Iraqi National Intelligence Service
The Iraqi National Intelligence Service, according to the "Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period", Chapter 3, Article 27D, dated 08 March 2004, "shall collect information, assess threats to national security, and advise the Iraqi government. This Service shall be under civilian control, shall be subject to legislative oversight, and shall operate pursuant to law and in accordance with recognized principles of human rights."
About $3 billion in secret funds was included in the $87 billion Iraq appropriation approved by Congress in early November 2003. The funding, spread over three years, was in the Other Procurement Air Force account that is used to fund the Centeral Intelligence Agency.
The Central Intelligence Agency plans to establish a domestic intelligence service to spy on groups and individuals inside Iraq targeting US troops and civilians. The CIA plans to establish the new service with help from intelligence services in Jordan. Iraqi Interior Minister Nouri Badran, a secular Shiite Muslim, was initially selected to head the new agency. Badran had worked with the CIA over the previous decade attempting to incite coups to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
On 04 April 2004 Coalition Administrator Paul Bremer announced the men who will head Iraq's national defense structure and announced the formation of a new Iraqi intelligence agency during a Baghdad press conference. Bremer said that Mohammed Abdullah Mohammed al-Shehwani will be the director general of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service. Al-Shehwani was in the Iraqi military from 1955 until 1984, when Saddam's forces forced him into retirement. The former Air Force officer's three sons were killed by Hussein. He fled to the United Kingdom around 1990, where he led an underground opposition group from 1991 to 1996. He fought alongside coalition forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The Governing Council published the complete charter of the Intelligence Service. Now all Iraqis can know the Intelligence Service’s authorities. They will be able to judge its performance against that charter. Additionally, it is important for all Iraqis to know that the new Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) will have no power to arrest people, removing another power abused by Saddam’s mukharabat. The INIS is also forbidden from reporting on domestic political issues or involving itself in the political process.
Intelligence is crucial to Iraq protecting itself and winning its own war on terror. The intelligence agencies of the previous regime were routinely used to quash dissent, arrest those who disagreed with Saddam Hussein and terrorize the Iraqi people. "Iraq has too much sad experience of unbridled power to permit too much power to reside once again in one set of hands," Bremer said. The head of government will appoint the director general of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, and that person will be confirmed by the National Assembly. The service will not meddle in politics, Bremer said.
The Iraqi National Congress (INC) Information Collection Program was begun in 2000, and after the 2003 was was a vehicle for interviewing Iraqi nationals for intelligence. About one-fifth of the verbal debriefings of sources in Iraq were carried out by the ICP. The ICP received $340,000 a month from the DIA's Defense Human Intelligence Service (DHS) following its 2002 assignment to DIA.
