BABIL PROVINCIAL COUNCIL MEMBER AIRS SOME DIRTY LAUNDRY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HILLAH 000029 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 2/21/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS PINR KDEM IZ SUBJECT: BABIL PROVINCIAL COUNCIL MEMBER AIRS SOME DIRTY LAUNDRY REF: A) HILLAH 0017 B) 06 HILLAH 156 C) HILLAH 0010 D) 06 HILLAH 137 HILLAH 00000029 001.2 OF 002 CLASSIFIED BY: Charles F. Hunter, Babil PRT Leader, REO Al-Hillah, Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (U) This is a PRT Babil cable. ¶2. (C) Summary and comment: Although the intended topic was the Babil governor's attempt to remove the mayor of Al-Hillah, a recent conversation with a Communist member of the Babil Provincial Council (PC) revealed much more, including allegations of bribes to the mayor, performance complaints against the provincial police chief, and financial improprieties by the PC engineer. In addition, our interlocutor attributed the January 28 "Soldiers of the Sky" incident in Najaf to religiously influenced former Ba'athists. While his contentions have not been confirmed, they underscore the complexity of the alliances and divided loyalties that usually remain below the surface of Babil's political scene. End summary and comment. ¶2. (SBU) Dr. Qusay Nadi Ali, one of two representatives on the Babil PC from the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP),is also the chairman of the council's Committee on Planning. Prior to joining the PC two years ago he had been the provincial Director General of Agriculture. He has long been a solid contact of the Regional Embassy Office (REO) and is an ideologically unconventional communist to the point of openly embracing market economics. He came to the REO on February 15 to meet with PRT leader and IPAO. -------------- MAYOR A "BAD FRIEND" -------------- ¶3. (C) The meeting with Dr. Qusay was ostensibly to get his views on a discrete legal matter. The PRT has been concerned that Babil Governor Salem Saleh Mehdi Al-Muslimawi did not properly follow the rule of law in suspending Al-Hillah Mayor Imad Lefta al-Bayati on February 4 and ordering him investigated on charges of negligence stemming from a lethal bombing three days earlier in one of the city's crowded markets. (Note: Whereas the governor asserts that a 1991 law gives him the right to suspend a mayor, name a committee to investigate him, and appoint an acting mayor, CPA 71 states that mayors are accountable to district councils and makes no provision for disciplinary measures by governors. End note.) Qusay conceded the legal point but allowed that in fact his friend the mayor might not be a model of rectitude. (C) 4. Dr. Qusay termed Mayor Imad "a friend of the ICP, but a bad friend" because he is not a completely clean public servant. At least three rumors of bribery involving him have come to Qusay's attention. First are allegations that the mayor, in telling police officers at the marketplace prior to the attack not to remove the sidewalk vendors, was acting less out of pity for poor peddlers than to protect an income stream of kickbacks from them. Dr. Qusay has also heard that the mayor may be getting payoffs from internally displaced persons squatting in Al-Hillah after fleeing the turbulent, Sunni-dominated northern half of Babil and fearful that the city's trespassing laws will be enforced against them. Finally, because the mayor has the power to appoint "mukhtars," or neighborhood leaders (ref A),he may be receiving bribes from several who want to retain their positions despite their unsavory reputations. -------------- -------------- -------------- CONCRETE COMPLAINTS AGAINST BABIL IP CHIEF -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶5. (C) Turning to the provincial Iraqi Police (IP) chief, Dr. Qusay likewise contended that there may be more than meets the eye. The independent, tough stance that General Qais Hamza Aboud al-Mamouri takes on security matters in the province has long put him on a collision course with the governor, who presumably would like to replace him with a SCIRI/Badr Corps loyalist (ref B). Dr. Qusay said that the governor's seemingly weak public reasons for wanting Qais gone - that he is not performing adequately - gained credence when the governor recently toured several local IP checkpoints and found them under-equipped, under-staffed and under-prepared. In addition, the governor now says that Qais could have prevented the February 1 marketplace attack by properly manning that location. These complaints could provide the governor with what he needs to seek removal of the IP Chief via the PC, which reportedly has soured on Qais because members feel he does not consult with them or provide them adequate personal protection. (Comment: Qais' promotion to lieutenant general during Prime Minister Al-Maliki's Feb. 13 visit to Al-Hillah may or may not cause any HILLAH 00000029 002.2 OF 002 of his enemies to think twice about making a move against him. End comment.) -------------- TEMPESTS INSIDE THE PC -------------- ¶6. (C) Dr. Qusay also shared information about possible financial improprieties by the PC's chief engineer, Qasim Hamoud Al-Jarrah. First, Qusay believes that Engineer Qasim is taking funds out of Babil's 2007 reconstruction allocation from the central government and applying them to unfinished 2006 projects without consulting the council's Committee on Planning, the body (chaired by Qusay) in charge of distributing the province's money among some 400 projects on a province-wide master plan. More seriously, Dr. Qusay also suspects that Qasim has used substantial sums for projects not on any list or ever considered by the PC. (Note: According to news reports, confirmed by the PC chairman in a February 21 meeting with PRT officers, the PC has formed a committee to investigate not only the Projects Committee, which Qasim chairs, but also the governor himself. End note.) ¶7. (C) The governor too has suspicions about Engineer Qasim, who may have been attempting a diversionary maneuver via recent press accusations - rebutted by the PRT - that the U.S. is "hiding" reconstruction funds. The tension between the two men apparently erupted into a minor physical altercation on the day of Al-Maliki's visit, when tempers were already high because the PC felt that the governor had snubbed it by not scheduling a meeting between the PM and the full PC. (Note: Al-Maliki himself had made stamping out corruption a theme of his visits to south-central governorates, announcing that he would severely punish any government official found with his hand in the cookie jar. End note.) ¶8. (C) The rift between Engineer Qasim and Governor Salem dates back only about a month, prior to which time they seemed to work well together. When the governor returned from an extended trip abroad in January, he found a growing chorus of criticism against the provincial government and himself personally for ignoring the lack of public services in Babil. In response he toured the various service agencies under his control to find the bottlenecks. (Note: It is also possible that his re-engagement with the Provincial Reconstruction and Development Committee, noted in ref C, was part of his strategy. End note.) At Engineer Qasim's reconstruction office, which employs over two hundred staff, he discovered that very few engineers were actually showing up for work and ordered that the absentees be disciplined. Qasim objected to what he considered unjustified interference, and also began to make counter-accusations of financial misdeeds by the governor. At present both men are trying to have their respective supporters in the PC remove the other from office. -------------- "SADDAMISTS WITH TURBANS" -------------- ¶9. (C) Dr. Qusay also briefly discussed the late-January incident in Najaf involving the shadowy Soldiers of Heaven. Terming the militant group's members "Saddamists with turbans," he speculated that they are somehow connected with Mahmoud al-Hassani al-Sarkhi (ref D),who claims to be the Mehdi, or Hidden Imam. (Note: According to Qusay, Al-Sarkhi was sent to Najaf by Saddam Hussein to infiltrate the Shi'a religious hierarchy in the mid-1990s, but Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani never trusted him and eventually sent him away. End note.) Qusay was particularly struck by the fact that the Soldiers of Heaven were composed not just of thugs but also of educated professionals not normally thought of as religious fanatics. His personal attorney was killed in the fight, as were numerous others of similar backgrounds. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶10. (C) Dr. Qusay is devoted to the PRT, the Coalition mission and Iraq, but knows and accepts that he faces a political glass ceiling because of his party affiliation. His lack of ambition for higher office may explain his liberality in recounting the good, the bad, and the ugly of Babil politics - including allegations that for the moment remain largely unsubstantiated. While this most recent conversation did detour down several "rabbit trails," it served to illustrate the complexity of alliances and divided loyalties that usually remain out of sight here. Neither Dr. Qusay nor we are convinced that anyone is likely to be removed from office in the near future. Nothing can be ruled out, however, and such a step could actually serve to further the rule of law if taken transparently and in accordance with proper procedures. HUNTER