summing up

[sisyphusshrugged]

It looks as if we took a long hard look at Mr. Chalabi a little too late

Chalabi, who has degrees in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago, has long allied himself with U.S. neoconservatives who advocated an American invasion to overthrow Hussein.

These allies -- ranging from Vice President Dick Cheney to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, State Department official John Bolton and Pentagon adviser Richard Perle -- relied heavily on Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress to produce evidence about Hussein's alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. This information formed the central justification behind the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Much of the evidence eventually proved false, and some U.S. officials now conclude that it was fabricated, presumably by Chalabi's U.S.-funded organization of spies, exiles and hangers-on.

After the fall of Hussein's regime, Chalabi and his U.S.-trained militia swept into Iraq aboard American military planes. He was quickly given status as Washington's favorite, and he was widely expected to become Iraq's first post-Hussein president.

He was given control of the entire archive of the Hussein regime's secret documents, as well as the so-called de-Baathification process. The powers of the De-Baathification Commission, which Chalabi chairs, are so wide-ranging that it is often called a government within the government.

The commission singled out tens of thousands of former Baath Party members to be fired from their government jobs and has allowed Chalabi to replace them with his followers. It oversees educational reform, tracks down Hussein's funds stashed in foreign banks and compiles lists of pro-Hussein businessmen who are then blacklisted and banned from government contracting.

His nephew Salem Chalabi is in charge of the war-crimes tribunal that is planning to try Hussein and other top former regime officials. His personal militia, paid for almost entirely with U.S. funds, has become the best- financed and best-armed Iraqi force in Baghdad.

Even mundane details show his power. To process the vast mountains of documents, the commission has 50 document scanners. There are only 20 other scanners in all the rest of the Iraqi government.

Now the man who controls the best-armed Iraqi force in Baghdad wants us out.

When he decides to use those arms, keep in mind: you paid for them.

Comments

The bloggers knew long ago...

[eyelander.livejournal.com]

that he was a con man. And even the King of Jordan spoke on TV long ago that he would be really troubled if this man was prominent in any new Iraq government. We should remember that Chalabi has been and is a wanted man in Jordan for criminal activities involving swindling of lots of money through a bank he was a part of. People in this government should have known they were being conned, but they were blinded by their own ambitions. We can't wait to see this evil administration go! As I said in my journal historians rating this administration say things like...

"My assessment is that George W. Bush’s record on running up debt to burden our children is the worst since Ronald Reagan; his record on government surveillance of citizens is the worst since Richard Nixon; his record on foreign-military policy has gotten us into the worst foreign mess we’ve been in since Lyndon Johnson sank us into Vietnam; his economic record is the worst since Herbert Hoover; his record of tax favoritism for the rich is the worst since Calvin Coolidge; his record of trampling on civil liberties is the worst since Woodrow Wilson. How far back in our history would we need to go to find a presidency as disastrous for this country as that of George W. Bush has been thus far? My own vote went to the administration of James Buchanan, who warmed the president’s chair while the union disintegrated in 1860-61."
http://hnn.us/articles/5019.html

Re: The bloggers knew long ago...

[xgray.livejournal.com]

brilliant!

...reading that really made me miss grad school.

Re: The bloggers knew long ago...

[(Anonymous)]

that article has the WORST excel chart ever. It's disneyland gone berserk. My prof would yell at me if I put that out.

-too many fancy graphic tricks muddle the actual information presented.

Re: The bloggers knew long ago...

[xgray.livejournal.com]

well, yeah...i really didn't pay much attention to them. my grad school days were well before the powerpointification of american academia.

[xgray.livejournal.com]

it's u.s. policy to create one new monster for each one we take out...'cause ya know, it's all about stability and balance.

[(Anonymous)]

bunch of notes:

-The CIA has been angry with Chalabi for soemtimes. He apparently did some unauthorize action in Iraq while working for CIA.

-But Chalabi gains favor in the neocon circle and becoming the main information stove piper in DIA, the pentagon arm of intelligence. Pentagon is also the people who pay Chalabi money after CIA drop him like a bad habit.

-----
anyway, now for the real problem with Chalabi:
-there is theory swirling around that the latest arrest is just a maneuver to increase his mass appeal in Iraq.

but there is another FAR more interesting question if the whole thing is true, (He leaks intelligence plan to the Iranian)

-WHAT intelligence?
-Is it Bush plan to destabilize Iran/invade later?
http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2004/05/index.html#003038

Tho if he did indeed leak it, Iraq has the highest CIA agent concentration in the world right now. He would be eleminated instantly instead of this 'big show' to mess his office and bedroom.

Stay tune...the plot thicken...
This Chalabi guy is a world class huckster. I wouldn't be surprised if he is in cahoot with the Iranian trying to set up a shiite regime in Iraq.

I certainly can follow his logic.

[wouldprefernot2.livejournal.com]

Now the man who controls the best-armed Iraqi force in Baghdad wants us out.

It took him long enough.