Iraq's Head Of Secret Police On CIA Payroll As Recently As 2005

OUR REAL MAN IN BAGHDAD:

Right on schedule, General George Casey, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, showed up on television to dangle the prospect of troop reductions before a weary public. Casey reissued the hearty perennial we can draw forces down "as long as the Iraqi security forces continue to progress and as long as this national unity government continues to operate that way and move the country forward." We hear that sort of admonition every few months, and after the Zarqawi killing and the installation of Iraqi security ministers, we were due for a repetition. What's more interesting is how on both fronts--security and politics--the United States is setting up insurance policies for enduring influence in Iraq after any such reduction of forces. For instance: a man named Muhammed Shahwani.


This weekend, Reuters reports, Shahwani clashed with Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki over what to do with Iraq's militias-slash-death squads, most of whom are loyal to the Shia political parties that elevated Maliki to his job. Unsurprisingly, Maliki--despite telling the United States everything we want to hear about sectarianism--wants to fold the militias into the security forces, thereby reinforcing their quasi-official position as tools of Shia influence. Shahwani says this is a really bad idea, and Maliki should instead pension militiamen off. But the real question isn't who's right. (Shahwani is, even though his suggestion won't end militia activity in Iraq, either.) It's: "Who the hell is Muhammed Shahwani?"


Glad you asked. Shahwani is the head of an Iraqi intelligence structure (or, if you prefer, secret police) which is independent of the interior or defense ministries. And funny thing about that: He took his job under the Iyad Allawi interim administration, meaning he's kept his job despite two changes of government. Why might that be? Well, when last anyone checked in--anyone being the intrepid Hannah Allam and Warren Strobel of Knight Ridder--it was because the CIA refused to turn over Shahwani's intelligence bureau to Iraq's elected Shia officials. According to Allam and Strobel, CIA paid Shahwani's salary and kept funding his agency, largely out of the fear that it didn't want to turn over intelligence assets to a government with ties to Iran. I have absolutely no information that Shahwani is still on CIA's payroll. But after a year and yet another change of government following Knight Ridder's story, Shahwani--unique among Iraqi officials--is still in place. Hmm.

more at:
http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=20197