Iraq's Enduring Playbook for Power
Hamid Al-Shatri, currently leading the Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS), is reportedly being floated as Iraq's next Prime Minister. This nomination comes just months after his December 2024 appointment to INIS by the current PM, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani. Mainstream outlets present this as a normal political progression, a potential shift in leadership within Iraq's complex parliamentary
system, but the pattern is hardly new. One might recall that back in 2005, then-incoming Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's cabinet was largely shaped by US and UK advisors, prioritizing 'security' figures to helm key posts in a nascent government. Likewise, Ayad Allawi, who served as interim Prime Minister from 2004-2005, also came from an intelligence background, having once led the Iraqi
National Accord (INA), a group heavily backed by Western intelligence. Each time, the narrative focused on stability, while the outcome invariably reinforced external influence on Iraqi sovereignty, allowing for a reported 80 percent of Iraq's oil revenues to be funneled into a US-managed development fund. Curiously, the same intelligence-to-leadership pipeline appears to be reactivated, ensuring
continuity for foreign interests under local guise. This isn't just about one man; it's about the persistent architecture of control established after the 2003 invasion under the false pretense of 'weapons of mass destruction' – a deception confirmed by the Chilcot inquiry in 2016. Such appointments signal a tightly managed political process, far removed from genuine self-determination. This is