Badara

[Drax]

QASABI NEW GIS DIRECTOR


Interior Minister Hakim al-Sabah
 
MANARA  ALBRAYD SRIA AL-MUSAMI
(If it’s in the Monsoon, it’s got to be true)
 
Interior Ministry; October 20, 5674: After a senior staff meeting on religious paramilitary reports, The Monsoon asked Interior Minister Hakim al-Sabah if reports were true that the General Intelligence Service (GIS) had a new Director, and he responded:
 

That is what people are telling our Internal Security Unit (ISU).  Our understanding is the GIS Board of Governors has elected former Interior Minister Bandar al-Qasabi as GIS Director.  We believe outgoing Director Ivrahim Duqaq is now on its Board of Governors.
 

When asked by The Monsoon if the Majlis or the Ministerial Council or any Minister was involved in selecting The GIS Board of Governors, the Interior Minister replied:
 

Not as far as I know.  And for that matter I do not know who provides funding.  Most in the Majlis believe it is funded by various parts of the overall budget under some misleading titles, but that is a theory.  Let me add that that theory is much more plausible than that a foreign entity or a domestic business consortium  funds it. Former GIS Director Duqaq has specifically denied in my presence there is any foreign funding source.
 
But as to control, the Majlis wanted members of the Majlis elected by the people to take over the Ministries of Defense and Interior rather than military and police personnel furnish the top official therefor.  And that has happened.  More or less.
 
But there never has been any effort in the Majlis to control or limit the GIS.  Why? First off, GIS is extremely popular for arranging for Al-Salmania to end its separation from the rest of the nation and bloodlessly return.  It could have been otherwise.
 
Further, the GIS cooperates with the ISU of my Interior Ministry on counterintelligence and internal security and with the Foreign Ministry, the Chancellor’s Office and Defense Command military intelligence division.  GIS is efficient and does not create friction so factions in the governing coalition tend to be happy with the status quo.
 
There are of course some who worry about its potential unregulated power. But so far not many.

GIS Director Bandar al-Qasabi