But it looks like getting Chalabi out of the way may have been necessary to enable it to move ahead. Alawi was always the CIA's guy, and I suspect their hand behind much of which is happening in Iraq at the moment.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/nation/2286920December 11, 2003 -- The Bush administration has authorized creation of an Iraqi intelligence service to spy on groups and individuals inside Iraq that are targeting U.S. troops and civilians working to form a new government, according to U.S. government officials.
The new service will be trained, financed and equipped largely by the CIA with help from Jordan. Initially the agency will be headed by Iraqi Interior Minister Nouri Badran, a secular Shiite and activist in the Jordan-based Iraqi National Accord, an exile group that includes former Baath Party military and intelligence officials.
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Badran and Ayad Alawi, leader of the Iraqi National Accord, are spending much of this week at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., to work out the details of the new program. Both men have worked closely with the CIA over the past decade in unsuccessful efforts to incite coups against Saddam. The agency and the two men believe they can effectively screen former regime officials to find agents for the service and weed out those who are unreliable or unsavory, officials said.
By contrast, some Pentagon officials and Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, vehemently oppose allowing former intelligence and military officials into the new organization for fear they cannot be trusted. Chalabi and his sponsors also fear that some former regime officials would use the new apparatus to undermine the influence of Chalabi, who wants to play a central role in a new Iraq.