Prime minister wants to reinstate the intelligence services Stressing that the country's security issues were paramount on his agenda, Iraq's newly appointed prime minister says he plans to resurrect domestic intelligence services and five divisions of Saddam Hussein's army. Iyad Alawi, a one-time member of Iraq's Ba'ath Party and former CIA-backed Iraqi opponent of Hussein's regime, said the interim government had already begun reconstituting an intelligence service and anti-terrorism unit. 'We need to reconstitute or build an internal security apparatus similar to [Britain's] MI5 or the FBI, which has power of interrogation and detention,' Dr Alawi said at a riverside party honouring Iraqi women last Thursday. Dr Alawi said he planned to reform five divisions of the old Iraqi army, welcoming tribesman and former members of militia groups into the ranks. He said Iraq could reintegrate between 40 to 55 per cent of the old Iraqi Army, which was dissolved by US administrator Paul Bremer in one of his first acts last year. The 59-year-old physician also said his interim government, appointed this month, was also considering reviving capital punishment to 'combat the evil forces trying to spread their poison and damage Iraqi society'. Dr Alawi, who spent 22 years in exile organising former members of the Ba'ath Party to fight Hussein, outlined his vision for a democratic, federal government allied closely with the United States on foreign policy matters. He played down recent reports of rifts between Iraq's Kurds and Shi'ite Arabs over the future structure of Iraq's government. 'All Iraqis of the various constituencies feel insecure one way or another,' he said in fluent English. 'I think it is the role of the new government of Iraq really to play a significant role in assuring all sections of the new Iraq that this is a new Iraq where all constituencies are going to be respected.' Dr Alawi emerged as the favourite of the US-appointed Governing Council last month. The US and United Nations eventually gave his caretaker government their blessing. His 30-odd member cabinet must prepare for a nationwide vote by January to form a new Iraqi government. The secular Shia ducked questions about demands that Islam play a stronger a role in the future government, noting that senior clerics, by definition, interfere in all aspects of Iraqi life. Earlier, Dr Alawi issued a statement condemning saboteurs attacking Iraq's energy infrastructure. More than 130 attacks on the oil industry over the past seven months had cost Iraqis US$200 million in lost revenue, he said. Iraq's persistent security woes have hampered reconstruction efforts. The capital still gets electricity for only about 12 hours a day. Power and fuel shortages have frayed nerves and soured relations with the US-led occupation. 'Even if the saboteurs had problems with us they can come and kill us, assassinate us,' Dr Alawi said. 'They're harming the ordinary man on the street.'
