So what do the resident political analysts think of Chalabi’s compound being raided by “coalition” forces ? CNN Article
Is this the end of the honeymoon between US and Chalabi ?
Are they trying to make him look more anti-US... or is he doing it himself to look anti-US ? Or is this a reflection of Washington power play ? If thats the case is it Rummy or someone else getting knocked down a peg ? Or simply Iraqi infighting ?
So many possibilities its baffling... what's your take on it ?The Pentagon is tired of being dicked around by the neocons, and are starting to strike back?
Chalabi was Cheney’s man all the way. I suspect that the VP is sweating a bit in his undisclosed location, hoping that nothing too incriminating is turned up.
Simple, or maybe simplistic, answer: When Chalabi was useful in achieving the Administration’s objective the Administration used him and embraced him. As soon as his objectives separated from the Administration’s objectives, as soon as he was no longer useful, he was no longer its friend. There are no permanent alliances in this game. There are only interests and people who can be used. A person, a faction, a country that is not a friend is an adversary. Because he is not useful Chalabi is not a friend and is therefore an adversary. It’s simple power politics. The hand that pats your back today may well stick a knife in it tomorrow.
Chalabi is a used up horse. We rode him this far and he can’t carry us any farther. It is time to shot him and find a new horse.
“Has your luck run out?” she laughed at him,
“Well, I guess you must’ve known it would someday.”
–Dylan, “Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts”
That’s my analysis: his run of luck has finally come to an end, as his patrons - the neocons in Rummy’s office - have finally, finally dropped him, and he’s been trying to broker alliances among radical Shi’ites, so we got even more pissed at him, and tossed his joint. Nobody else really wants to deal with him (even the radical Shi’ites), he’s in trouble, and he knows it. He’s going down.
Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy.
Funny I saw it the other way around… Chalabi rode the Neo-Cons as far as he could. This is the guy that convinced the Bushites that there were WMD and that Iraqis would throw flowers. Now that he knows the US is losing control and the initiative he is playing with the other factions… being pro-US meaning no political career in Iraq it appears.
Now at last someone in the admin noticed that Chalabi was more of a burden and embarrasment. Too late probably.
Like I said about Israel… with Allies like this who needs enemies?
Wow, this whole thing is like a game of Survivor… who will use who? Whose alliances will be broken?
When June 30th rolls around, will Jeff Probst be on hand to unveil the winner?
Chalabi is directly above Laura Bush during the State of the Union address:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/images/20040120-7_d012004-2-515h.html
You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends. - Joseph Conrad
Better thread title:
“Bush Administration Decides on Fall Guy”
Looks to me like a case of Pinocchio (Chalabi) wanting to be a real boy, and Geppetto (Bush) having none of that shit.
Chalabi has been using the U.S. and its gullible neo-con leaders from the beginning.
He was bad news from the start. From a number of reports I’ve seen, it appears that the investigation and raid have been initiated on the Iraqi side of the IGC. (This does not mean that the U.S. could not have engineered it, but given the way Chalabi was flagged as bad meat long before the invasion, I would not be surprised to discover that the real Iraqis want him out.)
His recent protests against the U.S. appear to have been cover for his butt, trying to ingratiate himself to the real Iraqis before his oncoming fall.
(I almost wish december had not been banned so that he could participate in this discussion of his hero/martyr.)
It’s not hard to convince people of something they want to believe anyway.
Probably the same way the Administration would explain the buddy-buddy relationship the Reagan Administration (many of whom are holding high office now) with Saddam Hussein – “Oh, he was a nice guy previously…”
Oh please. Chalabi was not using the Neocons. They both got something they wanted. Chalabi got the prospect of dictatorship over Iraq once we pull out. The Neocons didn’t have to bribe people to lie about the WMDs directly. Now they don’t need him, and they desperately need someone to blame for the mess they’ve gotten us into. Chalabi has made himelf a convenient patsy with his blatant grabs for power, his amateurish conspiracies, and his recent turn to anti-Americanism.
Which brings us to Evil Overlord Tip #54:
I will not strike a bargain with a demonic being then attempt to double-cross it simply because I feel like being contrary.
Why hasn’t someone mentioned how much the US is paying him per month and the amount we funded him to look into the UN *Oil for Food * program?
Maybe now the actual documents that’re the basis for the UN Oil for Food scandal can be seen by someone outside the little clique who has been keeping them.
The bolded sentence really caught my attention.
Chalabi Passed U.S. Intelligence to Iran -CBS
Thu May 20, 2004 07:29 PM ET
[CBS Evening News said]
“Senior U.S. officials told us today that they have evidence Chalabi has been passing highly classified U.S. intelligence to Iran,” the report said on Thursday.
“The evidence shows that Chalabi personally gave Iranian intelligence officers information so sensitive that if revealed it could … ‘get Americans killed.’ The evidence is said to be 'rock solid.”’
A high-level investigation is under way to determine who in the U.S. government gave Chalabi such sensitive information, CBS said.
© Copyright Reuters 2004
All of Chalabi’s actions were predicted prior to this run on Iraq (many of them in this Forum, based on the testimony of people in the State Department and the CIA long before he was elevated to faux leader by the War Department). While I am sure that each side “used” the other, it seems far more likely that Chalabi has created the problems for which he is now being dumped than that the adminitration is inventing any excuses to discard him.
We were paying him around $350k per month, but that stopped on Monday.
Not quite as wierd as Moussaoui and Berg though.
Chalabi blames Baathists for raid
Thursday, May 20, 2004 Posted: 12:06 PM EDT (1606 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) – Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi said the raid on his compound Thursday was engineered by Baathists who control the Iraqi police and who are now protected by the Coalition Provisional Authority.
…coalition law enforcement… justice officials said raid was part of an investigation of “suspected fraud in a government ministry.”
[Dan] Senor said… “It was an Iraqi-led investigation, an Iraqi-led raid. It was the result of Iraqi arrest warrants,”…
…coalition officials said three locations… searched… warrant issued by…Iraqi judge. “Several people” named… arrested…
…investigation involved “fraud, kidnapping and associated matters,”…
© 2004 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
Chalabi says,“When America treats its friends this way, then they are in big trouble.”
Almost sounds like a threat. But maybe he is just making a diagnosis.
Apparently we didn’t stop because we wised up.
"…they are ending because, as of June 30, the law supporting opposition groups becomes moot when Iraq resumes sovereignty over its own affairs…"
Valerie Plame?
With regards to the raid on Chalabi’s records, we had to do it both to find out what dirt he’s got on the US and friends, and to pre-distance ourselves from him in the event that he reactivates his militia after June 30 and brings about an abrupt end to the UN’s pie-in-the-sky caretaker government.
We might hear something like this wafting out of Washington come September: