Murdered cleric 'was given £8m by CIA'

* Ewen MacAskill in Najaf
* guardian.co.uk, Saturday 3 May 2003 02.34 BST
* Article history

The London-based Iraqi cleric killed in the holy city of Najaf last month received as much as $13m (£8m) from the CIA to win over moderate Shia clerics in Iraq, the US newspaper Newsday alleged yesterday.

But friends and supporters of the murdered Abdul Majid al-Khoei rejected the allegation as "lies".

Abdul Hassan al-Khafaji, who was with Khoei in Najaf at the time and who was in charge of finances, said the only thing the cleric had sought from the Americans was access into Iraq in the aftermath of war.

"There is no question of CIA money," Mr Khafaji said. "There is no truth in it."

The US, which sent tens of thousands of dollars into Afghanistan to win over tribal leaders, is worried that the Shia clerics might turn Iraq into a Islamist state that will ally with Shia Iran.

Khoei was a moderate who supported the idea of a broad-based government accommodating the various religious and other groupings that make up Iraq.

Two men were arrested on Thursday in Najaf in connection with his murder.

They were also alleged to have fired automatic weapons and thrown hand-grenades outside the holy city's main shrine.

Newsday quoted a US source saying that Khoei had agreed to use the CIA cash to enlist support among prominent Shias. "We allocated $13m to the al-Khoei operation," according to what Newsday described as a well-placed intelligence source.

"It was part of a covert action programme to strengthen Shiites who are pro-western", and to recruit new allies.

"I don't know where the $13m is," the source said. "A good chunk of it is missing."

There is continued confusion about the circumstances of Khoei's death on April 10. He and a pro-Saddam cleric, Haider al-Kadar, were stabbed to death in a mosque.

A Shia cleric, Qais al-Khazaaly, told the Guardian Khoei had made two mistakes.

"The first was to go accompanied by al-Kadar, who was part of the old regime. The people were angry and attacked him. Mr al-Khoei tried to prevent them. Some of the people went mad.


"The second mistake was he took out his pistol and started shooting to scare the people, and people got madder because shots had never been fired in the mosque before."

But Mr Khafaji, who was with him at the time and is now back in London, said that Khoei did not have a pistol, though one of his supporters did.

Mr Khafaji blamed members of Saddam's Fedayeen fighters who had infiltrated the crowd. Najaf city authorities said yesterday one of the arrested men was linked to the Fedayeen.