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| Iraq-Jordan | |
| More on Chalabi, and is Brahimi ReBaathifying Iraq? | |
| 2004-05-06 | |
| EFL. Most of itâs on Chalabi, but first a Lakhdar Brahimi nugget: [Brahimi] has said that he will do away with the de-Baathification procedures Mr. Chalabi has pushed in the Governing Council. Mr. Brahimi is bargaining with the coalition provisional authority for the right to replace the directors of about 50% of the ministries established in the last year, a request American diplomatic sources say is intended to ice out those ministers and officials loyal to Mr. Chalabi. So Brahimiâll have a free hand to put his--and Stateâs--cocktail party cronies in half the ministries...
A former senior counterterrorism adviser to this White House, General Wayne Downing, said charges that Mr. Chalabi shared secrets with Iran were âpreposterous.â One former administration official familiar with the National Security Council reports told the Sun the reports were an example of âcherry picking.â âAny of the information they are accusing Chalabi of sharing with the Iranians is the kind of stuff they could read in a lot of American newspapers.â this source said. Or Rantburg. OTOH, Another administration official also familiar with the charges said âChalabi is a schmoozer, he does say things maybe he should not. He knows more than others. I get nervous there." A recently departed adviser to the Pentagon and the Coalition Provisional Authority, Michael Rubin, also dismissed the charges. âThe fact that he is discussing his idea of American strategy with the Iranians is not a big deal,â Mr. Rubin said, adding that that a Sunni member of the council, Adnan Pachachi âhas this kind of discussion with the emirates,and lots of people have this discussion with the Saudis and the Jordanians. Politicians tend to discuss things with their neighbors.â So, pretty much noone on the GC can keep his mouth shut. Congress has also begun to ask questions about something called the âinformation collection program,â through which the INC receives $340,000 a month for intelligence assistance to the military. While administration officials said the program will likely end this summer, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said three Pentagon officials have evaluated the program and generally the reports were positive. | |
| Posted by:someone |
| #2 Troll Sucks Dog - Onanist extraordinare. Use your own sock, sonny, RB isn't the place. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-05-06 6:35:05 AM |
| #1 Freedom for Iraqis should mean: liberty to act within the confines of American security interests. Otherwise, they can go to hell. |
| Posted by: Man Bites Dog 2004-05-06 3:07:21 AM |