Where's Ahmed?
As of Novemeber 3, 2006, the dateline of this great in-depth profile by Dexter Filkins, Ahmed Chalabi was still in London, blaming Wolfowitz and "the Americans" for screwing up his beautiful invasion.
He's down for now, but I will never believe that Chalabi is out of the game for good. If the narrative coalesces that the invasion was a decent idea mismanged by an incompetant and venal administration, Chalabi's reputation might even get rehabilitated in the US.
He's down for now, but I will never believe that Chalabi is out of the game for good. If the narrative coalesces that the invasion was a decent idea mismanged by an incompetant and venal administration, Chalabi's reputation might even get rehabilitated in the US.
Marilee Scott 9:57 AM
4 Comments:
He's still in charge of de-Baathification. And answerable to no one.
I heard somebody, Conason? talking to Franken yesterday, about the general prospect of attacking Iran, and how most Iraqi parties, especially those Shia and Kurdish ones we have the most to do with have worked from and with Iran for years, and are totally against the Bush/neocon attitude, and Chalibi was explicitly mentioned as someone whose attitude would be very different. I wouldn't say nostalgia for the original scheme exactly, but Chalibi's rationality was being favorably compared to the White House's. It was essentially rhetorical, but of such things does rehabilitation spring.
Chalibi's rationality was being favorably compared to the White House's.
Well, he's certainly rational, but in his case, that just means he knows how best to identify his self-interest.
Thanks for the WaPo article, anonymous. I particularly liked this part:
But he said the law will not contain a key demand of the U.S. government: a sunset clause that would abolish the commission [on De-Baathification], effectively depriving Chalabi of political influence. He called it unconstitutional.
I wonder how he splits his time between Baghdad and London these days.
Here's a link to a recent Baghdad press conference. He's proud of the progress being made on de-Baathification.
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