Chalabi: He's Back

October 04, 2004

Before I get to Ahmed Chalabi, here is the quote of the day from the editor of the Worst Magazine in the World:

 On Iraq, I am with Bush.

That’s Marty Peretz’ latest, in The New Republic’s current issue. We know, Marty.

Now to Chalabi. The neocons’ favorite Iraqi is well on his way toward a comeback. First, a judge dropped counterfeiting charges against him, so he is a free man once again. Not that the charges had much substance, but Chalabi is guilty at least of counterfeiting intelligence, so that’s good enough for me. In any case, now Chalabi is acting as a sort of campaign manager for Muqtada Sadr, the Shiite rebel who, according to the New York Times, wants to run in Iraq’s January elections. Says the Times :

According to the same Iraqis, Mr. Sadr's aides have begun to work closely with Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile who was once a favorite of the Bush administration but who has since fallen out of favor. In recent weeks, Mr. Chalabi has been advising Mr. Sadr's aides in their search for allies, and he has encouraged members of the Shiite Council, a political alliance that he is a part of, to join with Mr. Sadr. Mr. Chalabi and his allies appear to be interested in tapping the vast support that Mr. Sadr enjoys among Iraqis poor and lower-class Shiites.

Of course, Chalabi, with no real political base, badly needs Sadr. But Sadr could use Chalabi, too, as liaison to you-know-who.

Juan Cole reported last week that Jay Garner, the first U.S. proconsul in Iraq, was supposed to quietly install Chalabi, like a replacement part, in Iraq last year:

Jay Garner let it slip to some of his staff that his charge was to turn Iraq over to Ahmad Chalabi within six months. The staffers were shocked and some contacted the State Department to see if this was known there. It was not. So they blew the whistle on Bush with Colin Powell. I was told that Powell then made a coalition with Tony Blair and that the two of them went to Bush and got him to change his mind.

That rings true to me.