Chalabi, Allawi, coup

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Chalabi, Allawi, coup

Postby chiggerbit » Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:02 am

Just trying to remember all the hoopla about how Chalabi had been feeding false "intelligence" to Judith Miller prior to our invasion of Iraq in order to support the invasion, and how Bush really wanted either Chalabi or his cousin(?) Allawi to be king of Iraq under Bush's protection, and how Chalabi had leaked sensitive information to Iran, which would usually be called treason, and then was allowed to re-enter the US for discussions in the last year or two with....whoever. No arrest for treason. And now the Washinton Times is speculating that there is going to be a coup. Has that been the plan all along, to let this descend into chaos, with Americans and iraqis dying by the dozens and hundreds and thousands, so that one of Bush's first two picks could be enthroned? Could Bush and <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Cheney</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> be that cold-blooded? Just thinking out loud here:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://washingtontimes.com/world/20061019-120324-9846r.htm">washingtontimes.com/world...-9846r.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><br><br>The escalating violence raking Baghdad and other Iraqi cities is pushing that nation's leaders, neighboring Arab countries and U.S. advisers to consider a dramatic change of direction in the conduct of the war. <br> Leaks from a U.S. task force headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III are contributing to the widespread sense that the Bush administration is preparing for a "course correction" in the coming months. <br> The options cited most frequently in Washington include the partition of Iraq into three ethnic- or faith-based regions, and a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops, with some remaining in neighboring countries to deal with major threats. <br> Another scenario is being discussed -- and taken seriously in Iraq -- by many of Iraq's leading political players, under which the U.S.-trained army would overthrow struggling Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and replace him with a strongman who would restore order while Washington looks the other way. <br> Falah Hassan al-Naqib, a Sunni politician who served as minister of the interior in the interim government led by Iyad Allawi until last year, told The Washington Times he has met repeatedly with American and Iraqi generals to discuss alternative courses of action. <br> "All of them have a 'Plan B,' because if the situation continues as it is, they will have to defend themselves -- not just find bodies all over," Mr. al-Naqib said this summer at his house in Baghdad. <br> Mayhem has continued in Baghdad despite a U.S. decision to redeploy some 8,000 U.S. troops into the capital over the summer. Officials yesterday reported the deaths of 10 American troops across the country, putting October on track to be the deadliest month in almost two years. <br> On Monday, The Washington Times reported that Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, was "more sober" and "more concerned" about the ability of the Iraqi security forces when he privately briefed senior military and civilian leaders in Washington last week. Defense sources said he had appeared more upbeat over the winter about the Iraqi security force's progress. <br> The sources said, however, Gen. Casey was not pessimistic and still thinks the U.S. will win in Iraq. Gen. Casey's spokesman said the general thinks the Iraqi security forces have made great progress and are on track to take over more counterinsurgency missions. <br> Others in the Bush administration have contributed to the sense that the al-Maliki government has been put on a short leash, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying on a trip to the region Oct. 6 that Iraqi leaders "don't have time for endless debates on these issues. ... They have really got to move forward." <br> Days before that, Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said on CNN that the Iraqi government, "in the course of the next two months, has to make progress in terms of containing sectarian violence.................." <br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 10/20/06 10:52 pm<br></i>
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Re: Chalabi, Allawi, coup

Postby chiggerbit » Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:05 am

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,122301,00.html">www.foxnews.com/story/0,2...01,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Sunday,<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong> June 13, 2004</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>By Ted Galen Carpenter<br><br><br>The Bush administration's disenchantment with its onetime favorite Iraqi client, Ahmad Chalabi (search), has centered on the explosive allegation that he and his associates may have forwarded highly classified U.S. information to the Islamist government in Iran.<br><br>Specifically, Chalabi and his cohorts are accused of informing Tehran (search) that the United States had broken the communications code of Iran's intelligence service. If true, this could become the most prominent espionage episode since the Alger Hiss (search) case in the late 1940s, for it raises the question of which official in the U.S. government passed such sensitive information to Chalabi.<br><br>Clearly, the allegations are extremely serious and should be the subject of a thorough, independent investigation. But such an investigation also needs to look at another possibility. What if the Chalabi-Iran information pipeline flowed both ways?<br><br>(Story continues below)<br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Chalabi, Allawi, coup

Postby chiggerbit » Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:08 am

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1224075,00.html">www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/S...75,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>US intelligence fears Iran duped hawks into Iraq war <br><br>· Inquiry into Tehran's role in starting conflict<br>· Top Pentagon ally Chalabi accused <br><br>Julian Borger in Washington<br>Tuesday May 25, 2004<br>The Guardian <br><br><br>An urgent investigation has been launched in Washington into whether Iran played a role in manipulating the US into the Iraq war by passing on bogus intelligence through Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, it emerged yesterday. <br>Some intelligence officials now believe that Iran used the hawks in the Pentagon and the White House to get rid of a hostile neighbour, and pave the way for a Shia-ruled Iraq. <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>According to a US intelligence official, the CIA has hard evidence that Mr Chalabi and his intelligence chief, Aras Karim Habib, passed US secrets to Tehran, and that Mr Habib has been a paid Iranian agent for several years, involved in passing intelligence in both directions.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The CIA has asked the FBI to investigate Mr Chalabi's contacts in the Pentagon to discover how the INC acquired sensitive information that ended up in Iranian hands.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The implications are far-reaching. Mr Chalabi and Mr Habib were the channels for much of the intelligence on Iraqi weapons on which Washington built its case for war.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>"It's pretty clear that Iranians had us for breakfast, lunch and dinner," said an intelligence source in Washington yesterday. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>"Iranian intelligence has been manipulating the US for several years through Chalabi."</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>Larry Johnson, a former senior counter-terrorist official at the state department, said: "When the story ultimately comes out we'll see that Iran has run one of the most masterful intelligence operations in history. They persuaded the US and Britain to dispose of its greatest enemy." <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Mr Chalabi has vehemently rejected the allegations as "a lie, a fib and silly". He accused the CIA director, George Tenet, of a smear campaign against himself and Mr Habib.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>However, it is clear that <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>the CIA - at loggerheads with Mr Chalabi for more than eight years</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> - believes it has caught him red-handed, and is sticking to its allegations. <br><br>"The suggestion that Chalabi is a victim of a smear campaign is outrageous," a US intelligence official said. "It's utter nonsense. He passed very sensitive and classified information to the Iranians. We have rock solid information that he did that." <br><br>"As for Aras Karim [Habib] being a paid agent for Iranian intelligence, we have very good reason to believe that is the case," added the intelligence official, who did not want to be named. He said it was unclear how long this INC-Iranian collaboration had been going on, but pointed out that Mr Chalabi had had overt links with Tehran "for a long period of time". <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>An intelligence source in Washington said the CIA confirmed its long-held suspicions when it discovered that a piece of information from an electronic communications intercept by the National Security Agency had ended up in Iranian hands. The information was so sensitive that its circulation had been restricted to a handful of officials.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>"This was 'sensitive compartmented information' - SCI - and it was tracked right back to the Iranians through Aras Habib," the intelligence source said. <br><br>Mr Habib, <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>a Shia Kurd</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> who is being sought by Iraqi police since a raid on INC headquarters last week, has been Mr Chalabi's righthand man for more than a decade. He ran a Pentagon-funded intelligence collection programme in the run-up to the invasion <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>and put US officials in touch with Iraqi defectors who made claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>Those claims helped make the case for war but have since proved groundless, and US intelligence agencies are now scrambling to determine whether false information was passed to the US with Iranian connivance. <br><br>INC representatives in Washington did not return calls seeking comment. <br><br>But <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Laurie Mylroie</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, a US Iraq analyst and one of the INC's most vocal backers in Washington, dismissed the allegations as the product of a grudge among CIA and state department officials driven by a pro-Sunni, anti-Shia bias. <br><br>She said that after the CIA raised questions about Mr Habib's Iranian links, the Pentagon's Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) conducted a lie-detector test on him in 2002, which he passed with "flying colours". <br><br>The DIA is also reported to have launched its own inquiry into the INC-Iran link. <br><br>An intelligence source in Washington said the <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>FBI investigation into the affair would begin with Mr Chalabi's "handlers</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->" in the Pentagon, who include <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>William Luti,</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> the former head of the office of special plans, and his immediate superior, <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Douglas Feith</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, the under secretary of defence for policy. <br><br>There is no evidence that they were the source of the leaks. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Other INC supporters at the Pentagon may have given away classified information in an attempt to give Mr Chalabi an advantage in the struggle for power surrounding the transfer of sovereignty</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> to an Iraqi government on June 30. <br><br>The CIA allegations bring to a head a dispute between the CIA and the Pentagon officials instrumental in promoting Mr Chalabi and his intelligence in the run-up to the war. By calling for an FBI counter-intelligence investigation, the CIA is, in effect, threatening to disgrace senior neo-conservatives in the Pentagon. <br><br>"This is people who opposed the war with long knives drawn for people who supported the war," Ms Mylroie said. <br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 10/20/06 10:47 pm<br></i>
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Re: Chalabi, Allawi, coup

Postby chiggerbit » Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:09 am

Could this be the "October Surprise"? Let's see, ten more days. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 10/20/06 10:10 pm<br></i>
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Re: Chalabi, Allawi, coup

Postby chiggerbit » Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:21 am

Remember how much money Chalabi was sucking off of US taxpayers dollars, until he got caught spying for the Iranians?<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/19/wirq19.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/05/19/ixnewstop.html">www.telegraph.co.uk/news/...wstop.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Administration cuts off cash for gathering of intelligence, reports Alec Russell in Washington<br><br>The Bush administration has signalled an end to its relationship with Ahmad Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress and the Pentagon's former favourite for leadership of the country.<br><br>After months of feuding within President George W Bush's administration over Mr Chalabi's role, the Pentagon is stopping <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>monthly payments of $335,000</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> (£200,000) to the INC for intelligence-gathering in Iraq.<br><br> <br>Chalabi: mistrusted <br>The decision was taken a week ago at a meeting of Mr Bush's senior officials, including the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and the secretary of state, Colin Powell, and reflects a renunciation of Mr Chalabi, a source close to the administration said.<br><br>The monthly payments, which began in summer 2002 as part of a programme run by the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's intelligence arm, are to end on June 30, when the coalition will hand over sovereignty.<br><br>Backed by powerful sponsors in the Pentagon and Vice-President Dick Cheney's office, Mr Chalabi, a former exile, played a major role in urging the administration to overthrow Saddam Hussein.<br><br>His prominence was always opposed by the State Department and the CIA, which had grown to mistrust him after years of contacts. During the past year, his stock has fallen, even among former supporters in the Pentagon.<br><br>His appearance at the United Nations last September when he criticised the coalition's performance in Iraq infuriated Mr Bush, who sets much store by loyalty.<br><br>He has also become a whipping boy for critics of the administration amid growing evidence that much of the faulty intelligence about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction programmes came from his network of exiles and defectors.<br><br>Reports that the erroneous information about mobile biological weapons laboratories, a key part of America's case for war, came from a brother of one of Mr Chalabi's aides, nicknamed "Curveball", worsened the irritation in Washington. Mr Chalabi has angrily denied any knowledge of "Curveball".<br><br>More recently, with the administration increasingly desperate to finesse Iraq's transition and dependent on the UN, it has seen Mr Chalabi as part of the problem rather than the solution.<br><br> <br>Izzedine Salim's funeral in Baghdad yesterday <br>His supporters, who include prominent neo-conservatives, regard him as a victim of internal warfare between the Pentagon and State Department, where the mood is now more chipper because of the Pentagon's difficulties.<br><br>They defend his intelligence operation, and say it is ironic that Washington is sidelining a westernised liberal while doing deals with former Ba'athists and Iranian-backed groups.<br><br>"Much of the information he collected was to roll up the insurgency and Ba'athist cells. It caught people red-handed," said Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser who is now at a conservative think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute.<br><br>"By telegraphing that he is not the favourite son of America, the administration will bolster him, showing he is his own man."<br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 10/20/06 10:34 pm<br></i>
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Re: Chalabi, Allawi, coup

Postby chiggerbit » Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:26 am

Remember Allawi? <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694568757.html?oneclick=true">www.smh.com.au/articles/2...click=true</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings. <br><br>They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's south-western suburbs. <br><br>They say Dr Allawi told onlookers the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and they "deserved worse than death".<br><br>The Prime Minister's office has denied the entirety of the witness accounts in a written statement to the Herald, saying Dr Allawi had never visited the centre and he did not carry a gun.<br><br>But the informants told the Herald that Dr Allawi shot each young man in the head as about a dozen Iraqi policemen and four Americans from the Prime Minister's personal security team watched in stunned silence.<br><br>Advertisement<br> <br>Advertisement<br> Iraq's Interior Minister, Falah al-Naqib, is said to have looked on and congratulated him when the job was done. Mr al-Naqib's office has issued a verbal denial. <br><br>The names of three of the alleged victims have been obtained by the Herald.<br><br>One of the witnesses claimed that before killing the prisoners Dr Allawi had told those around him that he wanted to send a clear message to the police on how to deal with insurgents.<br><br>"The prisoners were against the wall and we were standing in the courtyard when the Interior Minister said that he would like to kill them all on the spot. Allawi said that they deserved worse than death - but then he pulled the pistol from his belt and started shooting them."<br><br>Re-enacting the killings, one witness stood three to four metres in front of a wall and swung his outstretched arm in an even arc, left to right, jerking his wrist to mimic the recoil as each bullet was fired. Then he raised a hand to his brow, saying: "He was very close. Each was shot in the head."<br><br>The witnesses said seven prisoners had been brought out to the courtyard, but the last man in the line was only wounded - in the neck, said one witness; in the chest, said the other.<br><br>Given Dr Allawi's role as the leader of the US experiment in planting a model democracy in the Middle East, allegations of a return to the cold-blooded tactics of his predecessor are likely to stir a simmering debate on how well Washington knows its man in Baghdad, and precisely what he envisages for the new Iraq.<br><br>There is much debate and rumour in Baghdad about the Prime Minister's capacity for brutality, but this is the first time eyewitness accounts have been obtained.<br><br>A former CIA officer, Vincent Cannisatraro, recently told The New Yorker: "If you're asking me if Allawi has blood on his hands from his days in London, the answer is yes, he does. He was a paid Mukhabarat [intelligence] agent for the Iraqis, and he was involved in dirty stuff."<br><br>In Baghdad, varying accounts of the shootings are interpreted by observers as useful to a little-known politician who, after 33 years in exile, needs to prove his leadership credentials as a "strongman" in a war-ravaged country that has no experience of democracy.<br><br>Dr Allawi's statement dismissed the allegations as rumours instigated by enemies of his interim government.<br><br>But in a sharp reminder of the Iraqi hunger for security above all else, the witnesses did not perceive themselves as whistle-blowers. In interviews with the Herald they were enthusiastic about such killings, with one of them arguing: "These criminals were terrorists. They are the ones who plant the bombs."<br><br>Before the shootings, the 58-year-old Prime Minister is said to have told the policemen they must have courage in their work and that he would shield them from any repercussions if they killed insurgents in the course of their duty.<br><br>The witnesses said the Iraqi police observers were "shocked and surprised". But asked what message they might take from such an act, one said: "Any terrorists in Iraq should have the same destiny. This is the new Iraq.<br><br>"Allawi wanted to send a message to his policemen and soldiers not to be scared if they kill anyone - especially, they are not to worry about tribal revenge. He said there would be an order from him and the Interior Ministry that all would be fully protected.<br><br>"He told them: 'We must destroy anyone who wants to destroy Iraq and kill our people.'<br><br>"At first they were surprised. I was scared - but now the police seem to be very happy about this. There was no anger at all, because so many policemen have been killed by these criminals."<br><br>Dr Allawi had made a surprise visit to the complex, they said.<br><br>Neither witness could give a specific date for the killings. But their accounts narrowed the time frame to on or around the third weekend in June - about a week before the rushed handover of power in Iraq and more than three weeks after Dr Allawi was named as the interim Prime Minister.<br><br>They said that as many as five of the dead prisoners were Iraqis, two of whom came from Samarra, a volatile town to the north of the capital, where an attack by insurgents on the home of Mr Al-Naqib killed four of the Interior Minister's bodyguards on June 19.<br><br>The Herald has established the names of three of the prisoners alleged to have been killed. Two names connote ties to Syrian-based Arab tribes, suggesting they were foreign fighters: Ahmed Abdulah Ahsamey and Amer Lutfi Mohammed Ahmed al-Kutsia.<br><br>The third was Walid Mehdi Ahmed al-Samarrai. The last word of his name indicates that he was one of the two said to come from Samarra, which is in the Sunni Triangle.<br><br>The three names were provided to the Interior Ministry, where senior adviser Sabah Khadum undertook to provide a status report on each. He was asked if they were prisoners, were they alive or had they died in custody. <br><br>But the next day he cut short an interview by hanging up the phone, saying only: "I have no information - I don't want to comment on that specific matter."<br><br>All seven were described as young men. One of the witnesses spoke of the distinctive appearance of four as "Wahabbi", the colloquial Iraqi term for the foreign fundamentalist insurgency fighters and their Iraqi followers.<br><br>He said: "The Wahabbis had long beards, very short hair and they were wearing dishdashas [the caftan-like garment worn by Iraqi men]."<br><br>Raising the hem of his own dishdasha to reveal the cotton pantaloons usually worn beneath, he said: "The other three were just wearing these - they looked normal."<br><br>One witness justified the shootings as an unintended act of mercy: "They were happy to die because they had already been beaten by the police for two to eight hours a day to make them talk."<br><br>After the removal of the bodies, the officer in charge of the complex, General Raad Abdullah, is said to have called a meeting of the policemen and told them not to talk outside the station about what had happened. "He said it was a security issue," a witness said.<br><br>One of the Al-Amariyah witnesses said he watched as Iraqis among the Prime Minister's bodyguards piled the prisoners' bodies into the back of a Nissan utility and drove off. He did not know what became of them. But the other witness said the bodies were buried west of Baghdad, in open desert country near Abu Ghraib.<br><br>That would place their burial near the notorious prison, which was used by Saddam Hussein's security forces to torture and kill thousands of Iraqis. Subsequently it was revealed as the setting for the still-unfolding prisoner abuse scandal involving US troops in the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad.<br><br>The Herald has established that as many as 30 people, including the victims, may have been in the courtyard. One of the witnesses said there were five or six civilian-clad American security men in a convoy of five or six late model four-wheel-drive vehicles that was shepherding Dr Allawi's entourage on the day. The US military and Dr Allawi's office refused to respond to questions about the composition of his security team. It is understood that the core of his protection unit is drawn from the US Special Forces units.<br><br>The security establishment where the killings are said to have happened is on open ground on the border of the Al-Amariyah and Al-Kudra neighbourhoods in Baghdad.<br><br>About 90 policemen are stationed at the complex, which processes insurgents and more hardened offenders among those captured in the struggle against a wave of murder, robbery and kidnapping in post-invasion Iraq.<br><br>The Interior Ministry denied permission for the Herald to enter the heavily fortified police complex.<br><br>The two witnesses were independently and separately found by the Herald. Neither approached the newspaper. They were interviewed on different days in a private home in Baghdad, without being told the other had spoken. A condition of the co-operation of each man was that no personal information would be published.<br><br>Both interviews lasted more than 90 minutes and were conducted through an interpreter, with another journalist present for one of the meetings. The witnesses were not paid for the interviews.<br><br>Dr Allawi's office has dismissed the allegations as rumours instigated by enemies of his interim government.<br><br>A statement in the name of spokesman Taha Hussein read: "We face these sorts of allegations on a regular basis. Numerous groups are attempting to hinder what the interim Iraqi government is on the verge of achieving, and occasionally they spread outrageous accusations hoping they will be believed and thus harm the honourable reputation of those who sacrifice so much to protect this glorious country and its now free and respectable people.<br><br>"Dr Allawi is turning this country into a free and democratic nation run by the rule of law; so if your sources are as credible as they say they are, then they are more than welcome to file a complaint in a court of law against the Prime Minister."<br><br>In response to a question asking if Dr Allawi carried a gun, the statement said: "[He] does not carry a pistol. He is the Prime Minister of Iraq, not a combatant in need of any weaponry."<br><br>Sabah Khadum, a senior adviser to Interior Minister Mr Naqib, whose portfolio covers police matters, also dismissed the accounts. Rejecting them as "ludicrous", Mr Khadum said of Dr Allawi: "He is a doctor and I know him. He was my neighbour in London. He just doesn't have it in him. Baghdad is a city of rumours. This is not worth discussing."<br><br>Mr Khadum added: "Do you think a man who is Prime Minister is going to disqualify himself for life like this? This is not a government of gangsters."<br><br>Asked if Dr Allawi had visited the Al-Amariyah complex - one of the most important counter-insurgency centres in Baghdad - Mr Khadum said he could not reveal the Prime Minister's movements. But he added: "Dr Allawi has made many visits to police stations ... he is heading the offensive."<br><br>US officials in Iraq have not made an outright denial of the allegations. An emailed response to questions from the Herald to the US ambassador, John Negroponte, said: "If we attempted to refute each [rumour], we would have no time for other business. As far as this embassy's press office is concerned, this case is closed."<br><br><br><br><br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0729-11.htm">www.commondreams.org/views04/0729-11.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Our Media kills a Troubling Story that the Rest of the World Saw<br> <br>by Joshua Holland <br> <br>The allegation that Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shot seven restrained prisoners (killing six) in a fit of anger—with a number of witnesses present—is certainly newsworthy. <br><br>But, remarkably, the U.S. media has chosen not to cover it, preferring to accept official denials. The foreign press is not so trusting. The disconcerting result is that we simply aren’t getting the same picture of Iraq that citizens of every other English-speaking country see. <br><br>If you haven’t caught the story, here’s how Australia’s leading daily, the Sydney Morning Herald broke it on July 17th: <br><br>“Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings. <br><br>They say the prisoners – handcuffed and blindfolded – were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum- security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security center… <br><br>The Prime Minister’s office has denied the entirety of the witness accounts in a written statement to the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia, saying Dr Allawi had never visited the center and he did not carry a gun. But the informants told the newspaper that Dr Allawi shot each young man in the head as about a dozen Iraqi policemen and four Americans from the Prime Minister’s personal security team watched in stunned silence…” <br><br>In Scotland, the award-winning Sunday Herald ran its sister-publication’s copy, as did the New Zealand Sunday Star Times, the Irish Examiner and Canada’s Toronto Post. The London Daily Mail and South Africa’s Sunday Mail (same ownership) ran a story with a similar lead, although the denial comes right up front: <br><br>“IRAQ'S new Prime Minister was fighting to clear his name last night after he was accused of executing as many as six suspected insurgents. <br><br>Iyad Allawi is alleged to have shot the prisoners at a Baghdad police station days before power was handed to the interim Iraqi government last month.” <br><br>Australia’s Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that while he personally found the allegations “unbelievable,” he also thought that, “because they are written by a credible journalist, [Foreign Minister Alexander] Downer's responsibility is to get the truth from the Australian embassy in Baghdad and from the Government of the United States. It's important that these matters are clarified.” <br><br>In the UK, there were also calls for an inquiry. “It is vital that [the allegations] are cleared up one way or another and that needs an independent inquiry,” said former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who resigned his Cabinet post over the war. <br><br>The story was out to a limited degree in the United States, as well. Newsweek reported on the allegation and it also appeared on the UPI wire. In its usually direct way, UPI led with: “Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi killed six suspected insurgents just days before he was handed power, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.” <br><br>But, according to a Lexis-Nexis search, no major papers picked up the UPI story. The Los Angeles Times did run a piece under the headline: “Rumors circulate about Allawi's itchy trigger finger,” which was republished by the Kansas City Star, the Baltimore Sun and the San Francisco Chronicle. This is how those papers’ readers got the story: <br><br>“There are many versions of the story on the street. In one, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is driving through downtown Baghdad and sees a frail old man being confronted by three armed men attempting to steal his vehicle. <br><br>Allawi leaps out of his car and shoots dead the would-be carjackers. <br><br>In another, Allawi is in a Baghdad jail where he interviews suspects, hears their confessions, declares “they deserve to die” and shoots them on the spot. <br><br>A third version sets the scene of his violent retribution in the Shiite city of Najaf, which has been racked by violence in recent months. <br><br>Is there any truth to these tales that Allawi has shot suspects? The stories have been denied by Allawi and dismissed by members of his government, the U.S. Embassy and a State Department spokesman.” <br><br>On the last point, Scotland’s Sunday Herald reported: “Senior US officials have not made an outright dismissal of the allegations but Allawi’s office has denied the claims.” <br><br>But regardless, while there may be several stories out there, only one was reported by an award-winning journalist, Paul McGeough, in one of our closest ally’s leading daily papers. McGeough, while acknowledging that in Iraq “it's very difficult to separate out what people are telling you from what they are hearing,” defended the story nonetheless. He found the two witnesses separately, and he and his Iraqi interpreter judged them credible. When he “tested” parts of their stories, they held up. <br><br>At least readers of the LA Times and the other three papers that ran its story knew that a “rumor” about Allawi killing the prisoners was out there. That put them ahead of readers of the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and every other major daily. They heard nothing whatsoever of the matter. <br><br>The New York Sun, a conservative alternative paper, ran the only other U.S. story that came back from a Lexis-Nexis search. It reported the allegations were thought unlikely because of Allawi’s character. The Sun’s lead was: “Iraq's top human rights official said yesterday allegations that Prime Minister Allawi summarily executed six prisoners before taking power is a baseless smear spread to undermine the government.” <br><br>That was based on a Federal News Service interview with Iraq's Human Rights Minister Bakhtiya Amin, in which he said: “This is not the Iyad Allawi that I know. He's not a killer. And he's not the type of person who goes out killing people.” <br><br>It’s an odd line of defense in light of the fact that, as Douglas Valentine wrote in Counterpunch: “According to published reports, Allawi began his career in the killing business in the 1960s on behalf of Saddam Hussein; but in 1978, he switched to the CIA after Hussein tried to kill him. In 1991 Allawi co-founded an anti-Saddam, CIA-front organization, the Iraqi National Accord (INA), which the New York Times described as “a terrorist organization.” A number of European papers routinely refer to Allawi as a “former assassin,” or in similar terms. <br><br>I sent the original Sydney Morning Herald story to the New York Times’ sometimes brave Public Editor Daniel Okrent, with a note that read: “Clearly, the story that follows is not flattering. But it is just as clearly newsworthy and nobody's covering it.” <br><br>Okrent’s assistant sent me a link to a Times story titled: “A Tough Guy Tries to Tame Iraq.” The story was about “rumor and innuendo” that Allawi was “overseeing the interrogation of a cabal of Lebanese terrorists” when he said ‘Bring me an ax,’ and then “lopped off the hand of one the Lebanese men.” It’s a nasty story, yes, but not quite the same. <br><br>Now, I’m not arguing that the Allawi story is true, only that the citizens of Australia, Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Canada and South Africa have a view of the Iraqi Interim Government that Americans do not share. That disconnect is striking, and has lead to stories like the one in Pakistan’s Daily Times under the headline: “US Media Kills Story that Iraqi PM Executed 6 Prisoners.” <br><br> <br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 10/20/06 10:29 pm<br></i>
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Re: Chalabi, Allawi, coup

Postby chiggerbit » Sat Oct 21, 2006 1:09 am

(This makes the SECOND time TONIGHT that I have had to log in.)<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/05/29/allawi/index.html">dir.salon.com/story/news/...index.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>May 29, 2004 | There could be no more perfect evidence of the desperation among U.S. officials dealing with Iraq than the choice of veteran Baathist and CIA hireling Iyad Allawi as prime minister of the "sovereign" government due to take office after June 30. As one embittered Iraqi told me from Baghdad on Friday: "The appointment must have been orchestrated by Ahmed Chalabi in order to discredit the entire process." He was not entirely joking, given the fact that Chalabi joined the rest of the Governing Council in voting for Allawi despite their long and vicious rivalry.<br><br>Though he is Shiite, Allawi was once upon a time an active Baathist, a member of Saddam Hussein's political party, and is thought to enjoy much support among the officer corps of the old Iraqi army, and by extension among many former Baathists and influential Sunni. Indeed, there are reports that the reason Ahmed Chalabi, the neoconservative favorite, urged his friends in the White House to dissolve the army last year -- a decision now acknowledged to be the most disastrous of the occupation -- was Chalabi's fear of the support enjoyed by his rival (and cousin -- everyone in Baghdad is related) within the military.<br><br>Allawi cut his political teeth as a strong-arm Baathist student organizer before being dispatched by the party to London to run the Iraqi Student Union in Europe. Apart from the Iraqis he dutifully monitored, other Arab students with whom he came in contact were of considerable interest in Saddam's Baghdad, since they tended to be drawn from elite circles in the Middle East. They were also of more direct value to Allawi personally, garnering him a fruitful array of connections in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, which he then used with great effect in various business enterprises in the region. By the late 1970s he had become wealthy.<br><br>However, Allawi never lost his taste for the intrigue of intelligence operations and the company of intelligence officers. Soft-spoken, eloquent and persuasive, always ready to hint at a powerful connection or make a promise, he proved adept at telling them what they wanted to hear in language they could understand. In 1978, this mutual affection almost proved fatal. By that time, Allawi had reportedly entered into a relationship with the British security services, who were naturally keen to have a willing and well-informed source in the large and faction-ridden Arab student community in London. Word of this relationship reached the suspicious ears of Saddam's secret police, the Mukhabarat, who dispatched a team armed with knives and axes to Allawi's comfortable home in Kingston-upon-Thames to deal with the problem in summary fashion. Bursting into his bedroom, the assassins hacked at him as he lay beside his sleeping wife and were prevented from finishing the job only by the fortuitous appearance of his father-in-law, who happened to be staying in the house. The would-be killers ran off and the badly injured Allawi lived to make more money and pursue his connections with British intelligence.<br><br>At the time of the 1991 war, Allawi scented the interest of Saudi intelligence and joined forces with his fellow ex-Baathist, Salih Omar, in producing the Voice of Free Iraq. The pair soon fell out, however, reportedly because of a dispute over a $40,000 check from their Saudi paymasters. Omar gradually faded from sight, while Allawi retained control of the group they had founded, the Iraqi National Accord (Al Wifaq), into which he steadily recruited former Baathist Sunnis, and was soon back in London, awaiting fresh clients. He found them among his old connections at British intelligence, MI6, and, a few years later, the CIA, which was simultaneously funding Ahmed Chalabi's exile organization, the Iraqi National Congress (INC).<br><br>"The two were supported by different factions at the agency," recalls one veteran of the Iraq program. "Iyad Allawi was the more likable of the two; he didn't act the grand pasha like Chalabi used to. But there was no there there -- he didn't have anyone inside Iraq. It was like recruiting a White Russian [pro-Czarist] to overthrow Stalin in 1938."<br><br>Nevertheless, in 1996 the CIA invested its hopes in a coup against Saddam plotted by Allawi and his INA group. It proved a total bust, perhaps because INA officials in Amman, Jordan, boasted of its imminence to a Washington Post reporter. Whatever the reason, Saddam rounded up all the conspirators he could get his hands on, while sending derisive messages to the CIA reporting his victory.<br><br>Licking its wounds, the CIA harbored dark suspicions that Chalabi had betrayed the coup to Saddam, while Allawi went unpunished for his failure. Though his public reputation suffered from the undiluted stream of abuse broadcast by Chalabi's efficient propaganda machine, he retained his supporters both at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., and at MI6.<br><br>Next page: Like Chalabi, Allawi supplied misinformation in the run-up to war<br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 10/20/06 11:11 pm<br></i>
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Re: Chalabi, Allawi, coup

Postby chiggerbit » Sat Oct 21, 2006 1:24 am

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2112900">www.slate.com/id/2112900</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Chalabi, Allawi, coup

Postby maggrwaggr » Sat Oct 21, 2006 2:32 am

How could anyone possibly hold the country together at this point? <br><br>I mean, the genie's out of the bottle. The country is in chaos.<br><br>I would imagine the people would respond to an attempted coup with the equivalent of "Yeah? You and whose Army?"<br><br>Because whose Army would in fact crack down on the chaos across the country? <br><br>I don't think anybody has an Army that can do that. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Chalabi, Allawi, coup

Postby chiggerbit » Sat Oct 21, 2006 3:08 am

Not sure if anyone can. But why isn't Sistani more effective than he is? Is the US involvement the wild card? <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 10/21/06 1:10 am<br></i>
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Re: Chalabi, Allawi, coup

Postby chiggerbit » Sat Oct 21, 2006 3:18 am

See link for entire article.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/9226/">newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/...ures/9226/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>The Source of the Trouble<br>Pulitzer Prize winner Judith Miller’s series of exclusives about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq—courtesy of the now-notorious Ahmad Chalabi—helped the New York Times keep up with the competition and the Bush administration bolster the case for war. How the very same talents that caused her to get the story also caused her to get it wrong.<br>By Franklin Foer <br><br> <br>Judith Miller discusses post-Saddam Iraq on The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer. <br>(Photo: The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer) <br><br>For critics of the Iraq war, the downfall of Ahmad Chalabi occasioned a hearty, unapologetic outpouring of Schadenfreude—a loud cheer for a well-deserved knee to the administration’s gut. In fact, it was possible to detect a bit of this spirit on the front page of the New York Times. On May 21, the editors arrayed contrasting images of the banker turned freedom fighter turned putative Iranian spy. Here he is smirking behind Laura Bush in the House of Representatives gallery as the president delivers his State of the Union address. There he is looking bleary and sweaty, after Iraqi police stormed his home and office in the middle of the night. An analysis by David Sanger went so far as to name names of individuals who had associated themselves with the discredited leader of the Iraqi National Congress. The list, he wrote, included “many of the men who came to dominate the top ranks of the Bush administration . . . Donald H. Rumsfeld, Paul D. Wolfowitz, Douglas J. Feith, Richard L. Armitage, Elliott Abrams and Zalmay M. Khalilzad, among others.”<br><br><br><br>The phrase “among others” is a highly evocative one. Because that list of credulous Chalabi allies could include the New York Times’ own reporter, Judith Miller. During the winter of 2001 and throughout 2002, Miller produced a series of stunning stories about Saddam Hussein’s ambition and capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction, based largely on information provided by Chalabi and his allies—almost all of which have turned out to be stunningly inaccurate. <br><br><br><br>For the past year, the Times has done much to correct that coverage, publishing a series of stories calling Chalabi’s credibility into question. But never once in the course of its coverage—or in any public comments from its editors—did the Times acknowledge Chalabi’s central role in some of its biggest scoops, scoops that not only garnered attention but that the administration specifically cited to buttress its case for war. .....<br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 10/21/06 1:21 am<br></i>
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Re: Chalabi, Allawi, coup

Postby Byrne » Mon Oct 23, 2006 9:01 am

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>I mean, the genie's out of the bottle. The country is in chaos.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>So also agreed a US state department official, who was then forced to retract his remarks..........<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>From <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6075934.stm" target="top">news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6075934.stm</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>Last Updated: Monday, 23 October 2006, 04:57 GMT 05:57 UK <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>US official retracts Iraq remarks </strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br> <br>The US state department official who said that the US had shown "arrogance and stupidity" in Iraq has apologised for his comments. <br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Alberto Fernandez</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, who made the remarks during an interview with Arabic TV station al-Jazeera, said he had "seriously misspoken". <br><br>His comments did not represent the views of the state department, he said. <br><br>The BBC's Sarah Morris in Washington says it is unclear if Mr Fernandez was told by his seniors to apologise. <br><br>His original remarks have resonated with many Democrats and some Republicans who have been urging the administration to shift their course in the conflict, she says. <br><br>They came at a time of intense scrutiny of White House Iraq policy, with mid-term elections due next month. <br><br>'Disaster for region' <br><br>Mr Fernandez is an Arabic speaker who is director of public diplomacy in the state department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. <br><br>On Saturday, he told the Qatar-based broadcaster that the world was "witnessing failure in Iraq". <br><br> Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on al-Jazeera, I realised that I seriously misspoke <br><br>Alberto Fernandez <br><br>"That's not the failure of the United States alone, but it is a disaster for the region," he said. <br><br>"I think there is great room for strong criticism, because without doubt, there was arrogance and stupidity by the United States in Iraq." <br><br>State department spokesman Sean McCormack initially said that Mr Fernandez had been quoted incorrectly and rejected his comments. <br> <br>And in a statement posted on the state department's website, Mr Fernandez retracted his remarks. <br><br>"Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on al-Jazeera, I realised that I seriously misspoke by using the phrase: 'There has been arrogance and stupidity' by the US in Iraq," he said. <br><br>"This represents neither my views nor those of the state department. I apologise." <br><br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Chalabi, Allawi, coup

Postby Byrne » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:29 am

More on the possible Maliki coup in Iraq<br><br><br>Note that the 1st cavalry have been recently posted to Iraq, see <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.kdhnews.com/docs/stories/story.aspx?sid=12164&cid=4">www.kdhnews.com/docs/stor...2164&cid=4</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>From <br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/iraq-a22.shtml">www.wsws.org/articles/200...-a22.shtml</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>On August 16, an extraordinary article appeared in the New York Times providing details of a top-level private meeting on US strategy in Iraq at the Pentagon last week. President Bush, who was present along with his war cabinet and selected “outside experts”, voiced his open dissatisfaction that the new Iraqi government—and the Iraqi people—had not shown greater support for US policies.<br><br><…><br><br>The removal of Maliki and the imposition of a subservient military regime would, at least in the short term, solve a few of the Bush administration’s political problems by removing any objections in Baghdad to a ruthless crackdown in the country and to US plans for new provocations against Iran and Syria.<br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Also this from UPI<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://washtimes.com/upi/20061023-091743-9067r.htm">washtimes.com/upi/2006102...-9067r.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Coup against Maliki reported in the making</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>Oct. 23, 2006 at 10:03AM <br>Iraqi army officers are reportedly planning to stage a military coup with U.S. help to oust the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. <br> Cairo-based Iraqi and Arab sources said Monday several officers visited Washington recently for talks with U.S. officials on plans for replacing Maliki's administration by a "national salvation" government with the mission to re-establish security and stability in Iraq. <br> One Iraqi source told United Press International that the Iraqi army officers' visit to the United States was aimed at coordinating the military coup in case the efforts of Maliki's government to restore order reached a dead end.<br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i></i>
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