900 pages of leaked Iranian spy cables reveal how America's failures after invasions allowed Iran to seize control of Iraqi politics

An anonymous source claiming to be an Iraqi patriot sent The Intercept leaks of 900 pages' worth of spy-agency cables and memos sent by Iranian spies in Iraq; James Risen (previously) reported them out in a joint project with the New York Times that reveals how the US's post-invasion nation-building failures created a political vacuum that Iran filled, allowing it to dominate the political and tactical landscape in Iraq.

The leaks include a lot of juicy spy stuff -- skullduggery, spycraft and thrilling escapes -- but the main thrust of them is to show just how deeply embedded Iranian partisans are within the Iraqi state at the highest levels (and throughout the government at all levels), and how Iranian spy agencies have turned CIA informants into double agents, gaining the upper hand in the region (though that's changing somewhat as protests in southern Iraq have targeted political parties and institutions that are friendly to Iran).

The leaks also reveal how the US's chaotic failures in their post-invasion "nation building" exercises created the conditions for Iranian dominance over Iraqi politics. From "de-Baathification" that saw anyone who held any role in the Saddam Hussein stripped of their jobs (but not their guns!) after the invasion -- a purge that included even the most petty of "officials" such as schoolteachers -- to the string of grifty Beltway Bandits who were contracted with to deliver key initiatives but instead disappeared, leaving nothing behind but inflated cost-plus invoices.

In addition to shedding light on the way that other major powers reacted to the US failures in post-invasion Iraq, the leaks also provide a rare insight into the ultra-secretive Iranian intelligence apparatus, which has not suffered major breaches of this sort. Read the rest