US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD3000

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 003000 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/19/2025 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, KDEM, IZ, Security, Sunni Arab 
SUBJECT: ASSASSINS MURDER ONE SUNNI ARAB CONSTITUTION 
COMMITTEE MEMBER, ONE ADVISOR, AND THEIR DRIVER 
 
REF: BAGHDAD 2953 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Robert Ford. 
Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D) 
 
1.  (C) Gunmen assassinated Sunni Arab constitution 
committee member Mujbil Shaykh Issa, Sunni Arab expert 
advisor Dhamin Aleiwi al-Ubaidi and their driver Aziz 
Isma'eel in Baghdad on July 19.  The three men were 
headed to a restaurant in the Karada neighborhood of 
Baghdad and had left the International Zone shortly 
beforehand after a full day of constitution-related 
meetings.  Issa and al-Ubaidi were friends and had 
worked together as law professors at Kirkuk 
University.  Both men were members and nominees of the 
National Dialogue Council.  Their assassination comes 
after two Sunni Arab supplemental members had 
previously withdrawn from the committee, reportedly in 
part after receiving threats (see reftel).  Two 
hardline National Dialogue Council members, Abd al- 
Naser al-Janabi and Fakhri Qaisi, replaced those two 
members officially this week. 
 
2.  (C) Word of the assassination came in the midst of 
a constitution committee meeting and PolOff ran into 
the members as they emerged after hearing the news. 
They were stricken but defiant.  SCIRI member Akram 
al-Hakim said he believed the Sunnis deserved "five 
times" more security support than the rest of the 
members, but he said he thought the decision to go to 
a restaurant unguarded was foolish.  Sunni Arab 
supplemental member Shaykh Muhammad Abed Rabbo al- 
Jaburi was angry that he and his colleagues have not 
been given the same Iraqi-government funded security 
package as the rest of the TNA members -- each of whom 
is budgeted for 10 guards.  Jaburi and others 
acknowledged that Mujbil Shaykh Issa traveled 
unguarded.  One journalist remarked to PolOff that 
Issa had bragged to her that very afternoon that he 
could move comfortably among even insurgents in Iraq. 
 
3.  (C) COMMENT: This assassination is unlikely to 
spark a withdrawal by Sunni Arab delegates -- Jaburi, 
for example, was cordial and committed even following 
the incident.  Similarly, we have heard committee 
member Abdel Nasser al-Janabi reiterate several times 
that despite threats to his life he would not stop his 
engagement in the political process.  The killings, 
however, likely will lead them emphasize the pressure 
they are under and the limits of their maneuvering 
room. 
 
4.  (U) REO HILLA, REO BASRA, REO MOSUL, and REO 
KIRKUK, minimize consderd. 
 
 
Satterfield