POPULAR COMMITTEES MEETING PARTICIPANTS DISMAYED

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 000680 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/2017 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PREL IZ SUBJECT: POPULAR COMMITTEES MEETING PARTICIPANTS DISMAYED AT CHALABI'S PLANS REF: A. BAGHDAD 585 ¶B. BAGHDAD 386 Classified By: Political Counselor Margaret Scobey for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Ahmed Chalabi frustrated community and tribal leaders who attended a February 21 meeting to discuss the "popular committees" for the Baghdad Security Plan (BSP) when he announced that he had named "liaison officers" to represent each of the ten security areas of Baghdad. Meeting participants came with the understanding that they would nominate members for their communities' popular committees and complained that the liaison officers were unknown figures among their communities. Many local government leaders walked out of the meeting when they learned that Chalabi appointed the liaison officers without their input. By arbitrarily naming de facto committee leaders, Chalabi appears to have alienated local governance structures and hurt chances for popular committee success. End Summary. Attendees Complain, Walk Out Angrily -------------- ¶2. (C) Community and tribal leaders attended a February 21 meeting at Baghdad's Mansour Media Hotel to discuss the "popular committees" strand of the BSP, an initiative headed by Ahmad Chalabi and Nasser Al-Ani. Al-Ani did not speak at the meeting. (Note: As described in ref B, the popular committees are meant to be local entities that pass up information about security concerns and complaints about behavior by security forces to the steering committee while passing down information about the BSP to local communities. End Note.) ¶3. (C) Meeting participants had come expecting to nominate members for their communities' popular committees and learn more about their structure, responsibilities and functions. Chalabi instead announced that he had named a "liaison officer" to represent each of Baghdad's ten security areas and said that the 10 appointees should each choose ten people from among participants to discuss committee formation. ¶3. (C) Participants complained that many of the appointed liaison officers were unknown figures in their communities. They also said that most of the ten areas had several dozen community leaders present at the meeting and limiting the discussion to 10 participants for each community would be exclude most attendees. Attendees said they understood that the liaison officers would act as de facto team leaders for each of the ten popular committees. Many attendees left angrily, particularly members of district and neighborhood councils. Several local council members and sheikhs who remained also complained to PRTOffs that the process was deeply flawed. Unanswered Questions Remain -------------- ¶4. (C) Chalabi failed to address unanswered questions lingering from the February 14 meeting about the committees' size, structure and functions (see ref A). It remains unclear whether Chalabi intends for the popular committees to consist of the ten people chosen from the February 21 attendees by each liaison officer, or whether the ten person teams would determine committee size and membership. ¶5. (C) Comment: On the positive side, Chalabi's approach to the popular mobilization effort has raised awareness of the initiative among many of Baghdad's leaders, as evidenced by larger audiences at each of his general meetings. He has not, however, provided a coherent vision of the popular committee concept, and appears to have discouraged local government institutions from participation. Finding ways to ensure local government participation in the popular committee structure should become a priority for the popular mobilization effort. ¶6. (C) Comment (continued): PRTOffs will meet with Chalabi's chief of staff and separately with local officials to discuss the situation and try to determine what local residents want to happen. MNF-I and the Embassy will develop suggestions to offer Chalabi and local officials to answer outstanding questions and repair the disconnect between Chalabi and local officials. End Comment. KHALILZAD