Inside the Ring

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CIA in Iraq

The CIA has been given a leading role in developing the Iraqi intelligence service in Baghdad.

U.S. officials say the new spy agency reflects the same institutional weaknesses as the CIA, including poor operational security, bad counterintelligence and an emphasis on process over results.

U.S. officials say the biggest problem is that at least 5 percent of the new intelligence agency members were recruited from the former Mukhabarat, Saddam Hussein's repressive security and intelligence service that had about 15,000 members. The service began last summer and has about 1,000 members.

The director is Muhammad Abdullah Shahwani, who was a general under Saddam. He defected from Iraq in 1990 and set up a U.S.-backed opposition military group. Three of his sons were executed by Saddam in retaliation for the defection.

U.S. officials believe the Iraqi spy service is penetrated by former regime members who are working with insurgents.

Gen. Shahwani has spoken out about Iranian influence in Iraq. U.S. officials estimate that Iran has dispatched "hundreds" of intelligence agents and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps agents to destabilize the would-be democracy.

Gen. Shahwani told an Arabic newspaper reporter in Baghdad this week that between 20,000 and 30,000 terrorists and insurgents are operating in Iraq, mainly in Sunni-dominated areas. The insurgents are backed by about 200,000 sympathizers.

A senior State Department official in Baghdad challenged this estimate, noting: "There are obviously many people in it. But as to numbers, I don't think anyone knows, including General Shahwani."