Report: CIA still runs Iraq intelligence

BAGHDAD, May 9 (UPI) -- The United States has not turned over any of its intelligence files on the insurgency to the new Iraqi government, it was reported Monday.

Immediately after the country's elections in January, several Iraqi officials said U.S. forces stashed the sensitive national intelligence archives of the past year inside U.S. headquarters in Baghdad, Knight Ridder newspapers said.

The Iraqi intelligence service "is not working for the Iraqi government -- it's working for the CIA," said Hadi al-Ameri, an Iraqi lawmaker. "If they insist on keeping it to themselves, we'll have to form another (agency)."

However, three U.S. officials in Washington who all spoke on the condition of anonymity told the newspapers handing the files to an Iran-friendly Baghdad administration would be tantamount to passing the intelligence to Tehran.

One official said the United States has evidence of aggressive Iranian attempts to penetrate Iraqi intelligence.

The CIA declined to comment about the Iraqi intelligence agency or its files.