the CIA, according to US and Iraqi officials.

Shiites at Waili's agency argue that the INIS is not doing a good enough job of watching al Qaeda and former members of Hussein's Baath Party, and their rival agency fills that void, writes the Times.

"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," the article continues.

"In Iraq, everybody spies on everybody, everybody kills everybody," says Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud Mashadani. "We are still living in a Saddam culture."

Excerpts from the article follow:

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The U.S. had invested heavily in creating a strong spy service and trusted Shahwani, who has been a crucial asset to the Americans since the fall of Hussein's regime. Shahwani, who owns a home in the U.S., provided them access to old army officers, and formed an Iraqi special forces unit, called the "Shahwanis," that fought in the November 2004 battle to retake Fallouja from Sunni Arab insurgents.

Shahwani's service "is funded completely by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, not by the Iraqi government," a U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity. "U.S. funding for the INIS amounts to $3 billion over a three-year period that started in 2004."

...

Waili said his main goals were to crack down on Al Qaeda, Baathists, militias and criminals. But his service has no legal charter to engage in domestic spying or arrest people, and it is lobbying for a law that would formalize its surveillance activities, make it a full ministry and bring the CIA-funded INIS under its control. But the governing Shiite coalition has not made its mind up about whether to formalize Waili's powers.

...

In their most controversial operation, Waili's agents spied on at least one Sunni member of parliament they suspected of terrorist activities. The agents submitted evidence during the winter to the Iraqi judiciary in a campaign to strip Sheik Abdel Nasser Janabi of his parliamentary immunity.

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READ THE FULL LA TIMES ARTICLE HERE

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