Tenet says Cheney wanted to handpick Iraqi govt.

[ck4829]

Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials wanted to "handpick" Iraq's leaders after the fall of Saddam Hussein and limit Iraqi involvement in choosing a new government, former CIA Director George Tenet says in his book.

Cheney and Pentagon officials pressed for the installation of a ruling coalition that included Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi exile who provided bad information on the country's weapons programs, Kurdish leaders and other exiled Hussein opponents, Tenet writes in "At the Center of the Storm." "Rather than risking an open-ended political process that Americans could influence but not control, they wanted to be able to limit the Iraqis' power and handpick those Iraqis who would participate," Tenet writes.

The plan never was implemented because the administration couldn't reach a consensus on Chalabi, he writes.

"You had the impression that some Office of the Vice President and DOD reps were writing Chalabi's name over and over again in their notes, like schoolgirls with their first crush," Tenet writes.

http://www.denverpost.com/sportscolumnists/ci_5785691

[MrModerate]

1. Of course . . . that's why we didn't need enough troops . . .

Planning . . . diplomacy . . . reconstruction resources . . . civil affairs expertise, etc., etc., etc.

We were going to unplug Dictator Saddam and replace him with Dictator Chalabi, who would luuuuuve the US. Sort of like the Shah in Iran.

And of course, we all know how well that worked out.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Well, they handpicked ours....nt

[Lobster Martini]

3. Operation Iraqi Freedom

Glad that plan wasn't implemented. They can't find anyone who isn't deceitful, treacherous, incompetent, or hiring escort services for fantasy sex to work in Washington, let alone Baghdad.

Nevertheless, the irony of calling it Operation Iraqi Freedom and repeating the "greeted as liberators" rubbish while planning to hand pick a puppet government is amazingly, well, ironic.