Introduction to report

1: The effect on UNMOVIC

2: The security apparatus

3: The effect on the people of Iraq

Part Two : The security apparatus

The Presidential Secretariat

The Presidential Secretariat has around 100 staff, who are drawn from the security agencies. The Secretariat is responsible for Saddam's personal security, as well as defence, security and intelligence issues.

It is overseen by Saddam's personal secretary, Lieutenant General Abid Hamid Mahmud. Mahmud is Saddam's distant cousin and is the sheikh of both the Al-Bu-Nasir and Al-Khattab tribes.

Mahmud is regarded by some as the real number two figure in the Iraqi leadership. He controls all access to Saddam - possibly with the exception of Qusay and Uday Hussein - and has the ability to override government decisions.

Al-Majlis Al-Amn Al-Qawni.
The National Security Council.

Headed by Saddam Hussein but usually chaired by his son Qusay Hussein, it oversees the work of all other security agencies.

Membership in Majlis Al-Amn Al-Qawni includes chosen people from;

• Iraqi Army
• Special Security Service
• General Intelligence Directorate
• Military Intelligence
• General Security Service
• Office of the Presidential Palace

Majlis Al-Amn Al-Qawni, headquartered at the Presidential Palace in Baghdad, meets on a weekly basis.

Special Security Committee

Qusay Hussein is the deputy chairman of the Special Security Committee of the Iraqi National Security Council that was created in 1996 as part of the President's office.

The Committee membership includes:

• Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the director of the Public Security Directorate
• Dahham al-Tikriti, Director of the Iraqi Intelligence Service -Al Mukhabarat
• Abid Hamid Mahmud, the president's personal secretary.
• Faris 'Abd-al-Hamid al-'Ani, the director general of the Presidential office

This special body also includes representatives of the Republican Guard.

The Committee is supported by over 2,000 staff. The staff is drawn from the Republican Guard, or the Special Guard, and the intelligence services.

Their main task is preventing the United Nations inspectors from uncovering information, documents, and equipment connected with weapons of mass destruction.

They are recruited for this specific mission and chosen from the most efficient and loyal units.

The work is divided between two sections, each of which has a staff of about 1,000:

• The first section focuses on the daily work of the UN monitoring commission, including sites to be visit and inspected, escorting UN inspectors, preventing them from carrying out their mission effectively.

• The second section conceals documents, equipment, and materials and moves them about from one location to another. Several facilities have been especially built for collecting and hiding such selected material. This section is responsible for material that is imported through "special channels" as part of the programme of rebuilding the strategic military arsenal, including chemical and biological weapons as well as missiles and associated technology.

Al-Mukhabarat.
The Directorate of General Intelligence

4,000 people.

Created out of the Ba'ath party.

Al-Mukhabarat is roughly divided into a department responsible for internal operations, co-ordinated through provincial offices, and another responsible for international operations, conducted from various Iraqi embassies.

Its internal activities include:

• Spying within the Ba'th Party, as well as other political parties;
• suppressing Shi'a, Kurdish and other opposition;
• counter-espionage;
• targeting threatening individuals and groups inside Iraq;
• spying on foreign embassies in Iraq and foreigners in Iraq;
• maintaining an internal network of informants.

Its external activities include:

• spying on Iraqi diplomats abroad;
• collecting overseas intelligence;
• supporting terrorist organisations in hostile regimes;
• conducting sabotage, subversion, and terrorist operations against neighbouring countries such as Syria and Iran;
• murder of opposition elements outside of Iraq;
• infiltrating Iraqi opposition groups abroad;
• providing dis-information and exploitation of Arab and other media;
• maintaining an international network of informants, using popular organisations as well such as the Union of Iraqi Students.

It has long been known that Al-Mukhabarat uses intelligence to target Iraqis .It forces Iraqis living abroad to work for Saddam by threatening dire consequences for relatives still inside Iraq.

It is reported that an Iraqi cannot work for a foreign firm inside Iraq without also working for Al-Mukhabarat directly or as an informant. This includes those allowed to work with foreign media organisations.

All Iraqis working with foreigners have to have a special permit which is not granted unless they work for Al-Mukhabarat.

They carry out tests which include approaches to Iraqi officials with false information to see whether they report it to Baghdad or foreigners.

Al-Amn al-Aam.
The Directorate of General Security

8,000 people.

The oldest security agency in the country.

The Al-Amn Al-Aam supports the domestic counter-intelligence work of other agencies.

As a policy, Saddam staffs key positions in Al-Amn Al-Aam with his relatives or other close members of his regime.

In 1980, Saddam appointed 'Ali Hassan al-Majid, who would later be the architect of the regime's anti-Kurdish campaign, as its director to instil the ideology of the Ba'ath Party into the agency.

Al-Amn al-Aam was given more political intelligence responsibilities during the Iran-Iraq War. When Majid was put in charge of repressing the Kurdish insurrection in 1987, General 'Abdul Rahman al-Duri replaced him until 1991 when Saddam Hussein's half-brother, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti, (who had served as its deputy director prior to 1991) then became head of this agency.

In 1991, Saddam Hussein provided it with a paramilitary wing, Quwat al-Tawari, to reinforce law and order, although these units are ultimately under Al Amn al-Khas control.

After the 1991 Gulf War, Quwat al-Tawari units were believed to be responsible for hiding Iraqi ballistic missile components. It also operates the notorious Abu Ghuraib prison outside of Baghdad, where many of Iraq's political prisoners are held.

Each neighbourhood, every office and school every hotel and coffee shop has an officer assigned to cover it and one or more agents in it who report what is said and what is seen.

Al-Amn Al-Aam runs a programme of provocation where their agent in a coffee house or work place will voice dissident views and report on anyone who agrees with those views.

An Al-Amn Al-Aam agent or officer will sometimes approach an Iraqi official pretending to recruit him for some opposition or espionage purpose and then arrest him if he does not report it.

They also look for foreigners who might be breaking Iraqi law or seeking to stir up anti-regime feelings among native Iraqis.

Technically, it is illegal for an Iraqi official or military officer to talk to a foreigner without permission from a security officer.

Al Amn al-Khas.
The Special Security Organisation

2,000 people.

The most powerful and most feared agency, headed by Qusay Hussein.

It is responsible for

• the security of the President and of presidential facilities;
• supervising and checking the loyalty of other security services;
• monitoring government ministries;
• supervising operations against Iraqi Kurds and Shias; and
• securing Iraq's most important military industries, including WMD.

The Al-Amn al-Khas is nebulous and highly secretive and operates on a functional, rather than a geographical basis.

Qusay Hussein supervises the Special Bureau, the Political Bureau and the Administration Bureau, the agency's own military brigade, and the Special Republican Guard.

Its own military brigade serves as a rapid response unit independent of the military establishment or Special Republican Guard. In the event of a coup attempt from within the regular military or Republican Guard, Special Security can easily call up the Special Republican Guard for reinforcements as this unit is also under its control.

The Security Bureau: The Security Bureau is divided into a Special Office, which monitors the Special Security agency itself to assure loyalty among its members. If necessary, it conducts operations against suspect members. The Office of Presidential Facilities, another unit of the Security Bureau, guards these places through Jihaz al-Hamaya al-Khas (The Special Protection Apparatus). It is charged with protecting the Presidential Offices, Council of Ministers, National Council, and the Regional and National Command of the Ba'th Party, and is the only unit responsible for providing bodyguards to leaders.

The Political Bureau: The Political Bureau collects and analyses intelligence and prepares operations against "enemies of the state." This unit keeps an extensive file on all Iraqi dissidents or subversives. Under the Political Bureau, the Operations Office implements operations against these "enemies," including arrests, interrogations and executions. Another division is the Public Opinion Office, responsible for collecting and disseminating rumours on behalf of the state.

The operations of Special Security are numerous, particularly in suppressing domestic opposition to the regime. After its creation in 1984, Special Security thwarted a plot of disgruntled army officers, who objected to Saddam's management of the Iran-Iraq War. It pre-empted other coups such as the January 1990 attempt by members of the Jubur tribe to assassinate him.

It played an active role in crushing the March 1991 Shi'a rebellion in the south of Iraq. Along with General Intelligence, Special Security agents infiltrated the Kurdish enclave in the north of Iraq in August 1996, to hunt down operatives of the Iraqi opposition.

It serves as the central co-ordinating body between Military-Industrial Commission, Military Intelligence, General Intelligence, and the military in the covert procurement of the necessary components for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

During the 1991 Gulf War, it was put in charge of concealing SCUD missiles and afterwards in moving and hiding documents from UNSCOM inspections, relating to Iraq's weapons programmes.

It is also thought that Special Security is responsible for commercial trade conducted covertly in violation of UN sanctions.

The members of Al-Amn al-Khas are primarily drawn from Saddam's own tribe, the Abu Nasr, or from his home district of Tikrit.

Jihaz al-Hamaya al-Khas.
The Special Protection Apparatus

Charged with protecting Presidential Offices, Council of Ministers and the Regional and National Commands of the Ba'ath Party.

It is the only organisation responsible for providing bodyguards to the very top of the regime.

Approximately 40 personal bodyguards are responsible for Saddam's immediate security.

Al-Istikhbarat al-Askariyya.
The Directorate of Military Intelligence

6,000 people.

Its main functions are ensuring the loyalty of the army's officer corps and gathering military intelligence from abroad. But it is also involved in foreign operations, including assassinations.

Unusually the heads of Al-Istikhbarat al-Askariyya have not been immediate relatives of Saddam.

Saddam appointed, Sabir 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Duri as head during the 1991 Gulf War. After the Gulf War he was replaced by Wafiq Jasim al-Samarrai.

After Samarrai, Muhammad Nimah al-Tikriti headed Al-Istikhbarat al-Askariyya in early 1992 then in late 1992 Fanar Zibin Hassan al-Tikriti was appointed to this post.

These shifting appointments are part of Saddam's policy of balancing security positions. By constantly shifting the directors of these agencies, no one can establish a base in a security organisation for a substantial period of time. No one becomes powerful enough to challenge the President.

Al-Amn al-Askari.
Military Security Service

6,000 people.

Established as an independent entity in 1992, its function is to detect disturbances in the military.

The Amn was initially headquartered in the Bataween district of Baghdad. In 1990 Amn moved to a new headquarters in the Al Baladiat area of the city, with the Bataween building becoming the agency's main prison.

The Secret Police also has a number of additional facilities and office buildings. Amn maintains a presence in every town and village, with personnel stationed in civilian police stations across Iraq -- normally the "ordinary" police are on the ground floor and the Secret Police on the second floor.

The Security branch is responsible for monitoring and countering dissent within Amn, and the Military Brigade provides rapid intervention para-military capabilities - the Brigade commander was executed in August 1996 for alleged involvement in a coup attempt.

Amn is currently headed by Staff Major General Taha al Ahbabi, who previously headed the Military Security Service and served as the head of the secret service section of the Mukhabarat. As with many other senior Iraqi leaders, he is a native of Saddam's home town of Tikrit.

Al-Haris al-Jamhuri al-Khas.
The Special Republican Guard

15,000 people

Headed by Qusay Hussein, it serves as a praetorian guard, protecting Presidential sites and escorting Saddam Hussein on travels within Iraq.

The Al-Haris al-Jamhuri al-Khas are the only troops normally stationed in Baghdad.

It consists of four brigades, three infantry and one armoured.

Al-Haris al-Jamhuri al-Khas also has its own artillery battalions, air defence and aviation assets. Units consist mainly of individuals from tribes loyal to Saddam Hussein.

Al-Haris al-Jamhuri al-Khas has played a role in securing WMD warheads and maintains control of a few launchers.

Al Hadi project.
Project 858

Al Hadi is estimated to have a staff of about 800.

The Al Hadi Project is the organisation responsible for collecting, processing, exploiting and disseminating signals, communications and electronic intelligence.

Though it reports directly to the Office of the Presidential Palace, Al Hadi is not represented on the National Security Council, and the intelligence it collects is passed on to other agencies for their use.

Fedayeen Saddam.
Saddam's Martyrs

30,000 to 40,000 young people.

It is composed of young militia press ganged from regions known to be loyal to Saddam.

The unit reports directly to the Presidential Palace, rather than through the army command, and is responsible for patrol of borders and controlling or facilitating smuggling.

The paramilitary Fedayeen Saddam (Saddam's `Men of Sacrifice') was founded by Saddam's son Uday in 1995. In September 1996 Uday was removed from command of the Fedayeen. Uday's removal may have stemmed from an incident in March 1996 when Uday transfered sophisticated weapons from Republican Guards to the Saddam Fedayeen without Saddam's knowledge.

Control passed to Qusay, further consolidating his responsibility for the Iraqi security apparatus. The deputy commander is Staff Lieutenant General Mezahem Saab Al Hassan Al-Tikriti. According to reports, control of Saddam Hussein's personal militia was later passed back to his eldest son, Uday.

It started out as a rag-tag force of some 10,000-15,000 bullies. They are supposed to help protect the President and Uday, and carry out much of the police's dirty work.

The Fedayeen Saddam include a special unit known as the death squadron, whose masked members perform certain executions, including in victims' homes. The Fedayeen operate completely outside the law, above and outside political and legal structures.

Maktab al-Shuyukh.
The Tribal Chief's Bureau

This was created after the Gulf war as a vehicle for paying tribal leaders to control their people, spy on possible dissidents and provide arms to loyal tribesmen to suppress opposition.

 

Introduction to report

1: The effect on UNMOVIC

2: The security apparatus

3: The effect on the people of Iraq