US embassy cable - 04AMMAN979

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 000979 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/09/2014 
TAGS: PREL, PTER, SOCI, IZ, JO 
SUBJECT: IRAQI GC MEMBER AND FRIENDS SHARE VIEWS ON IRAQ 
 
Classified By: Amb. Edward W. Gnehm for reasons 1.5(b) and (d) 
 
1. (C) Summary.  Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) member, Dr. 
Rajaa H. Khuzai (please protect), and a group of female Iraqi 
Shi'a, Sunni and Christian friends, expressed to us a mixture 
of gratitude for the U.S. liberation and criticism for 
post-liberation mistakes and squandered goodwill.  Dr. Khuzai 
said Iraqis, from all walks of life, are looking for 
employment, security, and a stable and reliable electricity 
supply.  She added that the U.S. is exacerbating religious 
tensions in Iraq by focusing on Iraqis' religious 
backgrounds.  End Summary. 
 
2. (C) On January 27, PolOff met with Dr. Rajaa H. Khuzai, 
one of three women on Iraq's GC, who was transiting through 
Jordan from Egypt on her way back to Iraq.  She was joined by 
several of her well-to-do Amman-based Iraqi friends (her 
circle of friends included Shi'a, Sunni and Christians.)  Dr. 
Khuzai, a Shi'a married to a Sunni from the Al-Diwanniya area 
in Iraq, is a well-educated and articulate woman who is a 
U.K. schooled gynecologist.  She said that she felt honored 
to be on the IGC and wanted to contribute to Iraq's 
reconstruction and help her fellow Iraqis live in a stable, 
secure and prosperous Iraq.  Her main concern continues to be 
the unavailability of jobs:  60-70 percent of the population, 
is unemployed.  This situation, she believes, is a 
destabilizing factor feeding the lack of security in Iraq. 
Her Iraqi friends around the dinner table all echoed her 
concerns by saying that creating jobs will "take care of" the 
Shi'a street demonstrators and give Iraqis hope for a better 
future. 
 
3. (C) They all stressed that the U.S. should do more to 
integrate the Sunni, Shi'a, Kurd and Christian communities, 
asserting that most Iraqis are secular by nature.  Dr. Khuzai 
confided that she had recently met with Ayatollah Sistani to 
gauge his opinion about women's roles in a democratic Iraq. 
She said he was forthcoming and frank and told her he was 
open to Iraqi women playing an important role in the future 
of Iraq.  One Jordanian-based friend said she was approached 
recently and encouraged to organize a Sunni political party. 
She said she summarily rejected the offer and asked PolOff if 
the U.S. had a Protestant, Baptist or Roman Catholic 
political party.  Everyone around the table opined that the 
U.S. is unwittingly perpetuating Saddam's "divide and rule" 
sectarianism by pitting Iraqi religious sects against each 
other.  All the women said they considered themselves Iraqis 
first, with their religious affiliations a distant second. 
 
4. (C) Dr. Khuzai asserted that there is a widely held 
perception among Iraqis that CPA Baghdad is demanding a 10 
percent cut on all contracts.  She alleged that anyone 
wanting to do business in Iraq goes directly to CPA Baghdad 
and shuns dealing with Iraqis at the ministries.  Businessmen 
know, she affirmed, "who has the power to close on deals." 
Most of the other Iraqi women also alleged that service 
contracts are going to non-Iraqi Arabs, when Iraqis could 
provide the services at a fraction of the cost. 
 
5. (C) Dr. Khuzai and her friends urged the U.S. to initiate 
an Iraqi satellite station to act as a counterbalance to the 
disinformation offered by Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyah 
satellite stations.  They argued that Iraq's message is not 
reaching average Iraqis in Iraq or the Arab world. 
 
6. (C) Comment: We offer these views as one slice of Iraqi 
opinion heard in Amman -- in this case, secular, 
anti-sectarian, pragmatic, western-oriented -- which cannot 
be said from this vantage point to reflect a majority view 
among Iraq's Shi'a. 
 
7. (U) CPA Baghdad minimize considered. 
 
Visit Embassy Amman's classified website at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman/ 
or access the site through the State Department's SIPRNET 
home page. 
GNEHM