Iraqi Intelligence Service

The Iraqi Intelligence Service (Arabic: جهاز المخابرات العراقي, "Jihaz Al-Mukhabarat Al-Amma"), also known as the Mukhabarat, General Directorate of Intelligence, or Party Intelligence, was the main state intelligence organization in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The IIS was primarily concerned with international intelligence collection and analysis but also performed many activities inside Iraq in conjunction with the Directorate of General Security as a secret police organization.
The most important section of the IIS was Directorate 4: the Secret Service. One of the well known Directors was Rafi' Dahham Mejwel Al-Tikriti () the former Iraqi Ambassador to Turkey and the last Chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. The Secret Service was tasked with infiltrating both foreign and domestic governments, unions, embassies, and opposition groups. IIS often worked closely with the Iraqi General Security Directorate (the Iraqi equivalent of the FBI) when conducting domestic activities.
IIS is alleged to be responsible for a number of assassinations and attempted assassinations abroad. These include the assassinations of Sheikh Talib al-Suhail al-Tamimi in Beirut (April 1994), Ayatollah Mehdi al-Hakim in Sudan (January 1988) and Ayad Habashi in Rome (October 1986), as well as the attempted assassinations of President George H.W. Bush, the Emir of Kuwait and the former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Structure.
IIS was organised as a number of Bureaus, which oversaw the individual directorates. The following list gives the directorates divided by bureau, and a brief description of the directorate:
Administration Bureau.
The office of the director of the Mukhabarat was situated in its own building at the main entrance of the Mukhabarat complex in the Mansour district of Baghdad. All instructions and directives flowed from this office, and the director's meetings with his senior staff took place here. The last Director of the Mukhabarat was Rafi' Dahham Al Tikriti, former director of the Fourth Directorate of the Mukhabarat and former Iraqi Ambassador in Turkey. He assumed his present position on 1 July 1997. The Director up to 30 June 1997 was Mani' Abd Rashid Al Tikriti. The Manager of the Director's Office is Col. `Aayed Al Douri (Abu Tayseer), from Dour, and the Director's secretary is Capt. Muthana Al Tikriti (nephew of Mani' Abd Rashid).
Subdivisions of D1:
The Secretariat
Audit
Security
Salaries
Electronic equipment
Reception and appointments
Internal and external co-ordination
History.
Following an unsuccessful assassination attempt by the Ba'ath Party on Iraq's ruler Abdul Karim Qasim in October 1959, Saddam Hussein was placed in charge of Jihaz al Khas (Special Apparatus), sometime between 1964 and 1966. Codenamed Jihaz al-Haneen (Instrument of Yearning), the organisation concentrated on security and intelligence work.
After the Ba'ath Party seized power on 17 July 1968, Saddam expanded the Special Apparatus and took control of the "Amn" (State Internal Security Department).
Following the failed coup attempt led by Director of Internal Security Nadhim Kzar in 1973, "Jihaz" was transformed into Da'irat al Mukhabarat al Amah (The General Intelligence Department or the GID).
In 1983, under the leadership of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, the GID organized the massacres of the villagers of Dujail and Jezan Al Chol, the disappearance of the Barzanis from the Qushtapa camp, and the assassination of 18 members of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim's family.
As a result of the Gulf War (1991), the department dealing with external affairs was reduced to less than half of its pre-1990 size, while the department dealing with internal affairs was enlarged to deal with increasing anti-Saddam activities within Iraq.
In 13 April 1993, the IIS planned and executed an assassination attempt against former US President George H. W. Bush and the Emir of Kuwait through the use of a large car bomb driven by two Iraqis.
However the plan was foiled and Kuwaiti officials arrested 16 persons suspected of carrying out the plot after a car bomb was found. Two Iraqi nationals, during the FBI interviews in Kuwait, admitted to attempting to carry out an attack under direction of the IIS.
On 26 June of that year, in response to an attempted assassination by IIS on former US President George H. W. Bush, US President Bill Clinton ordered two U.S. warships, namely USS Peterson and USS Chancellorsville, to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles on the IIS principal command and control complex in Baghdad. 16 of the 23 missiles hit their target; three struck a residential area, killing nine civilians and wounding 12. Four of the missiles were unaccounted for.
In June 1995, Saddam Hussein dismissed his stepbrother Sabawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti from his role as head of the IIS, due to his failure to increase domestic security within Iraq. Brigadier General Majid Hasan al-Majid was named as his successor.
The IIS was officially dissolved on 23 May 2003 by the Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq, Paul Bremer, per Order Number 2 of the Coalition.