POSSIBLE SADR MILITIA TIES TO MUTHANNA PC

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 001227

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/08/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINS PTER IZ
SUBJECT: POSSIBLE SADR MILITIA TIES TO MUTHANNA PC
COUNCILMAN ASSASSINATION

Classified By: Deputy PRT Team Leader Wade Weems for reasons 1.4 (b) an
d (d).


1. (U) This is a PRT Muthanna cable.


2. (S) Summary: A Muthanna Provincial Council (PC) member and
a
provincial judge provided information about the investigation
into the February 20, 2007 assassination of former Muthanna
Deputy Provincial Council Chairman Mohammad Hanoon. The PC
member
reported that both she and Hanoon had been threatened prior
to
the assassination for exposing a scandal centering around the
misuse of PC funds last year. The judge is leading the
investigation into the murder. Both officials agreed that
Hanoon's role in exposing the scandal was the likely motive
for
the murder, but also said that a Sadrist militia may have
been
used to carry out the assassination. This case highlights
Sadrists' ties to senior officials within the local
government
and suggests that militias are not only targeting political
opponents, but also are actively involved in a range of
criminal
activities, potentially including contract killing. End
summary.


3. (SBU) No public announcement has been made about the
perpetrators of the attack against Hanoon who was killed
after
leaving a mosque following prayers in the city of al-Khidr.
Hanoon's assassination followed a February 18 assassination
attempt against Lt. Col Ali, the acting chief of Muthanna
police
who has led efforts to crack down on the Sadrist militia
group
Jaysh al-Mahdi (JAM). Another PC member, Dr. Talib
Abdulhussein,
continues to recover following a March 28 assassination
attempt
in Samawah. The incidents have caused alarm in a province
that
has been calm relative to other southern provinces. Last year
Muthanna became the first province to achieve Provincial
Iraqi
Control (PIC) of security.


4. (S) Members of the Muthanna Provincial Reconstruction Team
(PRT) met with PC member Wafaa Fadhil Abdulhassan (please
protect),who stated that she and Hanoon had been involved in
uncovering a scandal in August 2006 in which officials
allegedly
overcharged the PC for expenditures. Implicated were three
associates of then PC Chairman Asad Abdul Amir Duayni. The
chairman was accused of complicity in the scandal.


5. (S) Abdulhassan stated that one of Duayni's associates
implicated in the scandal is related to the head of the Sadr
organization in Samawah and sought protection from the group
when
he was sought by police. She said both she and Hanoon were
subsequently threatened and a man told them that he had been
hired to kill them, but refused to carry out the plot. The
hired
man was killed approximately two weeks prior to Hanoon's
murder.


6. (S) Judge Abbas Monsoor (please protect),an investigative
judge overseeing the investigation in al-Khidr, echoed
Abdulhassan's sentiments. He told PRT members that witnesses
were
unwilling to come forward. The motive for the killing likely
concerned Hanoon's role in denouncing the corruption scandal.
However, the perpetrators may have militia ties.


7. (S) Comment: Hanoon was considered an honest and upright
man in a
province where corruption is rampant. He was also said to
have even
favored dialogue between the PC and Sadrists, raising doubts
about any
ideological motivation for his assassination. Both officials
we spoke
with suggested that the motive for Hanoon's assassination was
his role
in exposing corruption within the PC and a militia may have
been used
to carry out the killing. His killing highlights Sadrists'
ties to
senior officials within the local government and suggests

BAGHDAD 00001227 002 OF 002


that militias
are not only targeting political opponents, but also are
actively
involved in a range of criminal activities. A political
grudge or
common crime, rather than ideology, appears to be the motive
for the
killing. This episode also appears to bolster an argument
made by some
in the province that JAM members are often freelancing
criminals who
have re-flagged themselves under a Sadrist banner for
political cover
and greater license to flaunt the law. End Comment.
CROCKER