IRAQI FEMALE POLITICIANS SPEAK ABOUT ANBAR, GOI

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 000361

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV IZ
SUBJECT: IRAQI FEMALE POLITICIANS SPEAK ABOUT ANBAR, GOI

Classified By: Deputy Political Counselor Charles O. Blaha per 1.4 (b)
and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: Two Tawafuq Council of Representatives (CoR)
members representing Anbar, Dr. Asma Adnan Muhammad
al-Dulaymi and Nadira Ayef Habib al-Ani, told Poloffs on
January 31 about their frustrations with Anbar and the GOI.
The women expressed concerns about Anbar,s poor economic
situation and Al Qaeda,s influence there, and said they
believed Coalition forces could improve the situation if they
tried. They suggested tribal efforts should be better
integrated with the GOI, the Provincial Council, and the
Iraqi police. The women also complained that the Sunnis are
underrepresented in the government and called the GOI a
failure. END SUMMARY.

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We Need American Help
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2. (C) Ani began by explaining her involvement in politics,
saying she felt Iraq was better before the fall of Saddam and
she hoped to help create order and stability in the country
again. She said there is a moderate view among Iraqis that
dialogue will help change the difficult situation Iraq is in.
However, she continued, the Americans, with their
intelligence and technology, are the only ones with the power
to change things. Ani opined that Americans should support
people who support peace and wondered why Coalition forces
let Jaysh al-Mehdi (JAM) run Baghdad. She assessed that
Coalition forces in Anbar had been making an effort to
improve security, resulting in maybe a 20 percent
improvement, but she thought more should be done.

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Frustration With the Situation in Anbar
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3. (C) Dulaymi praised the Anbar Governor and Provincial
Council, and said the GOI should give them greater support
and broader authority to fight Al Qaeda in the province. The
women believed the Provincial Council should be moved back to
Ramadi but understood the security situation prevented that,
saying they were aware of the January 27 assassination of
Provincial Council member Saied Hussein al-Alwani. Dulaymi
claimed the Americans know the Iranians and Ahmed Chalabi pay
al Qaeda to instigate violence, although she admitted some
Anbaris were involved. She said that Al Qaeda tries to kill
Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) members. Dulaymi continued, saying
the entire province is destroyed and there are no services,
no functioning schools, much poverty, and no jobs - all of
which fuels the insurgency.


4. (C) In response to a question from Poloff about the
tribes, Ani said some tribes are doing good things and some
are not. She said some tribes have successfully defended
their own areas which, she said, shows that American forces
could control areas if they really tried. The women
suggested tribal efforts need to be better integrated with
the Provincial Government, police force, and GOI.


5. (C) Dulaymi said the Iraqi Security forces need sectarian
balance. She said JAM members come to Anbar, asking children
their opinion about Muqtada al-Sadr and Abdel Aziz Al Hakim.
She commented that more Anbaris should be in the Iraqi
police. Dulaymi said Anbar needs electricity restored and
for textile, cement, phosphate, glass, and other factories to
be reopened. Anbaris join terrorist groups for money and
protection, she said.

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National Politics Are Equally Bad
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6. (C) On provincial elections. Dulaymi said all of Iraq
needs new elections, even the CoR, because there was fraud,
problems with the ballot boxes, and the militias infiltrated
the independent observers in the last election. When asked
if Anbaris would vote in another election, the women
predicted they would. Ani claimed over 80 percent of Anbaris
voted in the elections in December 2005. Dulaymi thought the
figure was somewhat lower but added that people voted in
spite of their fears.


7. (C) Dulaymi,s husband and a fellow CoR member from the
Iraqi People's Conference (IPC),Dhia Hadeethy, joined the
group and complained the census data was incorrect because
Anbar has a larger population than what is on record. He
believed Tawafuq should have won more seats in the CoR. He
complained that although the Shiite Itilaf coalition is the
majority and should hold the PM,s post, it should not have a
sectarian PM. Dulaymi said the current government had failed
and cooperating with it was useless. When pressed, she said

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it was everyone,s belief that the government had failed and
cited the mass kidnapping at the Ministry of Higher education
as an example. Hadeethy summed up the frustration by saying
we need balance in the Ministries of Interior and Defense to
get security.

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Bio Note
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8. (C) Dulaymi is a member of the IPC and the Waqf Committee
in the CoR. She was born in Ramadi and was a university
Quranic studies professor for 25 years. She said she has
always been involved in politics since she comes from a
politically and religiously active family, but this job is
her first official post. Dulaymi added that she did not want
to register for Ba,ath Party membership, which was required
if she wanted to be in politics under Saddam. She emphasized
the IIP - not her father - initially nominated her to be on
Tawafuq,s candidate list, but she subsequently decided to
become part of her father,s party, the IPC. She does not
speak English. Her husband, Dhia Hadeethy, is from Fallujah
and was on the Fallujah Reconstruction Committee that was
formed after Operation al-Fajr in 2004.


9. (C) Ani is an IIP member and is on the Women,s Affairs
Committee in the CoR. She was born and raised in Baghdad.
She taught Islamic education and Arabic language in education
centers in Anbar from 1978 to 2004. Her father was a
university professor with a Ph.D. in English education. Ani
speaks some English, but she prefers to speak Arabic.
KHALILZAD