Newsweek Cover: The Rise and Fall of Chalabi: Bush's Mr. Wrong

[RamboLiberal]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5040831/



For the hard-liners at the Defense Department, the raid came as a surprise. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his senior deputies, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, got the news from the media. When Iraqi police, guarded by American GIs, burst into the home and offices of Ahmad Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress, looking for evidence of kidnapping, embezzlement, torture and theft, the men who run the Pentagon were left asking some uncomfortable questions. "Who signed off on this raid?" wondered one very high-ranking official. "What were U.S. soldiers doing there?" asked another, according to a source who was present in the room.

Until at least very recently, Chalabi had been the darling of these top Pentagon officials. How could it be that the men who run the most powerful military in the world could not know that their own troops were about to run a raid on a man once regarded as the hope of free Iraq? Just last January, Chalabi had been seated behind First Lady Laura Bush at the State of the Union Message. Now, according to intelligence officials, he is under investigation by the United States for leaking damaging secrets to the government of Iran.

A civil war simmered in Iraq last week, not between Sunnis and Shiites, but between American government officials. On the one side are the neoconservatives inside the Pentagon and the Bush administration who backed Chalabi as a freedom fighter; on the other are the spooks and diplomats who have long distrusted the former Iraqi exile with a taste for well-cut suits. The neocons, who once swaggered, seem to be slipping, losing confidence and clout. It is telling that the ground commanders in Baghdad who participated in the raid on Chalabi headquarters did not bother to inform their chain-of-command higher-ups at the Pentagon. (The raid was apparently OK'd by the American proconsul in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, probably with tacit approval of White House officials.) Embarrassed by horrific images from Abu Ghraib, a growing number of uniformed soldiers are blaming their political bosses in Washington—Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith—for whatever goes wrong in Iraq.

Americans may be beginning to wonder: is anyone in charge over there? For an administration that prides itself on clarity of leadership, the Bushies seem to be lost in the Mesopotamian sandstorm. Everyone and no one was responsible for the prisoner-abuse scandal; the deadline for turning over the country to a new government is five weeks away, and the outcome is highly uncertain. Chalabi, who was supposed to be Our Man in Baghdad, is now whipping up anti-American sentiment. It wasn't long ago that Chalabi was touted as a great democrat, a friend of Israel, an Arab who "thought like us." He was going to help Americans reshape the troubled Middle East in our own image. But just as Chalabi once seemed to personify the utopian dreams of the true believers—remember those bouquets that would greet the troops?—his fall from grace suggests a more depressing turn in the Iraq reality show.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. The only problem I have with this story is it gives the Bushistas

the opportunity to blame Iran of the Iraq war.

[SandyUSA]

5. This accusation against Chalabi is setup for attack on Iran

You suspect correctly. Chalabi is a crook but also a clever one. The neo-cons may think they are dumping him and setting up Iran for attack at the same time, but he may twist and trick his way around again and get even with them. He knows plenty.

See my longer post on his Israeli(not Iraq!)and Neo-Con connections:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x576294#576724

[Tellurian]

10. Yep, my exact thought...

the neocons will try to weasel their way out of their lies by blaming Chalabi for bad information.

[truthisfreedom]

2. has the dam burst yet? did drip, drip, drip already explode into gush?

is it completely over for bushco and the neocons?

[Wright Patman]

3. If the military

on the ground goes against the civilian authorities in the Pentagon to rough up (or "soften up" as the MI interrogators say) Chalabi, what is the next step?

Bring back Saddam (or his double) from his prison quarters in Qatar and install him as the new head of the IGC?

[babzilla]

4. the neocons are in a perpetual state of surprise

their unknowns seem to be outnumbering their knowns at this point.

"For the hard-liners at the Defense Department, the raid came as a surprise. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his senior deputies, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, got the news from the media. When Iraqi police, guarded by American GIs, burst into the home and offices of Ahmad Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress, looking for evidence of kidnapping, embezzlement, torture and theft, the men who run the Pentagon were left asking some uncomfortable questions. "Who signed off on this raid?" wondered one very high-ranking official. "What were U.S. soldiers doing there?" asked another, according to a source who was present in the room."

[janx]

6. This article covers a lot, but I think that it dismisses

the neocons' responsibility in places where it shouldn't have. It also lets Bush* off the hook too easily.

He is, after all, the commander-in-chief. ;)

[pinto]

7. somehow the fact that Bush is the CiC keeps getting overlooked.....

(aside) nice work, Newsweek, on the cover...I heard the NYT Magazine cover this week is a powerful one.

[gulliver]

8. How can Bush survive this?

Bush's name puts him in office. Lacking a mind of his own, he promptly lets the neocon brains Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz run amok.

Then they run the United States into an unnecessary, horribly costly war on the basis of evidence from con man and an alleged spy for Iran. How do these idiots survive this? I'm amazed there aren't people lined up outside the Pentagon and the White House with tar and feathers.

Clinton had tiny security peccadillos and DeLay-wing Republicans turned purple with outrage. But Bush lets a con man and spy steer our entire ship of state into the shoals and where are these patriots? So much for Republican principals.

Disgrace, debacle ... there are no words ... Worst "president" ever.

[susu369]

9. I still think it's a ploy

putting on my nifty tinfoil hat....

Something about this story is downright fishy. Is it some sort of plan to postpone the June 30th deadline?

:shrug:

[Tellurian]

13. They really don't need an excuse to delay the handover on June 30th..

In fact, I don't know anyone that wouldn't be surprised if Bush actually mastered the handover. The neos haven't got a viable plan in the first place. This had to be some fancy cia footwork, because I think, Bremer as technically thrown the towel in...

[Just Me]

11. This is a pretty damn good read!!!

Interesting that evidence was being sought for inter alia kidnapping and torture. Wonder WHO he is suspected of kidnapping. Hmmmmmm.

One of my favorite paragraphs is the following (even though I believe that the neocons knew exactly what they were doing and were not in some kind of denial about the facts):

-snip-

Chalabi should not be a scapegoat for all that ails the American occupation of Iraq. When it served their own ideological agenda, his neocon sponsors engaged in a willing suspension of disbelief. The ideologues at the Defense Department were warned by doubters at the State Department and CIA that Chalabi was peddling suspect goods. Even so, the Bushies were bamboozled by a Machiavellian con man for the ages. Chalabi (who vigorously denies wrongdoing and has donned a martyr's robes) has survived a fraud conviction, betrayals and scandals before. He may yet emerge on top. His story would be darkly entertaining, even funny after the fashion of a late John le Carre novel, if the consequences were not so serious.

-end snip-

I do believe that the neocons have formidable "forces" now operating against them, contrary to their belief that they could master power over this country and the world. Their arrogance definitely is biting them in ass.

[Lakerstan]

12. "Americans may be beginning to wonder: is anyone in charge over there?"

Are we experiencing a silent coup? I wonder who is in charge HERE!