Iraqi Intelligence Service


The Iraqi Intelligence Service also known as the Mukhabarat, General Intelligence Directorate, or Party Intelligence, was an 8,000-man agency that served as the main state civilian intelligence and security agency in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi Intelligence Service was primarily concerned with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and conducting analysis and development intelligence gathering and counterintelligence systems to create national security, clandestine and covert operations, counterinsurgency, counterintelligence, counter-revolutionary, creation a civilian security network intelligence, executive protection, psychological warfare operations, political warfare against target countries, support irregular warfare operations, surveillance and suppression those who disagree with the government, and threat assessment to national security. But also performed many activities inside Iraq in conjunction with the Directorate of General Security as a secret police organization.
The most important section of the IIS was Directorate 4: the Secret Service. One of the well known Directors was Rafi Daham al-Tikriti the former Iraqi Ambassador to Turkey and the last Chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. The Secret Service was tasked with infiltrating both foreign and domestic governments, unions, embassies, and opposition groups. IIS often worked closely with the Iraqi Directorate of General Security when conducting domestic activities.
IIS is alleged to be responsible for a number of assassinations and attempted assassinations abroad. These include the assassinations of former Iraqi prime minister Abdul Razzaq an-Naif in London, Salih Mahdi Ammash in Helsinki, Sheikh Talib al-Suhail al-Tamimi in Beirut, Ayatollah Mehdi al-Hakim in Sudan and Dr. Ayad Habashi in Rome, as well as the attempted assassinations of President George H. W. Bush, the Emir of Kuwait Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and the former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi.

Structure

IIS was organized as a number of Bureaus which oversaw the individual directorates. The following list gives the directorates divided by bureau, and a brief description of the directorate:

Political Bureau

  • Directorate 4 – Secret Service
The directorate included a number of offices responsible for the collection of information about a specific country or region. These offices included areas for Africa, America, Arab world, Europe, Iran, Post-Soviet states, Southeast Asia, and the Turkey. Directorate 4 worked in coordination with Directorates 3, 5, 9, 12, 14 and 18. The last director of Directorate 4 was Brigadier General Mohammed Yasin Al Shammari from Mosul.
  • Directorate 8 – Technical Affairs
  • Directorate 9 – Black Operations
  • Directorate 12 – Electronic Surveillance
  • Directorate 17 – National Security Institute
  • Planning Office
  • '''Propaganda Office'''

    Special Bureau

  • Directorate 5 – Counter-Intelligence
  • Directorate 6 – Mukhabarat Security
  • Directorate 7 – Al Haakimiya
  • Directorate 19 – Personnel Supervision
  • Directorate 22 – Protection
  • Office 16
  • '''Brigade of Mukhabarat'''

    History

Following an unsuccessful assassination attempt by the Ba'ath Party on Iraq's ruler Abdul Karim Qasim in October 1959, Saddam Hussein was placed in charge of Jihaz al Khas, sometime between 1964 and 1966. Codenamed Jihaz al-Haneen, the organisation concentrated on security and intelligence work.
After the Ba'ath Party seized power on 17 July 1968, Saddam expanded the Special Apparatus and took control of the Amn.
Following the failed Coup d'état attempt led by Director of Internal Security Nadhim Kzar in 1973, Jihaz was transformed into Da'irat al Mukhabarat al Amah.
In 1983, under the leadership of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, the GID organized the massacres of the villagers of Dujail and Jezan Al Chol, the disappearance of the Barzanis from the Qushtapa camp, and the assassination of 18 members of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim's family.
As a result of the Gulf War, the department dealing with external affairs was reduced to less than half of its pre-1990 size, while the department dealing with internal affairs was enlarged to deal with increasing anti-Saddam activities within Iraq.
On 13 April 1993, the IIS planned and executed an assassination attempt against former US President George H. W. Bush and the Emir of Kuwait through the use of a large car bomb driven by two Iraqis.
However the plan was foiled and Kuwaiti officials arrested 16 persons suspected of carrying out the plot after a car bomb was found. Two Iraqi nationals, during the FBI interviews in Kuwait, admitted to attempting to carry out an attack under direction of the IIS.
On 26 June of that year, in response to an attempted assassination by IIS on former US President George H. W. Bush, US President Bill Clinton ordered two U.S. warships, namely USS Peterson and USS Chancellorsville, to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles on the IIS principal command and control complex in Baghdad. 16 of the 23 missiles hit their target; three struck a residential area, killing nine civilians and wounding 12. Four of the missiles were unaccounted for.
In June 1995, Saddam Hussein dismissed his stepbrother Sabawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti from his role as head of the IIS, due to his failure to increase domestic security within Iraq. Brigadier General Ali Hasan al-Majid was named as his successor.
The IIS was officially dissolved on 23 May 2003 by the Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, per CPA Order Number 2.

Directors