U.S. troops and Iraqi police raid the offices of Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi. A breaking of ties?
Robert Dreyfuss is suspicious:
In other words, it�s all a big con game. The still-neocon-dominated Pentagon�which this week stopped funding Chalabi�s INC �is playing its last card, hoping that it can boost Chalabi�s sagging fortunes by pretending to sever ties with him. That, the neocons hope, will allow Chalabi to strengthen his ties to Sistani, the king-making mullah who, they hope, holds Iraq�s fate in his wrinkled hands.
Who knows. But comments like this do make one wonder:
He [Chalabi] also said he believed his deepening standoff with U.S. authorities over exactly how much power will be handed over to Iraqis when the country regains sovereignty on July 1 had been an impulse behind the raids.
“Let my people go. Let my people be free. It is time for the Iraqi people to run their affairs,” an impassioned Chalabi said.
That does sound a little staged by a man who supposedly just had his house raided by the “Iraqi people.”
The trouble with knowing what’s going on here is the incredibly baroque set of relationships you have to tease out. Right now there are a number of possibilities to consider. Dreyfus’s conspiracy theory is, unfortunately, all too plausible, given that we’re dealing with this bAdminstration. On the other hand, it’s been noted that Chalabi has apparently been caught delivering sensitive information (like U.S. military plans, etc.) to the mullahs in Tehran, so maybe we’ve finally sickened of him. On the other, other, hand, Chalabi may well be our man in Tehran rather than Tehran’s man in Baghdad. On the other, other, other hand….. You get the picture.
About the only thing you can count on is that Chalabi’s primary allegiance is to himself.
FWIW, an article in Salon today suggests that Chalabi was raided because he was most probably plotting a “coup” against whatever “government” it is that we’re going to hand over power to on June 30.
“Premium content”, so you may have to click through an ad to see this:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/05/20/chalabi/
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Well, to add my two bits..
First I liked what Josh Marshall had to say on this:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_05_16.php#002971
It seems just too flimsy to be acceptable that this was an elaborate ruse to INCREASE Chalabi’s popularity in Iraq. And his connection to Iran (an as-of-yet not invaded member of the axis of evil) too bothersome to the wonks at the CIA to be ignored. To the Pentagon and its neocon handlers, Chalabi is like a death row inmate’s parent, no matter how guilty still the beloved offspring. And of course the CIA is like the prosecutor, no matter how human, still guilty of a capital offense. Remember the recently dug up flap over Bush’s mockery of a woman on death row to be executed during the 2000 campaign? Could this be the CIA’s equivalent of Bush’s sneer, and mocking voice??
But the issue is that anyone with half a brain and the willingness to see truth knows Chalabi is self-serving to his very core, as his criminal past shows, and has only been playing this game for his own benefit from the start. So that for him to now claim he is doing it for the Iraqi people is as valid as a three dollar bill (sorry for that tired old expression). I think the CIA is finally waking up to the fact Chalabi led them by the nose (darnnit, did it again) into this war in the first place by selling them fake intel on WMDs.
Maybe the real story in all this is that Tenet is finally waking up from his multi-year slumber and doing his job for a change (I hate to speak ill of a Clinton appointee, but sometimes when the shoe fits… sheesh, I did it again!!!)
I think the expression is “queer as a three dollar bill.” With no disrespect to gays, of course.