 Al-Shahwani was appointed as its first director.He resigned in August 2009, which according to the "Washington Post" was due to disagreements with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki over Iranian influence in Iraq, and was replaced by General Zuheir Fadel.According to the Iraqi paper "Al-Zaman", Shahwani had presented evidence linking Iran to a series of attacks in Iraq including the 19 August 2009 Baghdad bombings, and left when Iraqi leadership refused to publicly implicate Iran in the bombings.