TNA FIRST DEPUTY SPEAKER WANTS TO FIX PAST U.S.

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
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
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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
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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
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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."

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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
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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.

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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