The Ministry of Defence is the Iraq government agency responsible for Defence of Iraq. It is also involved with internal security.
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The Ministry directs all the Iraqi Armed Forces, comprising a Joint Headquarters, the Iraqi Ground Forces Command (which controls the Army), the Iraqi Special Operations Forces, the Iraqi Army, the Iraqi Navy (including Marines), and the Iraqi Air Force.[1]
The Ministry was dissolved by Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 2 of mid 2003. It was formally re-established by CPA Order 61 of February 22, 2004. In the interim period, the CPA Office of Security Affairs served as the de facto Ministry of Defence.[2]
The Iraqi Counter Terrorism Bureau directs the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Command, which is a further military force answerable to the Prime Minister of Iraq directly. As of 30 June 2009, there had been legislation in progress for a year to make the Iraqi CTB a separate ministry.[3]
The position of Minister of Defense was left vacant in the current Iraqi cabinet, approved on 21 December 2010. While it is vacant, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki serves as the acting defense minister.
The previous Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Abd al-Qadr Muhammed Jassim al-Obaidi, is a Sunni career military officer and political independent. He had limited experience and faced a number of hurdles impeding his effective governance. Some of the major problems included inheriting a staff that is notorious for favorism, corruption, and deeply divided along sectarian and ethnic lines. He was a rival of the former Minister of the Interior Jawad al-Bolani, National Security Advisor Muwafaq al-Rubai, and Minister of Staff for National Security Affairs Shirwan al-Waili. He has been criticized for not being able to stand up to the Badr Organization and Mehdi Army members which dominate his own party. In addition, as a Sunni he faced inherent challenges working within a Shiite-dominated government.
On September 19, 2005, The Independent reported that approximately one billion US dollars have been stolen by top ranking officials from the Ministry of Defense including Hazim al-Shaalan and Ziyad Cattan.[4]
Previous defence ministers under Saddam Hussein's regime included Ali Hassan al-Majid ('Chemical Ali'). Iraq's very first minister of defence was Jafar al-Askari (1920-1922).
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