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| Iraq-Jordan |
| More on Chalabi |
| 2004-05-21 |
| U.S. officials have been irritated at the adversarial role he has played within the U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council. He has openly clashed with L. Paul Bremer III, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, and pushed for the new Iraqi government to have more power, including over security forces and oil revenues. He has been in the middle of an increasingly bitter fight with the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority over the investigation of the United Nations' "oil-for-food" program. U.S. officials are unhappy that he has been unwilling to turn over documents scooped up after the war that bear on the investigation. Some U.S. officials complain that Chalabi has been parceling out the documents in small numbers each month to justify the $340,000 in U.S. aid to the INC. U.S. officials announced this week that the money was being halted because Iraq was about to regain its sovereignty. Chalabi and U.S. officials have clashed over the authority's decision to ease up on a program, overseen by Chalabi, that has sought to keep members of Hussein's Baath Party out of government. Chalabi has said that allowing former Baathists into the government was "like allowing Nazis into the German government after World War II." His readiness to criticize the United States may stem in part, U.S. officials say, from a desire to separate himself from the occupying power, in hopes of building a base of popular support he has never had. Polls show that the INC has only single-digit support from Iraqis, and many of Iraqis have long been suspicious of him. The U.S. official said the administration had lost patience with Chalabi over a combination of issues. "Even though he was at the center of the decision-making on de-Baathification, he suddenly turned on us. So there's a little bit of 'whiplash' when it comes to Mr. Chalabi," a State Department official said. One Western diplomat said he believed that the administration "has recognized that Chalabi has become much more part of the problem than he was a part of the solution." Even the Pentagon, the envoy said, "knew he had become tainted goods." Chalabi is not expected to be named as part of the new caretaker government in Iraq, because his selection probably would be opposed by the United Nations, many European allies and neighboring Arab countries. Nevertheless, Iraqi and U.S. officials acknowledge that, even with fading U.S. support, Chalabi is well positioned to continue to be highly influential in Iraq. He has wide commercial ties, influence over the country's banking network, control over the de-Baathification program, and key allies and relatives in important places. One nephew is defense minister; another heads the Iraqi tribunal that will try Hussein and members of his former regime. Even though Chalabi has lost support in many places, there were strong expressions of support and outrage Thursday after the raid on his home. "This is a campaign of intimidation against people that the U.N., or the CPA, or both, think are interfering with their nicely laid plans," said Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute, which has strongly supported Chalabi. "This is an act that's more appropriate to Saddam's Iraq than the new one." Patrick Clawson, deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the raid was a blunder, coming at a time when the coalition authority should be seeking accommodation with people who disagree. "You should try to court Iraqis who don't agree with you, not humiliate them," he said. One Iraqi official close to the Governing Council suggested that Chalabi is so smart that he sometimes outsmarts himself playing "one hand he doesn't have." Nevertheless, the official predicted that "Ahmad Chalabi will be around in 10 years' time. He will not go away. And he has the ability to make trouble for the Americans." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 "Ahmad Chalabi will be around in 10 years' time. He will not go away. And he has the ability to make trouble for the Americans.".....Until..... |
| Posted by: Dorf 2004-05-21 9:20:38 PM |