Chalabi - what is going on in Iraq?

[John Galt]

I mean seriously - what is going on? Chalabi is on the council and one of America's best allies in Iraq and the CPA raids his house?!? Who are we going to give power to?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120434,00.html

[stevew]

Hes probably a terrorist.

[John Galt]

Hes probably a terrorist.

Do you even think (or at least read the article) before you post?

[Bee]

Do you even think (or at least read the article) before you post?

Posting is like invading another country...

thinking isn't a requirement to do it. ;)

[stevew]

Do you even think (or at least read the article) before you post?

Yeah, They wouldnt have raided the dudes house without some form of cuase. I bet he has a large bank account of foreign aid moneys.

[John Galt]

Yeah, They wouldnt have raided the dudes house without some form of cuase. I bet he has a large bank account of foreign aid moneys.

Again, do you even read the article before you post? It says that he was probably involved in skimming from the oil-for-food swap and says NOTHING about him being a terrorist. My point is that if we are raiding the houses of our best allies on the council, it makes a transition very hard. This guy only months ago was one of the prime candidates suggested by the US to be the new leader of Iraq.

[stevew]

Again, do you even read the article before you post? It says that he was probably involved in skimming from the oil-for-food swap and says NOTHING about him being a terrorist. My point is that if we are raiding the houses of our best allies on the council, it makes a transition very hard. This guy only months ago was one of the prime candidates suggested by the US to be the new leader of Iraq.

He has a large cache of money he shouldnt have. He has illegal weapons. I would infer that he is, in fact, a terrorist. And I agree with you about the bad judgement on him.

[Ryan S]

If the reports are accurate, he might be a criminal not a terrorist.

[Maple Leafs]

"This is the penultimate act of failure of the CPA in Iraq."Is he trying to create suspense, or does he just not know what that word means?

[John Galt]

Is he trying to create suspense, or does he just not know what that word means?

:D

[Samdari]

Is he trying to create suspense, or does he just not know what that word means?

What is B, Alex?

[Maple Leafs]

I have to admit, this is the sort of story that I enjoy on a certain level. For months, Ahmad Chalabi was the right's golden buy and a high-profile target for the left. Now that this raid has taken place, it will be fun to sit back and watch the two sides switch places. ("Well, when I said he'd be a great leader I really meant..."; "Did I say he was Bush's puppet? I meant he's an Iraqi hero...")

[John Galt]

I have to admit, this is the sort of story that I enjoy on a certain level. For months, Ahmad Chalabi was the right's golden buy and a high-profile target for the left. Now that this raid has taken place, it will be fun to sit back and watch the two sides switch places. ("Well, when I said he'd be a great leader I really meant..."; "Did I say he was Bush's puppet? I meant he's an Iraqi hero...")

That "certain level" is a little disturbing, but I guess I have it too. The sad thing is that this does not bode well for the Iraqi people and a successful transition.

[Bonegavel]

fortunately or not, it really is just going to be what it will be. Is Iraq better off than it was under SH? No doubt. Argue whatever way you want, even if there are insurgents up to their eyeballs for the next 10 years, with a representative republic (or whatever they get) there is at least a chance for it to all work out. Under Hussein, there wasn't even a chance.

I think it was always known that Chillibean was always a rough choice (bank of jordan etc) but he was apparently a good choice at the time. The certain level of gloating over this situation is sad, but again, this effort isn't tied to a man, group of men, a woman, or anyone. It is tied to an idea that a free people will have a better chance to make a go of it than under a dictator.

To have Iraq in this *good* of shape (not a typo) after only 1 year of the ousting of a dictator like SH, is pretty amazing. Pockets of insurgents/terrorists setting off road side bombs isn't my idea of failure.

[Glengoyne]

That he is crooked shouldn't come as a surprise. Most of his Iraqi allies regarded him with distrust, our intelligence community pretty much gave up on him and his organization as a source of intel. They were too self serving. I think that this sort of thing actually lends credibility to our efforts there. We brought this guy in as part of the solution, and he may have turned out to be more motivated by greed than by patriotism. Investigating him shows that we are serious about eliminating corruption in the government there.

[yabanci]

five months ago he was Bush's guest of honor at the state of the union address, sitting right behind Laura Bush to give him maximum exposure.

[BishopMVP]

FWIW, I think Adnan Pachachi is the most widely-respected IGC member and the favorite to take charge after June 30.

[WSUCougar]

...and the CPA raids his house?!?
Yeah, in runs this dude with a pocket protector and a mechanical pencil.

"Alright! No one moves, or I AUDIT your ass!"

Oh, not that kind of CPA... :o

[sachmo71]

"No, Mister Bond, I expect you to die."

DA-NA...DAH
DA-NA...DAH
DA-NA-NA-NAH-NA-NA!

[Flasch186]

i find it interesting that this guy was a source of intl leading up to the war in Iraq and now, it just so happens there are no WMD that we can prove and he just happens to acting like he's in charge over there. Maybe we got dooped? Dangit, i wish the Admin coulda "flip flopped" on that. Guess were just too stubborn.

[Draft Dodger]

I bet this is the guy hiding all the WMDs

[WussGawd]

Chalabi is a crook who has been tried and convicted for embezzlement in Jordan. He orchestrated the lies about WMDs, and even failed a lie detector test in doing so (before Bush announced it to the world).

What a shock that the Bush administration would associate with a white collar criminal...that's never happened before.

[Mac Howard]

I think Chalabi has become a bit of pain in the ass for the coalition. They cut his funding a couple of days ago in addition to this raid. He has complained about much of what the coalition was doing and was leading the demand that elections should take place immediately. He was also apparently responsible for much of the false intel about WMDs.

Although CNN presented his news conference as an expression of his "outrage" it looked to me that he was wallowing in the publicity. He could barely contain the "cat with the cream" smile and was clealry pleased to have a captive audience listen to his views on where Iraq should go and what the coalition was doing wrong.

A major cause of his complaint about the raid reveals another of his clashes with the coalition's policies. The raid was led by an ex-Baath party member. The coalition has decided that most Iraqis capable of running a civil service are ex-Baath party members who did the job pre-war. They weren't all involved in terror - many just running the various services - and the coalition are now vetting these people and allowing some to take up roles in the administration. Chalabi is dead against this and the raid being headed by one didn't go down well with him and a major cause of his "outrage".

It's not good publicity - clearly another rod for the coalition's back - but I don't think they're too troubled at losing a politician who was more interested in his own aggrandisement than moving Iraq forward.

[Dutch]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120535,00.html

According to CBS, the dude has been passing sensitive classified information to Iran.

[BlingBlingKilla]

hes being targeted because he aint white.

pure and simple.

all rest is extra stuffs

[judicial clerk]

What a shock that the Bush administration would associate with a white collar criminal...that's never happened before.

Ouch.

[Dutch]

Empty WussGawd rhetoric is only painful in it's redundancy. :)

[WussGawd]

WussGawd rhetoric is only painful in it's accuracy. :)

I fixed this for you. :p

[Mac Howard]

So when you add it all up it's surprising they didn't find a convenient terrorist bomb for him :D

[Dutch]

I fixed this for you. :p

Well, at least you are consistantly accurate in your interpretations. :D

[BlingBlingKilla]

That he is crooked shouldn't come as a surprise.

Name me one Arab that I know who ISNT a crook. Seriously. I was stationed in Saudia Arabia for 2 and a half years. Every local I met was a fuckin crook. No freakin wonder they have so many people who like beheading people and blowing up innocents. Even the freakin cops are crooked as hell.

I was glad to get outta there.

[BlingBlingKilla]

That he is crooked shouldn't come as a surprise.

Name me one Arab that I know who ISNT a crook. Seriously. I was stationed in Saudia Arabia for 2 and a half years. Every local I met was a fuckin crook. No freakin wonder they have so many people who like beheading people and blowing up innocents. Even the freakin cops are crooked as hell.

I was glad to get outta there.

[BlingBlingKilla]

not sayin the cops in the US aint any better, but whens the last time you saw one of them cut another guys head off who didnt even do nothing except try to help their pathetic country?

We should be helping people who want our help. Bring the troops home i say and right now.

[cthomer5000]

Is he trying to create suspense, or does he just not know what that word means?
He must know that they've got another big one in store.

[Leonidas]

Chalabi was a HUGE mistake from day one. Please forgive me for having at least a little bit of gloating on this, but from the day this guy flew into Baghdad on a C-17 (and I was given the pictures of that "blessed event" right after it happened) I told my boss this was a really bad move. I think someone at the Pentagon finally felt deep remorse for the terrible decision to put him there in the first place and decided to cut their losses and take action against this obvious loser.

[BishopMVP]

I still have no idea what is going on here. CIA and State sources are all going after Chalabi while Chalabi's backers are claiming the UN (because of Chalabi's attempts to investigate UN Oil-for-Food), CPA (because they are trying to suck up to the UN), CIA and State (long-standing turf war) have been out to get him. Now come the recent reports of how he was caught http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/06/02/chalabi.iran/index.html . According to the article he told the Iranians that their code has been cracked, and then the Iranians sent a message using the same code to Tehran that it had been broken. That alone would seem to suggest either the Iranians are complete idiots or they were setting up Chalabi. This situation just gets weirder and weirder.

[Mac Howard]

There are reports here that he's been involved in currency scams. He was responsible for the department that was replacing coins and notes with Saddam's image with new ones with a more "appropriate" (what a useful word that has become) image. People take in their money and it's replaced with the new stuff.

The guy he set up in charge of this had a somewhat colourful background that would suggest he wasn't really the right man for the job. When it became apparent that some of the confiscated notes were reappearing and being handed in again for replacement, this guy blamed a number of women bank clerks who he had dragged out of their employment into the street in somewhat dramatic raids and paraded them before the public.

But the scams didn't stop and when the coalition authorities investigated they found it was this guy and his mates in Chalabi's department that were responsible for the scams. A number of people were arrested including Chalabi's Chief of Security (don't you just love it when these guys get involved - the police Anti-Corruption Investigation Unit here in WA has now been suspended for corruption :D ).

Though Chalabi hasn't been arrested for this it's believed that he knew exactly what was going on and that his computer records, confiscated in the raid, will help the prosecution of his staff.