Iran, U.S. Vie for Control of Iraq Intelligence
GORANI: Welcome back. You're with CNN International and</s>YOUR WORLD TODAY. CLANCY: A special welcome to our viewers in the United States. We're giving you some perspective that goes a little bit deeper into the stories of the day. Certainly the relations between Iran and the U.S. are cause for concern both in Washington and Tehran. And now...</s>GORANI: With Iraq in the middle, Iran has confirmed it will send a representative to Saturday's international conference on Iraq. It will be the first public encounter of U.S. and Iranian envoys since 2004.</s>CLANCY: Now, we've got to be realistic. Representatives of the U.S. and Iran are going to be sitting face to face in Baghdad, yes, but it certainly won't be seeing eye to eye when it comes to the future of Iraq, and the strategies.</s>GORANI: Now, their latest conflict deals with control over Iraq's intelligence. As Michael Ware tells us, it's a battle the U.S. is in danger of losing.</s>MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is the face of the intelligence wars here, an Iraqi officer unable to show his identity amid the shambles of his agency's southern headquarters. It was stormed not by insurgents or Shia militia, but by coalition troops and Iraqi special forces who suspect he's working for another side. It's a scene far from the other Iraq war on TV screens of roadside bombs, suicide attacks and firefights. This is a conflict waged in the hidden world of espionage, between intelligence agencies sponsored by the CIA and Iran. It's about who controls Iraqi intelligence. And it's a battle the U.S. risks losing. It's all here in this document from Iraq's National Security Council. In these pages, the blueprint for the nation's new intelligence community. A blueprint that would merge all intelligence gathering under Iraqi government control, a government heavily influenced by Iran. It would be a damaging blow to the CIA, which since the fall of Saddam's regime has built its largest station in the world here. U.S. intelligence sources tell CNN the agency has around 500 offices. More than the CIA presence in Saigon during the Vietnam War. At stake is control of an organization ensconced inside this heavily-defended building, the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, or INIS. It's headed by this man, Mohammed Abdullah Shehwani, a man so secretive, this is one of the few known photographs of him. Appointed three years ago by the U.S., military and intelligence sources say Shehwani's INIS is funded completely by the CIA. Though an Iraqi agency, not one cent comes from the government in Baghdad. Top Iraqi government officials complain the agency is beyond Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's control. But now the Shia-led government is trying to assert that control. Shehwani, currently under Iraqi government investigation over unspecified corruption allegations, has not been seen in the country for at least three months. U.S. ally and former prime minister Ayad Allawi says Shehwani is being unfairly targeted.</s>AYAD ALLAWI, FMR. IRAQ PRIME MINISTER: I don't know whether it's an attack on the U.S. intelligence, but definitely it's an attack, a political attack against Shehwani.</s>WARE: One of Shehwani's rivals is this man, Shirwan al-Wa'eli, Iraq's minister for national security, here on a recent tour of Baghdad neighborhoods. He leads the agencies that over the past two years, according to U.S. intelligence, has grown to almost 3,000 operatives. The goal, to compete with the CIA. And under the new intelligence plan, this agency is set to grow even more, with the minister applauding his relationship with Iran and distancing himself from the</s>U.S. SHIRWAN KAMIL AL-WA'ELI, MINISTER OF STATE FOR NATIONAL SECURITY (through translator): Multinational forces are in Iraq. And they're supportive on the security issue. And we have a good relationship with them. But we do not bargain Iraq to any side. The Americans give us only moral support, not logistical support.</s>WARE: While the CIA-backed agency suffers, this ministry has become an intelligence organization the American government and its allies never meant it to be. CNN's repeated requests for on-the-record comments from the U.S. military, embassy and intelligence agencies in Iraq went unanswered. Meanwhile, the intelligence plan is due to go to the Iraqi parliament. And what happens there may be every bit as important as the battles on the streets of Baghdad.</s>GORANI: All right. Well, Michael Ware joins us now live from Baghdad to follow up on his report. I suppose the question is, Michael, what are the long-term effects if Americans end up completely losing control of this intelligence apparatus in Iraq? What are the long-term effects for the U.S.?</s>WARE: Well, this is strictly through the prism, Hala, of American interests. And in terms of everything that America has invested in this country, in terms of treasure and the blood of its service personnel, a lot is at stake. And in this story, what we're seeing is the lid being peeled off a secret world we rarely get to see. We see organizations the CIA created during the administration of U.S. pro-counsel Paul Bremer and forced upon the Iraqis. We then see them with the help of Iran develop a rival intelligence agency. This is for the future of Iraq's intelligence community.</s>GORANI: All right. Michael Ware, live in Baghdad. Thank you, Michael -- Jim.</s>CLANCY: All right, coming up, we're going to head to New York to get the latest on business news.</s>GORANI: Now, can the Dow Jones build on its best one-day rally in months in the wake of higher oil prices? And then, we will take you to northern Ireland, where voters have a say in once and for all ending decades of political strife. You're with CNN. Stay with us.