TheIraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS;Arabic:جهاز المخابرات الوطني العراقي,romanized: Jihāz al-Mukhābarāt al-Waṭanī al-ʻIrāqī) is a civilianintelligence agency whose constitutional duties is to collect intelligence, assess threats to national security, and advise the Iraqi government. The INIS is subject to legislative oversight and reports reports directly to thePrime Minister of Iraq.[2] It was created with the help of theCIA to replace theMukhabarat, the main intelligence agency of the country.[3][4][5]
According to the constitution, a law that regulates the work and defines the duties and authorities of the agency must be passed by theCouncil of Representatives, but as of 2024, this is yet to be implemented.[6]
In January 2004,The New York Times reported that the creation of the new agency was under way. It was to employ between 500 and 2,000 staff and be financed by the U.S. government.Ibrahim al-Janabi was said to be the main candidate for leading the agency. These efforts drew criticism fromAhmed Chalabi, another formerly exiled Iraqi politician who had good connections with the CIA, who voiced worries that the new agency might be used for the restoration of the oldBa'athist security apparatus and follow the well-established pattern of government repression.
In April 2004, CPA head L. Paul Bremer signed Authority Order Number 69, which laid out a charter for the INIS and authorized theIraqi Governing Council to create such an agency. Its first director isMohammed Abdullah al-Shahwani and it has been funded from secret funds set aside within the Iraq appropriation approved by the U.S. Congress. These secret funds, totalling $3 billion over three years, are said to be destined for covert CIA operations within Iraq (as well as, to a small extent,Afghanistan).[8] Al-Shehwani was in the Iraqi military from 1955 until 1984, fled to the UK in 1990 and lost his three sons in the1996 failed coup organized by INA (Iraqi National Accord) and the CIA.
In mid-2004, 18 INIS agents were killed—ten by theBadr Organization and eight byAbu Musab al-Zarqawi'sAl-Qaeda in Iraq according to al-Shahwani. He also accused the Iranian embassy in Baghdad of organizing the Badr assassinations.[9]
In 2021, a number of members of the agency were subjected to assassination, such as: the assassination of the assistant director of monitoring in the intelligence service, Colonel Nibras Abu Ali, and the assassination of an intelligence officer in the Mansour area, west of Baghdad.[10]
According to Iraqi sources, the assassinations come as a "reaction" from themilitias towards the restrictions imposed on them by theAl-Kadhimigovernment in several areas, including changing military and security leaders, removing members affiliated withIran-backed militas from sensitive areas such asKarrada area near theGreen Zone and the airport, and arresting leaders and people affiliated with them such as Hussam Al-Azerjawi, Qassem Musleh and the leader of the assassination squad in Basra during the2019-21 protests.[11][12][13]
