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