The Anti-Chalabi

““There is no difference between a Kurd, an Arab, a Turkmen. There is no difference between a Muslim or a non-Muslim. There is no difference between a Sunni or a Shiite.””

To be more precise, there are all kinds of differences, but when it comes to genus and species, we are the same thing, we belong to the same class, we share a specific manifestation of Being. It is sort of like Democrats and Republicans, who argue over the role of gov’t, in the economy, but who are both Liberal, in political nature.
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The fact that Saddam wanted to kill him, certainly shows promise.

The fact that the CIA likes him is perhaps more ominous than promising. Saddam was also their boy at one time.

Wasn’t it FDR who said: “He’s an SOB, but he’s *our* SOB.”?

Isn’t it the CIA which has a history of supporting, even installing, SOBs?

Hey, we found a strongman to take over for us…Good luck, Iraq!

The Times article did cite one person who expressed the probably not uncommon view that Iraq needs another killer SOB in charge to get things right again.

Chalabi has emerged as Tehran’s man in Baghdad..

On a side note: Didn’t Chalabi the Carpetbagger’s freshness date expire some while ago? That man seems to make common cause with anyone who will take him in…before he eventually uses them up or burns them.

This is a good time to remind everyone, that next time John McCain appears on a Sunday show as a serious Foreign policy cammentator that he was not only a stone’s throw away from installing Sarah Palin as VPOTUS and “President of the Senate” but that THIS guy would have been on the short list to head the State Department:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june03/chalabi_05-07-03.html

RANDY SCHEUNEMANN: Well, I think there may be some unfortunately in the U.S. government that are looking at an Afghan model. They don’t understand that Iraq is not Afghanistan. It’s not a primitive tribal civilization. It’s a highly educated, urbanized population, and as for Dr. Chalabi’s activity, all I think that we should be seeking and striving for in Iraq is a level playing field. He does in fact have a vision for Iraq. He has expressed it many times including the United States in exile conferences and bridging the differences, and his group has exhaustive contacts inside Iraq. Many of the surrenders or captures of the officials including some who made the CENTCOM playing card deck, have been facilitated or negotiated by the INC under Chalabi’s leadership.

…next time John McCain appears on a Sunday show as a serious Foreign policy commentator..
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Paul, I have a feeling that media love for McCain runs so deep that he could be in a semi-vegetative state and still be considered a worthwhile opinion to have on Sunday.

grape,
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I HAVE made the point that THAT is exactly what they are used to.
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Better an EFFECTIVE Middle-Eastern-type muscleman than an amoral Western-style sleaze-ball, in their eyes.
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The question is – if the Iraqis elect him, willl WE honor their wishes or will we find a “reason” to determine the election wasn’t “democratic” enough?

formerly,
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See 2.1 below. It fits here.

kbang,
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Over history, and to the disinterested observer, I think someone would have a LOT of trouble distinguishing between CIA and the KGB from a practical standpoint.
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They seem to “borrow” from each other on a regular basis.

Could the Sunday shows take a 3 month sabbatical from McCain, Lieberman, and Graham? There are 97 other Senators after all. It’s fracking pathetic.

Chalabi is a longtime neocon bagman. In the late 90′s, for example, neoconservatives helped push through the Iraq Liberation Act which allotted $97 million to the groups like the INC. While Wolfowitz, Perle, and Woolsey were espousing the usual ‘friend of democracy’ nonsense, Clinton’s advisers urged him to distance himself from Chalabi. Fast forward to the run-up to the Iraq War. Israeli intelligence agents, long advocates for regime change in Iraq, pressure Wolfowitz to disregard CIA intelligence rejecting an Iraq/Al Qaeda link. With Wolfowitz thoroughly convinced he could not rely upon the CIA for ‘favorable’ intelligence, he created the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group, relying heavily on Chalabi’s now discredited reports. Wolfowitz’s second project was the Office of Special Plans (OSP), the sole raison d’etre of which was to find other selling points for an Iraq War. Again, OSP relied heavily on Chalabi’s information, along with fellow Iraqi exiles and Israeli intelligence. According to The Guardian:

Israeli intelligence played a hidden role in convincing Wolfowitz that he couldn’t trust the CIA…[OSP] forged close ties to a parallel, ad hoc intelligence operation inside Ariel Sharon’s office in Israel specifically to bypass Mossad and provide the Bush administration with more alarmist reports on Saddam’s Iraq than Mossad was prepared to authorize.

In February 2007, the Pentagon released a report criticizing the OSP for providing:

alternative intelligence assessments that were, in our opinion, inappropriate given that the intelligence assessments were intelligence products and did not clearly show the variance with the consensus of the Intelligence Community.

The neocons, led by Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Kenneth Pollack, David Wurmser, Michael Maloof, Michael Rubin, and others, continued to disseminate Chalabi’s reports, while also touting him as the future of Iraqi leadership. The State Dept. and CIA, on the other hand, thoroughly rejected the integrity and reliability of Chalabi, a position later vindicated when US armed forces accused Chalabi of funneling information of the occupation to Tehran. It would seem that the constant infatuation with Chalabi among the neoconservative community dating back to 1997 had little do with the man’s credibility, integrity, or capability. Instead, it hinged one one thing: Israel. Chalabi had close ties with AIPAC, JINSA, AEI, Hudson Institute, and WINEP. Chalabi promised future cordiality with Israel once he gained power, even expressing his interest in a new pipeline from Haifa to Mosul. According to Mattew Berger with Jewish Journal:

The INC [read Chalabi] saw improved relations as a way to tap Jewish influence in Washington and Jerusalem and to drum up increased support for its cause. For their part, the Jewish groups saw an opportunity to pave the way for better relations between Iraq and Israel, if and when the INC is involved in replacing Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Chalabi and the INC used the Israel lobby and neoconservatives in an attempt to gain widespread backing in replacing Saddam Hussein. The Israel lobby and the neocons, in turn, used Chalabi to further their own ambitions. It’s been a lurid ride, with ghastly consequences, with neither of these two blocs having achieved even minimal success in their endeavors. Hundreds of thousands of lives lost to appease an insatiable self-interest that has yet to be fulfilled.

@4.1 grape_crush:

“…could be in a semi-vegetative state”?

When did Grandpa come out of it?

The fact that the CIA likes him is perhaps more ominous than promising.
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formerly,
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You think the CIA, rather than actually liking him, is more trying to jump on that bandwagon before it leaves, to try to have some “influence” down the road, because they suspect they may be looking at the eventual winner?

I was wondering when someone was gonna take a swing at that pitch.

President McCain must be campaigning tomorrow.

Via twitter @Atrios anyone know why president harold ford is going to be on my teevee tomorrow? or tom delay? or evan bayh?

Same old, same old. Liz Cheney is probably somewhere as well to spread her poison. Or, maybe they are waiting until the admin caves on military commissions to point out that they don’t care – they won’t agree to closing Gitmo.

Chalabi has emerged as Tehran’s man in Baghdad
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That seems like a big assumption. As Paul D showed, Chalabi has been linked to Scheunemann and the neocons for a long time– since the Clinton administration (link).
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I don’t know if Chalabi is or is not “Tehran’s man”, but according to Juan Cole (link):
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The so-called Justice and Accountability Committee, which initiated the disqualifications, is the remnant of the ‘debaathification committee’ set up by the Neoconservatives in the Pentagon and their ally Ahmad Chalabi to ensure that Sunni Arab nationalists with sympathies for the Palestinians and a tendency to ally with the greater Sunni Arab world were excluded from office in the new Iraq, in favor of Shiites and Kurds. Chalabi is still around and on the JAC.
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Cole goes on to say that “(Chalabi) has sometimes been accused of being a double agent for Iran and of helping sucker the US into overthrowing Saddam Hussein for Iran’s benefit”, so it’s possible.
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However, considering that Chalabi was set-up in the new Iraqi government, by the neoconservatives, specifically to limit Sunni influence (as a buffer for Israel, one assumes by the “sympathies for the Palestinians” mentioned by Cole) and to consolidate power with Shiites and the Kurds– well, that is exactly what he is doing now for the JAC. Why should we believe that he has the same “marching orders” but from a different boss?
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It is possible that he is still the neocon’s man in Baghdad.

afguy, could be what you say. I have a more pessimistic view of the CIA and think that they don’t so much hitch their wagon to possible winners as make the winners themselves. Democracy does not enter into the equations of CIA operations. Ironic, isn’t it?

pint,
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All the contortions you described make my head hurt, trying to keep track of it all.
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Isn’t THIS what they had in mind when some politics were described as “Byzantine”?
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Almost like court intrigue from the Middle Ages…

The CIA has been kinda lousy lately at picking or producing winners (or, for that matter, even supporting the right ones).
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Given their “sterling” track record, for them, a victory is a victory, even if you can only manage to throw a rope on the caboose of that train as it is leaving the station.
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If you’re not on the train, you can’t fleece the passengers for fun and profit, somewhere down the line.

After it became apparent that the noble invasion was dirty, the neocons and CIA went into CYA mode and war with each other. Chalabi was the neocons punk; the CIA had long since cut him loose. Since everybody involved on both sides are liars and Machiavellian manipulators, it will probably never be known if he was working Iran or not. The only thing for sure is that he was working for himself and lining his own pockets.

Mr Klein, ignorance and wishful thinking do not make for insightful analysis. The chances of Allawi finishing first in the election are exactly nil. And to say that Iraqis prefer strongmen is offensive if not downright racist.
The Iraqis will vote tomorrow and prove you (and the CIA) wrong once again.

The only thing for sure is that he was working for himself and lining his own pockets.
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formerly,
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Isn’t that the type of “individualism” we are supposed to believe made our own country great, according to some recently?

“The fact that the CIA likes him is perhaps more ominous than promising. Saddam was also their boy at one time.”
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If they do, they like a guy who is aligned with the Iraq Communist Party and other Muslim secularists, from my reading. Are some of the CIA SOBs, communists?

He is also a medical doctor, and former Baathist, like Saddam, but living in exile, because he thought Saddam had turned into an asshole, so Saddam put him on the hit list.
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There is the story about him shooting 6 prisoners, in cold blood, in front of several witnesses, but some reports say that was a story planted by Chalabi, a relative of his, who is also a competitor, shall we say.

Who the hell knows what normal means over there?

“The fact that the CIA likes him is perhaps more ominous than promising. Saddam was also their boy at one time.”
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If they do, they like a guy who is aligned with the Iraq Communist Party and other Muslim secularists, from my reading. Are some of the CIA SOBs, communists?
He is also a medical doctor, and former Baathist, like Saddam, but one who lived in exile because he thought Saddam had turned into an a$$hole, not to mention the fact that Saddam had put him on the hit list.
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There is that story about him shooting 6 prisoners, in cold blood, in front of several witnesses, but other reports say that was a story planted by Chalabi, a relative of his who is also a competitor.
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Who the hell knows what normal means over there?

Joe-Allawi is a politician saying what he needs to say to gain power. You have no clue what this guy is really all about. Yet you seem hopeful this guy will unite the country of Iraq as if you know this is what the Iraqi people want. But what you hopefulness is based on is beyond me.

Afghanistan and Waziristan, is where our troops should have been to begin with. Never Iraq. But even there NATO should only be the harrassing insurgent, not the occupier trying to prop up a corrupt Karzai regime — saw a cool site; Balkingpoints ; incredible satellite view of earth

Derek,
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Apparently, NORMAL “over there” is whatever we say it is. Has been that way for years, from our point of view.

Gunny,
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They just want to believe ANYTHING that might put a positive face on this clusterf*ck we’ve been involved in for so long. We KNOW Chalabi’s a con man of the first order. After all, he suckered us in.
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This guy’s just GOT TO BE better! Or so they HOPE…

(Had to comment and run before)
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To add to Exiled’s comment, the same neocon miscreants set-up and ran the Iranian Directorate. See Sourcewatch’s entry:
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The Iranian Directorate is a Pentagon department formed to undercut the religious government of Iran. The unit is situated in the same office as the Office of Special Plans, the controversial intelligence analysis unit established before the Iraq war that championed the claims of Ahmad Chalabi.
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The Iranian Directorate’s staff includes several OSP veterans such as Abram Shulsky, John Trigilio, Ladan Archin and Reuel Marc Gerecht. The directorate will be closely alligned with the newly formed State Department Office of Iranian Affairs to back Iranian dissidents more aggressively, boost support to democracy broadcasters and strengthen ties with exiles.
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Apparently the Iranian Directorate may also be serving as a defacto intelligence conduit. In her June 15, 2006, Raw Story article, Larisa Alexandrovna quotes some observers in the intelligence community who worry that, like the OSP, the Iranian Directorate may be “…cherry picking, manipulating, and even planting intelligence abroad that would support a case against Iran in the minds of the public.” (link)

pintortwo~
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There is something fundamentally at odds with our purported governmental structure in these unsanctioned intelligence units. When the CIA, and even the Pentagon, are opposed to the interference these operations are running, when our entire intelligence community is at odds with small, yet influential, subgroups, and when informal sections are ‘creating’ intelligence to drive certain policies, the entire basis of American foreign policy is jeopardized. I’m not a huge fan of Thomas Freidman, but he had it right when he told Haaretz:

I could give you the names 25 people, all of whom are at the moment within a five-block radius of this office [in Washington, DC], who, if you exiled them to a desert island a year and a half ago, the Iraq war would not have happened.

FYI: for a detailed accounting of the Office of Special Plans see this fascinating three-part article by Lt Col Karen Kwiatkowski (former unwitting staff member to the OSP):
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Pt I- http://www.amconmag.com/article/2003/dec/01/00019/
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Pt II- http://www.amconmag.com/article/2003/dec/15/00023/
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Pt III- http://www.amconmag.com/article/2004/jan/19/00027/
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A introduction, of sorts, from part I:
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I had observed that many of the neoconservatives in the Pentagon not only had limited military experience, if any at all, but they also advocated theories of war that struck me as rejections of classical liberalism, natural law, and constitutional strictures. More than that, the pressure of the intelligence community to conform, the rejection of it when it failed to produce intelligence suitable for supporting the “Iraq is an imminent threat to the United States” agenda, and the amazing things I was hearing in both Bush and Cheney speeches told me that not only do neoconservatives hold a theory based on ideas not embraced by the American mainstream, but they also have a collective contempt for fact.
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By August, I was morally and intellectually frustrated by my powerlessness against what increasingly appeared to be a philosophical hijacking of the Pentagon. Indeed, I had sworn an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, but perhaps we were never really expected to take it all that seriously…

“Apparently, NORMAL “over there” is whatever we say it is. Has been that way for years, from our point of view.”
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If Chalabi did plant the story about the 6 prisoner, public execution, where blame is laid at his cousin’s feet, it still could backfire on Chalabi, if his cousin is admired even more, because many people think the story is true.

Joe

You guys have just never understood the Middle-East and many of us have told you many times that is not a place for Democracy the way America believes in the terminology. You will but your fingers and achieve nothing:

http://ikejakson.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/joe-of-the-broken-heart-bares-his-empty-soul/