What is the truth of the document being circulated as if issued by the Iraqi intelligence regarding a video documenting (Muqtada al-Sadr) harassing a lady inside his office?
Circulated on social media is a document claimed to be issued by the (Iraqi Intelligence Service) in 2011, to the office of the Prime Minister (Nouri al-Maliki) at that time. It includes news that a source in the (American Embassy) provided the service with a film of (5 minutes) duration, recorded with a mobile phone, allegedly showing (Muqtada al-Sadr) in an "immoral situation" and harassing a lady inside his office, "where he asks her to remove the niqab and abaya and uses obscene language," according to what was stated in the alleged document.
The document also shows the Intelligence Service's suggestion to the Prime Minister's office to utilize the film in what was called the "Plan to Demean Opponents," and use it in "political necessities."
The truth
The circulated document is fake. Upon verification, no sources, whether agencies or local or global news websites, were found to have previously published it. All that was found is the same circulated version published on a website called (Iraq News Network) in 2014.
Upon examining the document, we noted several observations, as follows:
- The document mentions the existence of a film with a suggestion to the Prime Minister's office to use it. Therefore, the document should note at the bottom that a CD is included with the film mentioned in the document.
- The document includes the phrase (For Your Information) while it includes a suggestion to a higher authority. The correct phrase would be (please take a look and your orders) or any other phrase indicating a request to take action or know the Prime Minister's office's opinion on the presented suggestion.
- The Intelligence Service (a lower authority) does not have the right to propose a reward of a certain amount to the Prime Minister (a higher authority). The service also has its own financial budget from which reward amounts and others are spent.
- The suggestion in the alleged document is incitement against (Muqtada al-Sadr), yet it refers to him respectfully with the term "Mr." before his name instead of other terms that could have been used, such as (the so-called).