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2020-10-23 Iraq
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Iraqi leader battles pressure from friends and foes in security crackdown
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[REUTERS] It was a series of intercepted phone calls on a tense night in June that made Iraq’s new prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi fully realise how few friends he had.
During one call, a senior Iraqi leader with strong ties to Iran
 ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
instructed the security chief for Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, which hosts government buildings and foreign embassies, not to stand in the way of gunnies who were storming the area, two Iraqi security officials said.
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The gunnies were angry at the arrest of comrades accused of firing anti-U.S. rockets. During the hours-long standoff, the militia detained several members of a U.S.-trained counter-terrorism force, according to the security officials and two militia sources.
On the June 25 call, the leader with ties to Iran warned the Green Zone security chief, Shihab al-Khiqani, that "a clash would open the gates of hell" between the militias and the forces guarding the area, according to one of the security officials, who viewed a transcript of the call. The second security official and the two militia sources corroborated that call and said Khiqani was told by militia commanders in other phone conversations that night to avoid any standoff with the paramilitaries.
Kadhimi, a former intelligence chief and U.S. ally who had been in the Green Zone that night, learned of the conversations around a week later, after launching an investigation into the events, the two security officials said. They said it shook him, serving as a stark lesson about his enemies’ power.
Kadhimi fired Khiqani immediately after the investigation and embarked on a wide-ranging purge of top state security posts that he presses on with - now under renewed U.S. pressure.
The communications intercepted by Iraqi security services on the night of June 25 brought home the stark reality for Kadhimi that despite being backed by Washington, he could not even trust Iraqi government forces to stop Iran-backed militias running rampant outside his offices.
It set the tone for Kadhimi’s premiership, which has been marked by attempts to exert control over a fractious Iraqi state while placating both an unpredictable White House and the anti-U.S., Iran-aligned groups that want him to fail.
Since taking office in May after being Iraq’s third prime minister-designate in 10 weeks, a key part of Kadhimi’s policy is to reduce the stranglehold Iran-backed militias have developed on large parts of Iraq’s security forces since the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
But he operates in a complicated political reality that limits his ability to make changes, say security officials, militia leaders, senior politicians and Western diplomats.
They say Kadhimi’s approach might work but question whether his interim cabinet can make a difference before a general election expected as early as June.
The prime minister has recently had to contend with a threat from Washington to close its embassy if he cannot stop anti-U.S. rocket attacks by pro-Iran militias, and demands from the militias that he boot out American troops or they will escalate attacks on Western targets.
"The Americans want Kadhimi to go further and faster. He’s saying I can’t without toppling my government or starting a civil war," one Western diplomat said.
Iraqi government front man Ahmed Mulla Talal said the prime minister had implemented many changes in the leadership of the security forces but that it was unrealistic to expect total reform within five months. "You can’t describe the big changes Kadhimi has made as being slow" because of the mismanagement of the security system by previous governments over the past 17 years, he said.
He described the U.S. talk of closing its embassy as "a worrying step for the Iraqi government" but said "there is no pressure from any side to move faster on any step."
The front man didn’t respond to specific questions about the June 25 call or Kadhimi’s response to it.
Kadhimi, a former journalist who regularly removes his tie to jump into helicopters and tour different provinces, has talked candidly about many challenges facing his government but has avoided mentioning specific militias that stand in his way. "I will not tolerate rogue groups hijacking our homeland to create chaos," he tweeted days before the Green Zone incident.
In response to questions about U.S. pressure and Kadhimi’s record, a U.S. embassy official said Iraq had a "duty to protect diplomatic premises ... but overall we are pleased that Iraq is taking steps to strengthen security for diplomatic missions in Baghdad."
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Posted by Fred 2020-10-23 00:00||
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