Egypt­ian news­pa­per Al-Badeel con­tacted Iraqis sources who par­tic­i­pated in war prepa­ra­tion plan­nings, the sources deny the the “New York Times” report “Fate­ful Choice on Iraq Army Bypassed Debate” say­ing:

Dis­solv­ing the army is planned since the early stages of war prepa­ra­tion meet­ings in 2002.

The plan is dis­cussed with the Iraqi oppo­si­tion groups who wel­comed and expressed their sup­port to the idea for the fears that the army to seize power after the war.

Among the many work­shops formed by the — US Depart­ment of State — plan­ning the post-invasion admin­is­tra­tion of Iraq there was a spe­cial work­shop plan­ning the future of the Iraqi army whether it will be dis­solved or to reduce the size of forces and the level of armament.

There were dif­fer­ences dur­ing the dis­cus­sions, Iraqi army offi­cers headed by Brigadier Gen­eral Najeeb Al-Salihi, who was then a refugee in the United States, opposed the idea of dis­solv­ing the army, Kur­dish groups insisted on dis­arm­ing the Iraqi army after the war the and reor­ga­niz­ing the army insti­tu­tions for fear that it will be used against the Kurds in the future with the com­ing government.

The Shi­ite oppo­si­tion also sup­ported the idea of dis­solv­ing the army argu­ing that the army used in the past to sup­press of the Shi­ite upris­ing after the Gulf War in 1991.