By Solomon Moore
Los Angeles Times, 07 September 2006
BAGHDAD — Just three months after finalizing Iraq's Cabinet, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Shiite Muslim alliance is discussing changes at several top ministries, including a move to replace the head of the troubled Interior Ministry.
The agency runs police forces that are widely believed to be infiltrated by militia members and involved in hundreds of killings by alleged death squads.
"The ministries included by the reshuffle have not been finalized yet," Maliki said during a recent interview on an Arab satellite television channel. "The number might increase or decrease. I don't want to state the names, but until now we have three ministries; in addition there are discussions about two other ministries. We don't want to break into the issue before creating an agreement between the ministers' political slates."
But several U.S. and Iraqi officials speaking on condition of anonymity said discussions have focused on whether to replace Interior Minister Jawad Bolani.
After months of delay and debate between political parties and religious sects, Maliki in June named Bolani, a Shiite engineer and Iraqi army veteran with no policing experience, to the post. At the time, U.S. officials deemed Bolani's selection a breakthrough for the faction-riven government, believing that his nonpartisan, secular background meant he would rein in thousands of militiamen operating within the police forces.
U.S. officials acknowledge that those perceived strengths may have left Bolani vulnerable to attacks by partisans opposed to his reform efforts in the ministry. Some Iraqi politicians, meanwhile, complain that he has been an ineffective leader and done little to root out corruption within his forces and quell sectarian violence.
"As for the Interior Ministry, I think that both its performance and that of the Defense Ministry are not up to the standard we aspire to," said Nasir Saidi, a member of militant Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's movement. "This is very obvious in the dramatic increase in crime rates…. Bolani himself is not backed by any side in particular, although he is a member" of Maliki's United Iraqi Alliance.
Despite questions in Iraqi circles about Bolani's performance, U.S. officials say they have been pleased with his leadership. They have praised his recent actions against police officers found to have criminal records and his efforts to block infiltration of his forces by Shiite militias, which have been accused of carrying out torture, kidnappings and assassinations.
"The minister has fired 1,775 personnel in his first 60 days," said Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson, the top U.S. advisor to Bolani. "That's more than any previous minister, and that's a pretty good sign that within his vision and his strategy he's going after corruption, whether that be extortion, whether that be sectarianism. He's going against those things that are contrary to the unity of Iraq and law and order."
Peterson also recounted Bolani's actions taken in behalf of a Babel province police chief who was fired by the local council because he had refused to hire a local battalion of the Badr Brigade, a powerful Shiite militia that has members within the police force.
But a mid-level Iraqi police official with knowledge of the Interior Ministry leadership and police operations said Bolani had failed to challenge militia leaders within the agency directly.
High-ranking police officials in the ministry continue to allow militias to use police vehicles for clandestine night operations, the source said. The official cited one example in which ministry authorities allegedly allocated scores of Toyota Land Cruisers to a commander in another Shiite militia, Sadr's Al Mahdi army.
Militia operations have persisted in the Interior Ministry, the source said, because powerful Badr and Mahdi leaders have marginalized Bolani within his own organization.
"Bolani is treated like a toy by Maliki and Badr," said the source, who alleged that the minister had not taken action against known Badr Brigade leaders within the institution, especially a secret cell of militia commanders located on the seventh floor of the Interior Ministry headquarters building. "He is not respected by most of the police."
U.S. officials acknowledged that what made Bolani attractive to top Americans in Iraq such as Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Army Gen. George W. Casey, the top military commander in the country, had left him vulnerable to political attacks.
"They picked a guy who didn't have strong political ties. That's really good," said a senior U.S. military official in Iraq. "Here's the downside: He doesn't have a lot of political ties to provide him top cover."
At least two other ministries being contemplated for leadership changes, health and transportation, are largely run by Sadr supporters. Political observers see any changes in those agencies as a bid for even greater control by the Sadr movement.
On Wednesday, meanwhile, the Iraqi parliament met for the second time since taking a summer break and voted to allow oil imports to bridge shortfalls in the state-owned petroleum sector, which holds some of the largest reserves in the world. Smuggling, corruption, insurgent attacks and shoddy equipment, however, have hobbled the sector, which produces less crude oil than it did before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
In another development Wednesday, the Finance Ministry announced that it would begin offering Iraqi citizens state loans for housing construction, small businesses and new cars. Ministry spokesman Baqir Zubaidi also announced loans for government employees and a new effort to reduce salary disparities between high- and low-level government employees, an issue recently brought to Maliki's attention by Iraq's most influential Shiite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.
At least 22 bodies were found in the Baghdad area Wednesday. Most of the victims had been handcuffed, blindfolded, shot in the head and dumped near predominantly Shiite areas. Other violence around the country claimed at least 24 lives.
The Iraqi government also announced that it had executed 27 people convicted of murder and rape.
Times staff writers Saif Rasheed and Suhail Ahmad in Baghdad, special correspondent Ruaa Zarary in Mosul and special correspondents in Baghdad, Baqubah and Kuwait contributed to this report.
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Citation: Solomon Moore. "Iraq Ministers, Including Interior, May Be Changed," Los Angeles Times, 07 September 2006.
Original URL: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-iraq7sep07,1,5707751.story?coll=la-iraq-complete
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