CHALABI AIDE SAYS INCOMPETENCE, LACK OF BUDGET

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 000980

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/20/2017
TAGS: PGOV PINS PINR IZ
SUBJECT: CHALABI AIDE SAYS INCOMPETENCE, LACK OF BUDGET
HINDER POPULAR COMMITTEES EFFORT

REF: BAGHDAD 680

Classified By: PRT Team Leader Joseph Gregoire for Reasons 1.4 (B) and
(D).


1. (C) Summary: Ahmad Chalabi aide Wameed Al-Mekhlibe told
PRToffs March 17 that lack of coordination with security
forces, incompetent ministries, and Prime Minister Maliki,s
failure to provide a budget have hindered efforts to form
effective popular committees. Al-Mekhlibe said there is
little coordination with security forces or the provincial
government and that the most effective popular committee is
in Sadr City. Chalabi,s latest efforts focus on dealing
with detainee inquiries and trying to improve coordination
with service ministries and security forces. End Summary.

Lack of Budget Forces Chalabi to Cough Up Funds
-------------- ---


2. (C) Ahmad Chalabi aide Wameed Al-Mekhlibe met with PRToffs
March 17 to discuss the popular mobilization strand of the
Baghdad Security Plan (BSP). Al-Mekhlibe said the prime
minister,s refusal to provide a budget for the initiative
has severely hindered progress and forced Chalabi to use his
own money to pay for popular committee expenses such as
meeting space and communications. Al-Mekhlibe said Chalabi
is using 20 employees from his de-Baathification staff to
support activities of the popular committees.


3. (C) Al-Mekhlibe said Chalabi will continue to fund the
popular committees effort with his own money if he does not
receive a budget from the prime minister, but noted that
failure to receive funds would severely restrict the
initiative. (Note: Al-Mekhlibe told us in previous meetings
that Chalabi had requested a $65 million budget from the
Prime Minister for the popular committees initiative but was
denied any funding. End Note.)


4. (C) Al-Mekhlibe had little information on popular
committee initiative,s executive steering committee (ESC).
He said the members he knew on the ESC were Chalabi, Nasir
Al-Ani (a Tawafuq member who is supposed to be the joint
leader of the initiative),Amer Jaburi (Tawafuq),and Ali
Faisal (a Sadrist who is also the executive director of the
De-Baathification commission). Al-Mekhlibe said there are
other members but he did not know who they were, which
suggests the popular committees ESC is not particularly
active.


5. (C) Al-Mekhlibe said he did not know the 10 liaison
officers Chalabi appointed to head each sector,s popular
committee (reftel). He said he would try to get the names of
the popular committee ESC members and the 10 liaison officers
later this week. Al-Mekhlibe said the liaison officers meet
about once per week in Chalabi,s Mansour home.

Stupid Committee Members and Incompetent Ministries
-------------- --------------


6. (C) Al-Mekhlibie said that Chalabi and his associates have
had a difficult time recruiting capable members for the
popular committees because they cannot offer salaries and
many people are unwilling to risk being branded as government
collaborators. He added that many of those they have been
able to recruit are &stupid and incompetent.8 He added that
there are only about 100 members for each of the 10 sectors,
committee as present, although they had hoped to recruit at
least 1,000 per committee.


7. (C) Al-Mekhlibe said that the prime minister asked Chalabi
to work with the Ministry of Trade to ensure the delivery of
public distribution system food rations. He said the
ministry,s failure to deliver rations to unsafe areas
prompted the Prime Minister Maliki to ask Chalabi to use the
popular committees to ensure safe and efficient delivery.


8. (C) Al-Mekhlibe said Chalabi has hired 25 lawyers to help
with various detainee issues such as locating detainees,
ensuring that they are being held legally, and arranging
timely trials. He said that the 25 lawyers have not yet been
paid, but that Chalabi will use his own funds to pay them
even if he receives no budget from the prime minister.
Al-Mekhlibe said the lawyers are meeting daily and are
looking into about 100 detainee cases, including some
detainees who were arrested before BSP started.


9. (C) When asked if the lawyers are coordinating their
efforts with the Ministry of Human Rights, Al-Mekhlibe
characterized the ministry as ineffective and powerless to
solve detainee problems.

Little Coordination with Security Forces, Local Government

BAGHDAD 00000980 002 OF 002


-------------- --------------


10. (C) Al-Mekhlibe said Chalabi has met recently with
General Abboud Ganbar and &other Iraqi Army generals8 (whom
he could not name) to discuss popular committee activities,
but added that coordination has been limited because security
forces are &afraid to cooperate with Chalabi.8 He said
Iraqi army and police representatives will be invited to the
popular committee headquarters at Chalabi,s home in Mansour
to facilitate future cooperation.


11. (C) When asked if the popular committees are working with
the Provincial Council (PC) or District Advisory Councils
(DACs),Al-Mekhlibe said the PC has called Chalabi,s
initiative illegal and refused to cooperate. Al-Mekhlibe
added that the prime minister had not provided Chalabi any
official documentation authorizing his initiative, which he
said has made some government entities reluctant to
cooperate. He said that some DAC members serve on popular
committees, but otherwise there is no cooperation with local
government.


12. (C) Al-Mekhlibe said the prime minister has given Chalabi
$1 million to disperse to &victims of violence8 in Baghdad.
Al-Mekhlibe said he did not know how the victims would be
chosen, how many there would be, how their claims would be
vetted or how much money various victims would receive. He
said Chalabi,s staff would eventually meet with victims or
surviving family members and collect supporting documentation
such as death certificates and police reports to determine
the veracity of claims.

Sadr City is the Most Cooperative Sector
--------------


13. (C) Al-Mekhlibe said the popular committee in Sadr City
is functioning better than committees in any other sector.
When asked why he thought this was so, Al-Mekhlibe replied
that many senior Sadrists have fled abroad, leaving behind
only junior leaders who are anxious to avoid confrontation
with U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Four Sunni Mosques Reopened
--------------


14. (C) Al-Mekhlibe said Chalabi has worked with community
leaders to re-open four Sunni mosques, two of which are
located in Sadr City. He did not know where the other two
mosques are located. Al-Mekhlibe said Chalabi is not working
with the Sunni or Shia Awqaf (religious endowments) or senior
religious leaders such as Ayatollah Hussein Al-Sadr or
Abdul-Ghafour Samarrai.

Comment
--------------


15. (C) Chalabi,s popular mobilization efforts appear to be
disorganized and carried out with little or no cooperation
with other Iraqi stakeholders. Chalabi appears to have
drifted away from using the popular committees as part of a
private intelligence collection effort, which is a welcome
development. However, all of the new activities he is
focusing on are duplicating efforts of Iraqi ministries or
provincial government bodies. End comment.
KHALILZAD