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When the head of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service abruptly quit, the U.S., which had helped establish the organization, was caught by surprise. The intelligence chief justified his departure by saying that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was conspiring against the INIS by allowing "Iranian spies to operate freely." In an op-ed for the Washington Post, David Ignatius says examples such as this, which point to major rifts at the top of Iraqi government, are key to understanding why the country has begun to unravel so quickly after U.S. troops' withdrawal. According to a "top Iraqi intelligence source," without American help, in five years "Iraq will be a colony of Iran."