Think Progress

While Promoting Escalation In Iraq, U.S.-Backed Chalabi Blocks U.S.-Led Political Reforms

Reforming the de-Baathification process in Iraq is viewed as a critical step to quelling violence and reconciling estranged factions in Iraq. Under Paul Bremer, the Coalition Provisional Authority removed thousands of former Baath party members, despite many having no ties to Saddam Hussein, a move which helped spawn the vigorous Sunni insurgency today.

Sweeping de-Baathification reforms have been proposed to reconcile differences in the wake of Bremer’s failures. But progress on this front was “sabotaged” by U.S. ally Ahmad Chalabi, who is in charge of the process:

[T]he law was stymied by Ahmad Chalabi, who headed Iraq’s de-Baathification commission. Mr. Chalabi, the former Pentagon protégé, relies on the commission for an official role in Iraq’s government. Having just renovated a spacious office in the Green Zone, he has strongly opposed any effort to weaken his position or the country’s policy on former Baathists.

According to a senior official with the commission, Mr. Chalabi and members of his organization sabotaged the American-backed plan by rallying opposition among Shiite government officials in southern Iraq, then taking their complaints to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most powerful Shiite cleric.

On April 1, Mr. Chalabi visited the ayatollah’s office in Najaf. He later appeared at a news conference, declaring that Ayatollah Sistani told him the law was incomplete and that “there would be other drafts.” A day later, an aide to the reclusive cleric confirmed that there was “a general feeling of rejection” about the proposal.

Paid by the U.S. to muster pre-war intelligence, Chalabi drummed up claims that Hussein had nuclear weapons, helping lead the U.S. into war. More recently, he has promoted the escalation in the Iraqi government, serving as an “intermediary between Baghdad residents and the Iraqi and U.S. security forces mounting an aggressive counterinsurgency campaign across the city.”

Thus, while Chalabi helping extend the U.S. presence in Iraq, he is stalling political reconciliation, just as he has done several times in the past.



36 Responses to “While Promoting Escalation In Iraq, U.S.-Backed Chalabi Blocks U.S.-Led Political Reforms”

  1. TNS says:

    The Jobs Americans Aren’t Willing To Do

    The U.S. Republican party has decided that no American is qualified to take one of its most crucial positions: California state deputy political director. Instead, the GOP has hired a Canadian for the job through an “H-1B” visa, favored by Silicon Valley tech firms and others displacing skilled American workers. Christopher Matthews, 35, a Canadian citizen, was recently hired as full-time deputy political director, with responsibility for handling campaign operations and information technology for the country’s largest state Republican Party operation. Matthews was hired by Michael Kamburowski, the state GOP’s chief operations officer, who likewise is an Australian citizen. Many Republicans have spoken critically about the impacts of waves of Mexican immigrants. The H-1B visa program is supposed to focus on “specialized workers” whose unique skills are unavailable in the American workforce. According to Labor Department regulations, employers are supposed to make a good-faith effort to hire Americans, and only then rely on “specialized” immigrants if necessary. The California Republican party has decided that in the largest state in the Union, there are no qualified American citizens to serve as California’s GOP deputy political director.


  2. TripMaster Monkey says:

    No surprise. None at all.

    Remember, kids, the goal for this administration has never been to actually make things better in Iraq. This administration’s policy in Iraq is to foment the maximum discord possible.

    Who better than Chalabi, Chimpy & Co.’s stooge in Iraq, to turn the screws?


  3. Jane E. Schneider says:

    That evil-looking face just sums it all up. Disgusting!


  4. ForTruth says:

    Who was the senior official of the commission?


  5. Merlin says:

    Here is the famed “Peter Principle” in action

    Chalabi has risen to his highest level of incompetance and is firmly planted in his position.

    Another cancerous tumor on the body politic of the US. It just continues and festers as it metastsizes.


  6. big papa says:

    Joe Klein was just on CNN talking dumb sh*t about…

    …the American people being READY to discuss issues like…

    …healthcare, and a universal DRAFT…

    …any DUHmerikkan willing to allow their son or daughter…

    …to be DRAFTED for Bushiva and L’il Dick’s CON…

    …is a fu*king IDIOT…

    …if they try to force the DRAFT…

    …the people should overthrow the government…

    …because THIS is Bush, Cheney, Rove, AIPAC and the oil cartel’s…

    …illegal invasion and occupation…

    …there’s NOTHING in it for the average American citizen…


  7. Wayne A. Schneider says:

    Is this lying clown still getting paid with our tax money? If so, then whoever okayed it should be impeached and removed from office. This man bears a great deal of responsibility for the deaths of more than 3,500 of our troops. Continuing to give him our money would be no different than giving money to the insurgents.

    Oh, yeah. I forgot, they’re already doing that.


  8. Kiki says:

    What’s in it for him? Is he getting rich like his evil twin, Cheney? (that picture creeps me out almost as much as Cheney’s does)


  9. ForTruth says:

    According to a senior official with the commission

    Just wondrin’ who this official is.


  10. Merlin says:

    #2 Comment by TripMaster Monkey — June 14, 2007 @ 10:14 pm

    Remember, kids, the goal for this administration has never been to actually make things better in Iraq. This administration’s policy in Iraq is to foment the maximum discord possible.

    Who better than Chalabi, Chimpy & Co.’s stooge in Iraq, to turn the screws?

    Yes, And then we fill the devastated void our “liberation” created. No problem with any disgruntled Iraqis organized to protest our 50 year occupation and control of their oil resourse.


  11. Merlin says:

    Comment by big papa — June 14, 2007 @ 10:21 pm

    You actually listen to Joe Klein???
    What ever would you want to do that for?


  12. Jay Randal says:

    Chalabi is a double-agent working for the Iranians, and Israel at the same time, so he plays them off against each other. US should arrest him and have him hanged.


  13. Zooey says:

    That evil-looking face just sums it all up. Disgusting!
    Comment by Jane E. Schneider

    It must have been “Pose for Your Evil Picture Day” at the Baghdad WalMart.


  14. joe says:

    Nice suits, Ahmed.

    Anybody with any damn sense at all took one look at Chalabi’s wardrobe and concluded that he was, at least, a playa.


  15. Mister IED says:

    i cannot believe that someone has not taken this assklown out !!!!

    how can this guy still be alive ???


  16. Merlin says:

    #15 Comment by Mister IED — June 14, 2007 @ 10:32 pm

    i cannot believe that someone has not taken this assklown out !!!!
    how can this guy still be alive ???

    He’s one of the bad guys. Only the good guys get taken out. The bad guys know their own.


  17. Mr. President says:

    “Provisional Authority removed thousands of former Baath party members, despite many having no ties to Saddam Hussein,”
    Posted by Satyam at 10:06 pm

    Who cares???

    These are some of the Islamo-Fascists that m12 keeps talking about, and they are some of the Muslim Shiteaters ™ that I keep talking about, it makes no difference if the have or had ties to Saddam or not.

    What about the German “Aryan” compounds in S. America, they had been there before Hitler came to power, but they were still racist, and they were still dangerous.


  18. burro says:

    There is nothing, absolutely nothing that would be too unacceptable to do to this S**tball, Chalabi. And the same could then be said of every SOB who paved the way for his rotten power and money grabs. There are a lot of bad and scummy players in the WarCo ranks that deserve distain and derision and punishment. But Chalabi has earned his place among the top contenders and it’s insane that he hasn’t been thrown to the dogs. Literally. Being crapped out on the streets of Baghdad would be too f**king honorable for that rat bastard.

    America has been made weaker and many times more vulnerable to attack from within and without by that one weaselly ass picker. It’s nuts that he gets any notice at all.


  19. big papa says:

    Comment by Merlin #11

    …Israeli agents have totally infiltrated our msm…

    …and government…

    …Klein was on Anderson Cooper…

    …and took me aback when he tried to frame that statement in the context of:

    “The American people are perhaps MORE willing than we in the media to…”

    …and you read post #6 above…

    …It’s just that they are SO damned slick with how they INSINUATE…

    …and in so doing…

    …CONVINCE…

    …the intellectually challenged among us that such is the case…

    …BUT…

    …Klein isn’t the ONLY public figure I’ve heard harping on this need for a DRAFT…

    …Charlie Rangel, and a couple of other Democrats have “mentioned”it…


  20. WaltTheMan says:

    Chalabi is 63 years old. Given his biological bagage, he can last between three and seven years. He is balding, gray and has malenoma. Best guess isthat he will last 4 years. By the same statistics, D. Cheney should be pushing daisys. It is a crime that his life was extended for the sacrifice of 6500+ Americans and 650,000+ Iraqis. All of it for oil.


  21. Merlin says:

    #19 Comment by big papa — June 14, 2007 @ 10:45 pm

    Sorry, I should have added that was snark. Klein is such an ass I just dismiss what he has to say, never mind waste time watching him.

    Regarding a draft. The neocons don’t want a draft. That would awaken the American people from their slumber. Their kids would be on the line. (They reason: As it is, only “volunteers” are going, so its their choice, right? So its no skin off my nose, right? They die, no big deal. They chose to do it. I say let them suck it in. Let’s go shopping.)
    Some Dems are pushing the draft idea for the same reason. Get the public aroused.


  22. big papa says:

    I don’t blame Chalabi…

    …I blamethe dumb a*s inbreds whovote for…

    …the dumb a*s inbred Bush regimists (is that a word?) who allowed…

    …Chalabi to run his CON…

    …to perfection…

    …KNOWING…

    …he was a fugitive under warrant…

    …in Jordan…


  23. stan says:

    with hamas controlling gaza – it looks like bush has created a 3 state solution for israel.


  24. big papa says:

    Some Dems are pushing the draft idea for the same reason. Get the public aroused.

    Comment by Merlin #21

    …given the truly sorry state of affairsin Iraq…

    …I’m afraid that hat WAS a political strategy…

    …may well become a self-fulfilling prophecy…

    …Iraq (the ME in general) is in deep caca….


  25. big papa says:

    #24 should read:

    “what” was a political strategy….


  26. burro says:

    The neocons don’t want a draft. That would awaken the American people from their slumber. – Merlin

    That’s no s**t. If a real, across the board, no privileged/middle class child left behind draft was actually looming, this county would be reeling from the bitch slap. Paris Hilton’s wailing on the way to jail would sound tame compared to the mothers whose babies were being plucked from their Junior Colleges and Community Colleges and State Universities so they could go make the world safe and fertile for the likes of the bastards who lied us into this fraudulent, corporate, tax money laundering “war”. The mothers know it’s all B.S. but they haven’t been pushed to have to confront the true B.S.edness of it. Start taking their babies for this SNAFU and the house of cards will come down super fast.


  27. RUCeriuous says:

    Is Chalabi the Iraqi word for

    a. Weasel

    b. Self Serving Cobra

    c. Master Self aggrandizing monkey

    d. All of the above


  28. smafdy says:

    he’s a known con atist, and Bushco continues supporting him, regardless.

    i guess, when you make the kind of money Bushco does, that kind of loss doesn’t matter – it’s a cost of doing business. Just like our dead troops.


  29. Wayne A. Schneider says:

    he’s a known con atist, and Bushco continues supporting him, regardless.

    Comment by smafdy — June 15, 2007 @ 12:42 am

    He’s not merely a “known con artist”, he’s also a convicted criminal in Jordan, one of our allies. You’d think we’d show a little more support for our friends by not hiring people they have ordered sent to prison (as soon as he sets foot in Jordan again.) If he had been convicted in a British court, does anyone think we would still hire him? I don’t.


  30. toasterhead says:

    I dunno about you all but I’m still waiting for my tiramisu.


  31. veritas says:

    Chalibi: The Gift that keeps on giving, eh?


  32. veritas says:

    Bush/Chalabi: One good con artist supporting another.


  33. Kate Henry says:

    What do you expect. He is mad at the US since we stopped paying him to tell lies to back up Bush’s assertions. He’s got a new gig now and his loyalties lie with who is paying him the most money.


  34. JPark says:

    Jeez, upon seeing that picture I began scanning the article for a mention of Richard Perle. It looks like Chalabi and the Prince of Darkness were separated at birth.


  35. Janet says:

    The calibre and credibility of someone like Chalibi, reflects the absolute disregard this administration has for the rule by law and Democracy. Chalibi is a criminal, wanted in other countries. He fed false information into the U.S. administration about Iraq befor the “war”; wants to reassume his power there and will try to do this by getting the phoney OIL bill through the weak, U.S dominated, government. Why he has ANY part in the Iraq situation indicates just how corrupt the whole situation is. Bush and cohorts are doing a “heck of a job” on us.


  36. jt says:

    How can this slime-ball be extradited – or simply “rendered” to Git Mo? – for the full array of self-serving bs he fed the eager neocons-at-the-trough? He belongs with trusty ol’ “Curveball” in the annals of the US’s fiasco in Iraq. How often have he and Cheney toasted one another? Disgusting. And that “oil revenues sharing” legislation? Yeah, right. THAT’S where this douche wants to be: In the very middle of all that cash. Posh Green Zone apartment my ass….well, there’s always the hope that an accidental insurgent mortar might fall in the skylights. Allah? You there?



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