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Al Jazeera (English)
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Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

Some in Pentagon wanted Chalabi to replace Saddam
(Brian Whitaker, The Guardian, May 25, 2004)
If some in the Pentagon had got their way it would all have been different. Instead of the chaos and looting, Ahmad Chalabi would have marched into Baghdad at the head of his own "Free Iraqi" force to take over from Saddam Hussein.
At one point it looked as if that might just happen. Mr Chalabi, an urbane, plausible and apparently fearless businessman, was spirited into Iraq by the US military early in April 2003. He installed himself in Nassiriya, holding court with local dignitaries and preparing for what some sarcastically referred to as his "coronation". . . . But Mr Chalabi had already made too many enemies. . . . the state department and CIA were suspicious of him - not least because of doubts about his organisation's accounting of the funds provided by US taxpayers. . . . Perceptions of Mr Chalabi in the US reflect the ongoing power struggle within the Bush administration between the neoconservatives in the defence department such as Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz - both great admirers of the INC leader - and more moderate voices in the state department and elsewhere. . . . Iraqis, well aware of his involvement in a Jordanian banking scandal, dubbed him "Ahmad the Thief". . . . Mr Chalabi cultivated the Israelis, too, reportedly offering them piped supplies of Iraqi oil once he was installed in Baghdad. He also developed contacts with Iran, using his credentials as a Shia Muslim, though not a particularly religious one. Some say he gave everyone the impression - the US, Israel and Iran - that he was working for them, when most likely he was working for no one but Ahmad Chalabi. . . . Apart from the contacts with Iran, Mr Bremer was particularly annoyed by Mr Chalabi's behaviour during the changeover from the old Iraqi currency (which bore Saddam's face) to the new banknotes. Mr Chalabi insisted on having the old currency incinerated rather than buried, as had originally been planned - only for the incineration contract to go to one of his associates. . . . Last week's raid on his villa by Iraqi police and US troops was also apparently connected to the currency changeover. Coalition officials suggested that senior members of the INC (though not Mr Chalabi himself) were involved in a scam earlier this year when millions of dollars went missing during the replacement process.

posted by Lorenzo 7:23 PM