BASRAH GOVERNOR AND HIS BROTHER ON ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L BASRAH 000156

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/3/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: BASRAH GOVERNOR AND HIS BROTHER ON ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AND
DUBAI TALKS ON NEW IRAQI GOVERNMENT

REF: (A) BASRAH 135, (B) BASRAH 112

CLASSIFIED BY: Ken Gross, Regional Coordinator, REO Basrah, DOS.

REASON: 1.4 (b)

CLASSIFIED BY: Ken Gross, Regional Coordinator, REO Basrah, DOS.

REASON: 1.4 (b)


1. (C) Summary. Basrah Governor Mohammed al-Wa'eli and his
brother, Ismail, told the Regional Coordinator (RC) in separate
meetings on October 2 that the governor survived an
assassination attempt on September 30 while returning to Basrah
from Najaf. Both brothers blamed the Serious Crimes Unit (SCU)
of the Iraqi police as being the culprits. The governor said he
plans to see Prime Minister al-Maliki in a few days and will
request that Basrah security committee head Major General Ali
Hammadi be replaced. The governor and his brother also gave
details about a meeting with three Iraqi politicians in Dubai
and the proposed formation of a political bloc that would oust
the current government. End Summary.


2. (C) On October 2, Basrah Governor Mohammed al-Wa'eli and his
brother Ismail told the RC that gunmen attached to the SCU
attacked the governor's motorcade in Basrah on September 30 and
wounded two of his bodyguards. Ismail said that they noticed a
heavier than normal police presence as they entered Basrah, and
a group of eight vehicles attacked the governor's convoy of
eight cars. Two members of the governor's security detail were
wounded, and firing allegedly continued as the governor's
motorcade sped through the city. After the governor was safely
home, Ismail said that General Hammadi came to the governor and
said that he knows who carried out the attack and promised that
they would be arrested. The governor asserted that the
assailants were rogue elements of JAM with links to Iranian
intelligence. He complained that no one had been arrested yet
and doubted if General Hammadi would put himself in a vulnerable
position by moving against the attackers. Ismail said that the
prime minister called the governor and "promised to form a
committee to investigate the incident."


3. (C) The governor said that he plans to meet the prime
minister in a few days and will recommend that General Hammadi
be replaced as chief of the Basrah emergency security committee
since he is ineffective and weak. (Note: The governor views
the security committee as an usurpation of his powers and
cooperates with it only reluctantly. See Ref A). The governor
stated that the security committee needed an "independent and
strong" individual to run it and averred that he would do much
more to combat militia forces if he exercised sole authority
over security in Basrah. His brother was more explicit and said
that when the governor meets with the prime minister he would
ask that security authority be vested solely in him.


4. (C) The governor and his brother also discussed a trip to
Dubai they made two weeks ago with Nadeem al-Jabiri and Sheik
Abbas al-Zaidi, a close advisor of Sheik Yacoubi. While in
Dubai, the group met with Salih al-Mutlaq, Adil al-Abadi, and
Sheikh Muzahim, and the latter three politicians made a pitch
for Fadillah to join a new political group that would form a new
government. The governor said that the Fadillah members wanted
a stable Iraq and the current government, with the coalition's
support, presently offered the best hope for that. They said
that Fadillah declined to join this rival political grouping.
Both the governor and his brother said that there was
substantial support in the UAE for the formation of a coalition
that would unseat the present Iraqi government.


5. (C) Comment. The governor and his brother's account of the
alleged assassination attempt is only one of many. Other
variations of the story are that the assassination attempt was
really an altercation between the governor's motorcade and a
police convoy that grew out of a traffic dispute or that the
governor manufactured or made up the alleged attack to bolster
his efforts to unseat General Hammadi and to assume control over
Basrah security. There is no question that the Serious Crimes
Unit is corrupt and is involved in assassinations and other
criminal activities; many of them are rumored to be sponsored by
the governor or his brother. (See Ref B for more on the
governor's brother.) Yet another possibility is that elements
of the SCU are out of the governor's control, and he now wishes
to eliminate them by alleging they are responsible for the
assassination attempt. The governor and Ismail are correct in
saying General Hammadi is ineffectual, but to supplant him with
the governor would only strengthen the governor's hand against
his enemies. This would not result in an improvement in
security for Basrah. End comment.

GROSS