Post by Moses on May 21, 2004 11:44:15 GMT -5
Chalabi: Being Made To Look Independent
Yesterday Warblogging wrote about the occupation's raid on Ahmed Chalabi's home and headquarters, which resulted in, among other things, a gun being held to Chalabi's head. The official story from the Pentagon is that the raid was targetted at some members of Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress who are wanted for numerous crimes, including kidnapping. Paul Wolfowitz has let on that Chalabi is also being investigated for passing secrets to Iran.
For their part, Chalabi's people have been saying that the raid was a reaction to Chalabi's increasingly anti-occupation rhetoric. One Chalabi aide told reporters that American troops "bullied him over his criticism of plans for next month's transfer of sovereignty."
But in yesterday's Warblogging post I wrote that all may not be as it appears. I wrote:
Having thought about this some more, I'm not sure that all is as it appears to be. The Pentagon needs someone they can trust to run the "New Iraq". They need a puppet. But they know that a puppet won't last a week in the presidency, they know that a puppet would lack the people's mandate to govern. They know that a puppet would never thrive or survive as a leader of the "New Iraq". Or at least someone perceived as a puppet.
I suggested that it was at least possible that the Pentagon was working to make Chalabi palatable as an Iraqi leader by making him seem anti-American and anti-occupation.
Now Robert Dreyfuss at Tom Paine reports that a junior staffer at the American Enterprise Institute — who just left a post at the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans — has let the cat out of the bag. Chalabi is in fact being groomed by the Pentagon as the future leader of Iraq, being made to look palatable to the Iraqi people by making him out to be anti-occupation.
Rubin says:
“Much of the information he collected was to roll up the insurgency and Ba'athist cells. It caught people red-handed," said Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser who is now at a conservative think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute.
"By telegraphing that he is not the favorite son of America, the administration will bolster him, showing he is his own man."
So it looks like it's true: the man flown into Iraq by the Pentagon, provided with his own force of American special forces bodyguards, the man who was more an American puppet than any other Iraqi is still America's favorite Iraqi. We're just being nice to him and making it look like we hate him.
So, despite the numerous news reports announcing that "Ahmed Chalabi is down on his luck," Chalabi is now looking more than ever like the next president of Iraq. Chalabi is not at all down on his luck — he's just hitting his stride.
www.warblogging.com/archives/000853.php#000853
P.S. : Does anyone know to which military unit the Chalabi raid has been attributed?
Yesterday Warblogging wrote about the occupation's raid on Ahmed Chalabi's home and headquarters, which resulted in, among other things, a gun being held to Chalabi's head. The official story from the Pentagon is that the raid was targetted at some members of Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress who are wanted for numerous crimes, including kidnapping. Paul Wolfowitz has let on that Chalabi is also being investigated for passing secrets to Iran.
For their part, Chalabi's people have been saying that the raid was a reaction to Chalabi's increasingly anti-occupation rhetoric. One Chalabi aide told reporters that American troops "bullied him over his criticism of plans for next month's transfer of sovereignty."
But in yesterday's Warblogging post I wrote that all may not be as it appears. I wrote:
Having thought about this some more, I'm not sure that all is as it appears to be. The Pentagon needs someone they can trust to run the "New Iraq". They need a puppet. But they know that a puppet won't last a week in the presidency, they know that a puppet would lack the people's mandate to govern. They know that a puppet would never thrive or survive as a leader of the "New Iraq". Or at least someone perceived as a puppet.
I suggested that it was at least possible that the Pentagon was working to make Chalabi palatable as an Iraqi leader by making him seem anti-American and anti-occupation.
Now Robert Dreyfuss at Tom Paine reports that a junior staffer at the American Enterprise Institute — who just left a post at the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans — has let the cat out of the bag. Chalabi is in fact being groomed by the Pentagon as the future leader of Iraq, being made to look palatable to the Iraqi people by making him out to be anti-occupation.
Rubin says:
“Much of the information he collected was to roll up the insurgency and Ba'athist cells. It caught people red-handed," said Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser who is now at a conservative think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute.
"By telegraphing that he is not the favorite son of America, the administration will bolster him, showing he is his own man."
So it looks like it's true: the man flown into Iraq by the Pentagon, provided with his own force of American special forces bodyguards, the man who was more an American puppet than any other Iraqi is still America's favorite Iraqi. We're just being nice to him and making it look like we hate him.
So, despite the numerous news reports announcing that "Ahmed Chalabi is down on his luck," Chalabi is now looking more than ever like the next president of Iraq. Chalabi is not at all down on his luck — he's just hitting his stride.
www.warblogging.com/archives/000853.php#000853
P.S. : Does anyone know to which military unit the Chalabi raid has been attributed?