When access to the contents of an archive is closed to the public and scholars for security concerns, the collection is labeled as being “dark.” The Kanan Makiya Papers housed at the Hoover Institution is one such archive. The collection was closed in October 2017 after Wisam Alshaibi uncovered numerous documents issued by the United States Department of Defense outlining its efforts to use millions of pages of Iraqi Ba’th Party records to sell the war in Iraq to scholars and the international public. The Kanan Makiya Papers also contains records related to the formation of the Iraqi opposition movement in exile, its close ties with the American CIA and Department of Defense, and its involvement in building the case for regime-change in Iraq. In the talk, Alshaibi describes how he found the collection, how its contents radically change our understanding of the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, and how he is now facing legal liability for his research.
Wisam Alshaibi is doctoral candidate in Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he specializes in the study of political violence and social theory. His dissertation examines the making of the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, with a focus on the relationship between the United States’ Department of Defense, CIA, State Department and the Iraqi opposition movement. He uses this case to investigate broader questions about the transnational dimension of international warfare, the role of experts and disinformation in wartime, the instrumental use of human rights, and the micro-politics of political violence.