Divided Iraq has two spy agencies

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Divided Iraq has two spy agencies
Shiite officials wary of the CIA-funded, Sunni-led official intelligence service have set up a parallel organization.
By Ned Parker, Times Staff Writer
April 15, 2007

BAGHDAD — Suspicious of Iraq's CIA-funded national intelligence agency, members of the Iraqi government have erected a "shadow" secret service that critics say is driven by a Shiite Muslim agenda and has left the country with dueling spy agencies.

The minister of state for national security, a Shiite named Sherwan Waili, has built a spy service boasting an estimated 1,200 intelligence agents out of a second-tier ministry with a minimal staff and meager budget, Western officials say.

"He has representatives in every province," a Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "At the moment, it's a slightly shady parallel organization."

Shiite officials say the minister is providing information on Al Qaeda and former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party that isn't being supplied by the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, or INIS, Iraq's primary spy service.

more:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-intel15apr15,1,7002352.story?track=rss