Ahmed Chalabi, once the darling of the neo-conservatives, is now coming into confrontation with his possibly former allies. Chalabi is head of the Iraqi National Congress which received millions of dollars annually from the Pentagon. From exile in Florida, he was a leading advocate of toppling Saddam Hussein. His organization is believed to be the source of much of the intelligence used by the Americans to make the case that Saddam Hussein allegedly had large weapons of mass destruction stockpiles. It was expected by many that he would be installed as the figure head of a "sovereign" interim Iraqi regime.
Yet according to an Associated Press report, U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police raided the residence of Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi on Thursday, and aides accused the Americans of holding guns to his head and bullying him over his criticism of plans for next month's transfer of sovereignty... A Chalabi aide, Haidar Musawi, accused the Americans of trying to pressure Chalabi, who has become openly critical of U.S. plans for how much power to transfer to the Iraqis on June 30. "The aim is to put political pressure," Musawi told The Associated Press. "Why is this happening at a time when the government is being formed?"
Interestingly, [t]here was no comment from U.S. authorities, but American officials here have complained privately that Chalabi — a longtime Pentagon favorite — is interfering with a U.S. investigation into allegations that Saddam Hussein's regime skimmed millions in oil revenues during the U.N.-run oil-for-food program.
Why would the supposed Saddam-hater interfere with investigations into corruption in Saddam's regime? .
The article added, Chalabi took an early lead in exposing alleged abuses of the oil-for-food program and has been trying to force the coalition to give him the $5 million in Iraqi funds set aside for the probe to pay for his effort.
Hmm... $5 million...
The article noted, Chalabi, a former banker and longtime Iraqi exile, was convicted of fraud in absentia in Jordan in 1992 in a banking scandal and sentenced to 22 years in jail. He has repeatedly denied the charges.
Machiavelli suggested that a Prince "ought to go slowly in undertaking an enterprise upon the representations of an exile, for most of the times he will be left either with shame or very grave injury."
I'm surprised that Vice-President Cheney, who seems like he'd be very familiar with Machiavelli, didn't take into account this advice.
Chalabi is yet another in the long line of bad guys the American government has sucked up to only to have him eventually turn around and bite us in the rear. Noreiga. The Mujahadeen (the precursors to the Taliban). Even Saddam Hussen himself,
Chalabi's crime is, of course, demanding more sovereignty for Iraq; well his current crime, anyway. This shocked the neo-cons. Puppets aren't supposed to think for themselves and make demands. Yet it happens time and time again, and the smart guys in the foreign policy establishment are shocked time and time again.
As I've said repeatedly, supporting human rights is in our self interest. Linking up with scumbags is not. There's a good chance it will come back to bite us in the rear. Scumbags don't align with us because they like us. They do so because it's in THEIR (personal) self-interest. They will turn on us the second that turning on us becomes in their self-interest. In other words, they are unreliable friends... because they are not friends at all.
As I concluded in my essay: Support human rights is in our [America's] self-interest:
Some say that unpleasant political alliances are an unfortunate fact of geopolitical life. The latter is true. However, something else is also true: alliances can have consequences, not always good. This is not just self-righteous moralizing by some well-meaning but naive neophyte. It's in our self-interest to choose our allies very carefully. Democratic allies are almost invariably more stable (because they have a popular basis for the governance) and more reliable (because the rule of law tends to favor predictable outcomes).
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