TheIntercept NYT: Writes on Iran Iraq Spy Cables

[grarpamp]

https://theintercept.com/2019/11/18/iran-iraq-spy-cables/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/18/world/middleeast/iran-iraq-spy-cables.html

A Spy Complex Revealed
Leaked Iranian Intelligence Reports Expose Tehran’s Vast Web of
Influence in Iraq

Now leaked Iranian documents offer a detailed portrait of just how
aggressively Tehran has worked to embed itself into Iraqi affairs, and
of the unique role of Suleimani. The documents are contained in an
archive of secret Iranian intelligence cables obtained by The
Intercept and shared with the New York Times for this article, which
is being published simultaneously by both news organizations.

The unprecedented leak exposes Tehran’s vast influence in Iraq,
detailing years of painstaking work by Iranian spies to co-opt the
country’s leaders, pay Iraqi agents working for the Americans to
switch sides, and infiltrate every aspect of Iraq’s political,
economic, and religious life.

Many of the cables describe real-life espionage capers that feel torn
from the pages of a spy thriller. Meetings are arranged in dark
alleyways and shopping malls or under the cover of a hunting excursion
or a birthday party. Informants lurk at the Baghdad airport, snapping
pictures of American soldiers and keeping tabs on coalition military
flights. Agents drive meandering routes to meetings to evade
surveillance. Sources are plied with gifts of pistachios, cologne, and
saffron. Iraqi officials, if necessary, are offered bribes. The
archive even contains expense reports from intelligence ministry
officers in Iraq, including one totaling 87.5 euros spent on gifts for
a Kurdish commander.


https://publications.armywarcollege.edu/pubs/3667.pdf
In a sense, the leaked Iranian cables provide a final accounting of
the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. The notion that the Americans handed
control of Iraq to Iran when they invaded now enjoys broad support,
even within the U.S. military. A recent two-volume history of the Iraq
War, published by the U.S. Army, details the campaign’s many missteps
and its “staggering cost” in lives and money. Nearly 4,500 American
troops were killed, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died, and American
taxpayers spent up to $2 trillion on the war. The study, which totals
hundreds of pages and draws on declassified documents, concludes: “An
emboldened and expansionist Iran appears to be the only victor.”