TNA PUSHING FOR STRONG RESPONSE TO TERROR ATTACKS

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 002979

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/18/2025
TAGS: PGOV PINS PTER IZ
SUBJECT: TNA PUSHING FOR STRONG RESPONSE TO TERROR ATTACKS


Classified By: Political Counselor Robert Ford.
Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D)


1. (U) The Transitional National Assembly is taking a
more public and critical role in national security
policy following the latest string of suicide attacks
in Iraq. TNA Speaker Hachim al-Hasani on July 17
proposed a three-minute moment of silence on
Wednesday, July 20 at noon in memory of the victims of
the Musayib bombing.


2. (C) The representatives passed that recommendation
with a unanimous vote, but not before pushing a much
wider array of more activist remedies. Influential
cleric and SCIRI member Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer used
the occasion to revive calls for the formation of
Popular Security Committees. (Comment: In Iraqi
political lexicon, a popular or local security
committee usually means militias or irregular security
forces. End Comment.) He described the string of
attacks as a failure by MNF-I and said such committees
needed to be formed to avert civil war. He called
upon the Sunni leadership to condemn Ba'athists and
terrorism. Shia parliamentarian Khudayr al-Khuzai'e
warned that the Shia would eventually start
retaliating for attacks against them and also urged
that popular security committees be established. The
TNA heard a classified report on the security
situation in the July 18 session. We have heard that
that report also pushed for the security committee
idea and called for deeper de-Ba'athification and
restructuring in the security ministries. The head of
Iraq's intelligence service may also be called in for
questioning.


3. (C) Comment: We have batted down the idea of
Popular Security Committees in meetings with SCIRI
leader Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim. SCIRI dropped the idea
after our warnings about militia formation but clearly
never dropped the idea. We will be meeting with
members of the TNA Security and Defense Committee July
19 to hear the details of their classified report and
see whether this idea has emerged in force. Until
then we will continue to caution against vigilantism
or militia activity as false solutions to a pressing
security problem.


4. (U) REO HILLA, REO BASRA, REO MOSUL, and REO
KIRKUK, minimize considered.


Satterfield