US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD3143

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 003143 
 
SIPDIS 
 
REL/GBR AUS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/30/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, IZ, National Assembly, Sunni Arab, United Iraqi Alliance, Iran, Ba'ath 
SUBJECT: TNA FIRST DEPUTY SPEAKER WANTS TO FIX PAST U.S. 
MISTAKES, WILL HELP BRIDGE SUNNI-KURD DIVIDE 
 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Robert S. Ford. 
Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D) 
 
1. (C/NF REL GBR AUS) SUMMARY.  TNA First Deputy Speaker 
Dr. Husayn al Shahristani told the Ambassador on July 28 
that the U.S. and Iraq must work to fix mistakes made 
during the CPA era that have led to violence that cannot be 
controlled by Coalition Forces and Iraqi Security Forces. 
The insecurity hurts the credibility of Grand Ayatollah Ali 
al-Sistani.  The Iraqi people must therefore take greater 
ownership of their security by forming unarmed neighborhood 
watches.  Sharistani pointed to corruption as another large 
problem that must be addressed.  He also agreed to work to 
bridge the differences between the Shia, Kurds, and Sunnis 
drafting the constitution.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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Fixing The Mistakes of the Past 
------------------------------- 
 
2. (C/NF REL GBR AUS) TNA First Deputy Speaker Dr. Husayn 
al Shahristani (Shia-United Iraqi Alliance) told 
Ambassador, who was accompanied by DCM, on July 28 that 
serious mistakes made by the CPA and the Iraqi Governing 
Council were still haunting Iraq and needed to be fixed. 
According to Shahristani, the biggest mistake CPA made was 
delaying the elections.  He elaborated, saying if the 
elections had been held one year earlier, Iraqis would have 
been shown early on that they were responsible for their 
own future.  This, he feels, would have drained off much 
support that the insurgency had early on. 
 
3. (C/NF REL GBR AUS) Shahristani added, "Certain groups 
(read, the Sunni Arabs) feel they have a divine right to 
rule."  "It will take time to get them to realize there is 
equality" among the different groups in Iraq now, he said. 
Getting the Sunni Arabs to support the political process is 
the only way for Iraq to move forward and meet the August 
15 constitution deadline. 
 
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Iranian Interference Will Not Be Tolerated 
------------------------------------------ 
 
4. (C/NF REL GBR AUS) Shahristani told Ambassador that 
Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs, especially any Iranian 
support for terrorism and narcotics trafficking, would not 
be tolerated.  Ambassador pointed to terrorist training 
conducted in Iraq by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps 
(IRGC) and Hizbullah as examples of direct Iranian meddling 
in Iraq.  Shahristani became visibly animated at this point 
and again said, "This will not be tolerated."  Shahristani 
did admit that controlling the flow of narcotics is very 
difficult, even for Iran, but estimated that only about one 
percent of all the narcotics that enter Iran "from the 
east" transit into Iraq. 
 
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Fighting Corruption 
------------------- 
 
5. (C/NF REL GBR AUS) Shahristani pointed to corruption as 
one of the largest problems plaguing the Iraqi Government. 
He named the Ministries of Finance, Defense, Trade, and 
Housing as especially "rotten."  Members of these 
ministries, Shahristani said, are trying to "hide behind 
the U.S. Embassy" as they commit their crimes.  "If someone 
is mismanaging money," said Shahristani, "they must be 
arrested." 
 
6. (C/NF REL GBR AUS) The Ministry of Finance has serious 
accounting problems, said Shahristani.  Ambassador said 
the Ministry informed him it had USD 6 billion on hand, 
a figure later revised down to USD 3 billion.  Ambassador 
pressed Shahristani to take positive steps to root out and 
combat corruption, saying, "We must find out what is going 
on." 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
Sistani's Credibility Tied To Security Situation 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
7. (C/NF REL GBR AUS) Shahristani told Ambassador that the 
security situation in Iraq is undermining the credibility 
of Ayatollah Sistani.  The Iraqi public is blaming Sistani 
for security problems and other failures, which is 
diminishing his authority.  Iraqi communities must be 
protected as soon as possible if Sistani's credibility is 
to survive.  Because neither Coalition Forces (CF) nor the 
ISF can keep the peace, Iraqi citizens must be allowed to 
form unarmed neighborhood watches to protect themselves, 
suggested Shahristani.  Shahristani argued that if foreign 
fighters were permitted to stir up trouble in Iraq, then 
the door would be open to continued foreign interference in 
other areas.  CF, he added, must cooperate better with the 
Iraqi Ministry of Defense. 
 
8. (C/NF REL GBR AUS) Ambassador acknowledged Shahristani's 
concerns about security in Iraq.  Ambassador reiterated the 
USG position that building up national institutions, 
including the ISF, should be the highest priority.  If the 
neighborhood watches were unarmed, however, Ambassador said 
this would be "no problem." 
 
9. (C/NF REL GBR AUS) Shahristani told PolOff before the 
meeting that the nature of insurgent attacks proves members 
of the old regime are committing them.  For example, 
attacks often pinpoint exact electricity and water lines 
that supply Baghdad.  Only people with an intimate 
knowledge of the electrical and water grids, such as 
engineers from the former regime, could accomplish this. 
In some cases, electricity has been diverted from Baghdad 
to Sunni Arab areas, and these areas suffer very few 
electrical blackouts. 
 
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Shahristani The Bridge Builder 
------------------------------ 
 
10. (C/NF REL GBR AUS) Shahristani agreed to work to bring 
the Kurds and Sunni Arabs together with the Shia to achieve 
agreement on the constitution.  He said this should not be 
difficult, as their positions were fairly close.  Sunni 
Arabs feel they have become second-class citizens, and that 
others will make decisions affecting their future.  Kurds 
and Sunni Arabs are not serious about many of their points 
of disagreement, he said.  For example, Kurds propose 
"Federal Republic of Iraq" as the new name of the country. 
To answer this, the Sunni Arabs proposed "Islamic Federal 
Republic of Iraq."  According to Shahristani, neither side 
really wants these names; "Republic of Iraq" will be fine. 
Each side is merely playing games of brinkmanship with the 
other.  Shahristani added that the Shia and U.S. agree on 
many issues. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
De-Ba'athification in the Iraqi Special Tribunal 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
11. (C/NF REL GBR AUS) Addressing pending Iraqi Special 
Tribunal (IST) legislation, Ambassador pressed Shahristani 
to ensure the de-Ba'athification policy as applied to the 
IST, would only apply to those judges who were members of 
the top three or four levels of the Ba'ath party. 
Replacing any of the trained IST judges at this juncture 
would have immediate and severe repercussions, including 
delaying the judicial process in many of the upcoming 
tribunal cases.  Shahristani indicated that the legislation 
currently under consideration explicitly states that all 
court decisions made up until now will be recognized and 
that no judges will be removed (Comment:  The legislation 
under consideration in fact does require that all judges 
who belonged to the Ba'ath be removed, although Shahristani 
told Embassy in subsequent conversation that this was not 
the "intent" of the legislation.  Embassy is engaging TNA 
Legal Committee Chair and others on this issue.  End 
Comment.) 
 
12. (U) REO HILLA, REO BASRA, REO MOSUL, and REO KIRKUK, 
minimize considered. 
 
Khalilzad