Intelligence Wars: Maliki Takes over (Iraq-Report: Intelligence‪)‬

For months, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been systematically amassing control of Iraq's intelligence and security services in the classic mold of Arab strongmen. His critics, and many ordinary Iraqis, see this as a bid to assume "quasi-dictatorial" powers in the manner of Saddam Hussein. One of the targets of Maliki's purges has been those sections of Iraq's intelligence services that specialized in countering Shiite Iran and its efforts to institutionalize Tehran's influence in its long-time enemy and to subvert US and Sunni Muslim influence. These have been critically, probably irretrievably, weakened at a time when the Americans are drawing down their military forces in Iraq, leaving the country exposed to the Machiavellian machinations of its squabbling political leaders and their sectarian constituencies. Maliki's actions in recent months bear all the hallmarks of a power grab in advance of parliamentary elections that were originally scheduled for January, but have been postponed until March 7 because its passage through parliament has been blocked by sectarian rivalries. It is the nature of Arab intelligence services to ensure, first and foremost, regime survival from within, and the Iraqi services are starting to take on the shape and mission of the very agencies created by Saddam that they are supposed to be replacing. Maliki's government "has overseen a ballooning of the country's security apparatus," according to The Economist. "Human rights violations are becoming more common. In private, many Iraqis, especially educated ones, are asking if their country may go back to being a police state."