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Length: 5:37
[NOTE: there was an
audio glitch in the version that aired during AC360,
so I have dubbed in the version that aired the next
day on NewsRoom.]
ANDERSON COOPER: The kind of warfare in the insurgent
video that you saw before the break is what we're
used to seeing in Iraq, but there's another fight
going on behind the scenes. This battle is taking
place in the shadows, a quiet struggle for control of
Iraq's intelligence agencies, and it is a fight the
United States simply cannot afford to lose.
CNN's Michael Ware investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is
the face of the intelligence wars here, an Iraqi
officer unable to show his identity amid the shambles
of his agency's southern headquarters. It was stormed
not by Sunni insurgents or Shia militia, but by
coalition troops and Iraqi special forces who suspect
he's working for another side.
It's a scene far from the other Iraq war on TV
screens of roadside bombs, suicide attacks and
firefights. This is a conflict waged in the hidden
world of espionage, between intelligence agencies
sponsored by the CIA and Iran.
It's about who controls Iraqi intelligence. And it's
a battle the U.S. risks losing.
It's all here in this document from Iraq's National
Security Council. In these pages, the blueprint for
the nation's new intelligence community. A blueprint
that would merge all intelligence gathering under
Iraqi government control, a government heavily
influenced by Iran.
It would be a damaging blow to the CIA, which since
the fall of Saddam's regime has built its largest
station in the world here. U.S. intelligence sources
tell CNN the agency has around 500 officers, more
than the CIA presence in Saigon during the Vietnam
War.
At stake is control of an organization ensconced
inside this heavily-defended building, the Iraqi
National Intelligence Service, or INIS. It's headed
by this man, Mohammed Abdullah Shehwani, a man so
secretive, this is one of the few known photographs
of him.
Appointed three years ago by the U.S., military and
intelligence sources say Shehwani's INIS is funded
completely by the CIA. Though an Iraqi agency, not
one cent comes from the government in Baghdad.
Top Iraqi government officials complain the agency is
beyond Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's control. But
now the Shia-led government is trying to assert that
control.
Shehwani, currently under Iraqi government
investigation over unspecified corruption
allegations, has not been seen in the country for at
least three months. U.S. ally and former prime
minister Ayad Allawi says Shehwani is being unfairly
targeted.
AYAD ALLAWI, FMR. IRAQ PRIME MINISTER: I don't know
whether it's an attack on the U.S. intelligence, but
definitely it's an attack, a political attack,
against Shehwani.
WARE: One of Shehwani's rivals is this man, Shirwan
al-Wa'eli, Iraq's minister for national security,
here on a recent tour of Baghdad neighborhoods. He
leads the agency that over the past two years,
according to U.S. intelligence, has grown to almost
3,000 operatives. The goal: to compete with the CIA.
And under the new intelligence plan, this agency is
set to grow even more, with the minister applauding
his relationship with Iran and distancing himself
from the U.S.
SHIRWAN KAMIL AL-WA'ELI, MINISTER OF STATE FOR
NATIONAL SECURITY (through translator): Multinational
forces are in Iraq. And they're supportive on the
security issue. And we have a good relationship with
them. But we do not bargain Iraq to any side. The
Americans give us only moral support, not logistical
support.
WARE: While the CIA-backed agency suffers, this
ministry has become an intelligence organization the
American government and its allies never meant it to
be.
CNN's repeated requests for on-the-record comments
from the U.S. military, embassy, and intelligence
agencies in Iraq went unanswered.
Meanwhile, the intelligence plan is due to go to the
Iraqi parliament. And what happens there may be every
bit as important as the battles on the streets of
Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Michael Ware joins us now from Baghdad.
Michael, how much influence does the Iranian
intelligence services have on the Iraqi government?
WARE: Well, this is a great, big, open question,
Anderson. Certainly if you speak to Western
intelligence or American military intelligence, they
will tell you that the Iranian influence is
significant, if not great.
Indeed, they point to a myriad of Iranian
intelligence and Revolutionary Guard networks
operating in Iraq, including some coming out of the
Iranian Embassy here in the capital of Baghdad. So
their influence cannot be underestimated, Anderson.
And this really is an intense rivalry for what is
basically the fate of the Iraqi intelligence
community.
COOPER: Fascinating report. Michael, thanks.
Appreciate it.
Michael Ware from Baghdad.