Nonna Gorilovskaya (Mother Jones): Ahmed Chalabi is Yesterday's Man

From Mother Jones
Dated Friday April 30

Yesterday's Man
By Nonna Gorilovskaya

If anyone personifies the United States' failures so far in Iraq, that person is Ahmed Chalabi. So, while there's no guarantee that the Iraqi transitional government soon to be appointed by the United Nations will enjoy broad popular support, one sure way for the U.S. to further undercut that government's credibility would be to insist that Chalabi be included in it.
Chalabi is the best-known and most controversial of the Iraqi Governing Council members. In the run-up to the war, the Iraqi National Congress, a group of Iraqi exiles that Chalabi heads, provided bogus evidence of a connection between Saddam Hussein's regime and al Qaeda and the existence of weapons of mass destruction. (Most infamous were the claims fed to the U.S. about supposed mobile bio-weapons labs, labs that were mentioned by Secretary Colin Powell in his crucial prewar speech to the U.N.). The I.N.C. continues to receive $340,000 a month for providing "intelligence" to the Pentagon, but the political and economic rewards it reaped from being propelled to power by the United States in a country in which it is widely distrusted even hated, have been much more valuable.
Now, Chalabi's position is threatened. He has no base of support in Iraq. (According to a February poll conducted by Oxford Research International, only 0.2% of Iraqis said Chalabi was the leader they trusted most, whereas 10.3% named him as the leader they most distrust.) And the U.N. envoy to Iraq, former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi, has made it clear that he wants the transitional government -- due to take power on June 30th -- to be competent and credible and that the current members of the Governing Council should keep out of it. If, as promised, President Bush allows Brahimi to pick the new members, Chalabi is sure to get the boot.
But Chalabi is not about to go quietly. His recent criticisms of the U.S. plans to give U.N. a greater role, his refusal to take any of the blame for providing bogus intelligence, and his personal attacks on Brahimi make him less of a darling and more of a headache for the Bush administration these days.

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The first time I saw this guy, all I could think was "used car salesman". In the time since, my opinion of him has only worsened, as I have learned of the depths of his moral depravity.

I particularly find entertaining the way in which he is trying to criticize Brahimi as imposing an "Arab nationalist agenda" on Iraq. I also love each and every time the fact that he was sentenced in absentia, and is STILL a wanted man in Jordan, is brought up.

I think one of two things will eventually happen -- either Chalabi will be exiled to London again, or his head will end up on the sharp end of a post in Baghdad. Any Iraqi government in which he or even the INC plays a large part will have absolutely ZERO legitimacy in the eyes of the Iraqis.

to be kidnapped by a group of mercenaries and transported to Jordan to answer for his embezzlement of the Petra Bank.

But I gotta admit, I like the idea of his head on a spike.

:evilgrin: