Thanks to Josh Marshall for spotting this, but Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, has basically called the United States a sucker to its face.
"As far as we're concerned we've been entirely successful," Chalabi is quoted as saying. "That tyrant Saddam is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important."
As Marshall points out, "What was said before" was the discredited claptrap about weapons of mass destruction that was used as a pretext for war. Much of the information about Iraq's alleged WMD programs was funneled through the INC -- information that has been universally discredited. "We are heroes in error," said Chalabi.
And now, he said, all that is "not important."
Every American should be outraged that Chalabi would be so open about conning the United States into sacrificing 547 American lives (and counting) and spending hundreds of billions (and counting) on a war sold to the American people as a cakewalk, necessary and supported by allies. It has been none of those things. Of course, America's leaders were willingly conned, hopping into bed with Chalabi and his cronies and whispering, "lie to me, baby." The Bush Administration was complicit in the con -- a co-conspirator, even -- and that, too, is inexcusable.
It is these lies from Chalabi and repeated by the Bush Administration that enrages those of us who opposed the war. What I don't understand is why being lied to so baldly and badly doesn't also send those who supported the war into apoplexy. And why aren't the war-supporters also enraged by the awarding of $400 million in military contracts to a start-up company with extensive business and family ties to Chalabi?
(One $80-million contract went to Erinsys Iraq, formed in Iraq immediately after the invasion and which is bankrolled by Nour USA Ltd., incorporated in the United States in May 2003. A Chalabi friend of business partner, Abul Huda Farouki, founded Nour. As Newsday reports, "within days of the award last August, Nour became a joint venture partner with Erinys and the contract was amended to include Nour." Chalabi personally received a $2-million fee for helping arrange the contract -- a charge Chalabi denies. And soon after the contract was awarded, Erinsys Iraq started recruiting from the ranks of the Iraqi Free Forces, the INC's feckless militia, leading other Iraqi officials to accuse Chalabi of raising a private army.)
That Chalabi and others in the INC have a clear conscience should not come as a surprise. They aren't Americans and they don't have to answer to the American people. Their interests lay in removing Saddam by any means necessary, even if it meant getting American soldiers to do the dirty work of dying. I can even understand that, sort of; I fully expect nationalists of any stripe to serve their country. But I can't accept that Iraqi "patriots" -- as Chalabi and his people no doubt call themselves -- should pocket American taxpayers' money while American soldiers are dying. And I really can't stomach those American "patriots" at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. not only allowing that to happen but actively colluding with a convicted con-man. (By the way, the Pentagon is still paying the INC for information, having set aside between $3 million and $4 million for 2004.)
Make no mistake: "what was said before" is very important. This is not an "oops, my bad" kind of thing. Information fed by the INC to the Pentagon and repeated by the Bush Administration lead millions of Americans to believe that the safety of the nation was imperiled. That the war was necessary, if nothing else. That the men and women who died did not do so in vain. To have Chalabi dismiss all that as "not important" is an insult of staggering callousness.
"The Bush administration is looking for a scapegoat," Chalabi said. "We're ready to fall on our swords if he wants." Don't bother, Ahmad. More than 500 good men and women have already done so.
It’s a sad fact that 547+ isn’t enough to make the average american sit up and take notice. They are far too busy upsizing their meals and watching friends.
I feel that a lot more americans are going todie and the surprise reelection of Bush in November (with massive protest - hopefully) probably wont change things.
You reap what you sow and the seppo’s have been sowing furiously for 50+ years and the crop is finally ready.
I feel sorry for those poor bastards in uniform as they are just doing their job the best way they know how (with a few exceptions as in all actions). The ones that should be dying are your politicians and captains(sic) of industry.
Please let’s not forget that the Bush administration had planned to go to war in Iraq from day one…probably even before the Supreme Court was deciding who was to win the 2000 presidential election.
As well as giving valuable financial support to distressed members of the Free Iraqi Forces and relatives of visionary and patriotic Iraqi statesman Ahmed Chalabi, Erinys is also providing new opportunities for valiant South African warriors who were cruelly barred from serving their country once their heroic struggle against majority rule was lost.
http://billmon.org/archives/001082.html
‘In its effort to relieve overstretched U.S. troops in Iraq, the Bush administration has hired a private security company staffed with former henchmen of South Africa’s apartheid regime.
The reliance on apartheid enforcers was highlighted by an attack in Iraq last month that killed one South African security officer and wounded another who worked for the subsidiary of a firm called Erinys International. Both men once served in South African paramilitary units dedicated to the violent repression of apartheid opponents.’
You’re exactly right, David! I left that out in the interest of space. Thanks for adding it!
More on the South African mercenaries, via a comment on Billmon’s page:
http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=269&fArticleId=340626
“We are heroes in error”
Who is “We”? motherfucker.
(Nice redesign. Ihaven’t been here for a while.)
////Every American should be outraged that Chalabi would be so open about conning the United States into sacrificing 547 American lives (and counting) and spending hundreds of billions (and counting)////
And please, don’t forget the thousands of iraqi civilians that were killed by american bombs and guns.
And why is it that most major US media always forget or choose not to mention the dead (and injured) from other “coalition” participants in this mess, now at 59 from the UK and 41 from other countries? I’m sure citizens from all the other coalition members would want the full 647+ dead remembered. But maybe I’m just naive. Perhaps this is no different to many Americans, like the major media, than reporting mainly only on US medalists at the Olympics. I wonder if Chalabi thinks/feels these other 100 fatalities were worth it too in achieving his place in the sun…
Anyone who read “Bush at War” by Bob Woodward cannot be surprised by this war. In it Rumsfeld said “why not go after Iraq and not only Al-Qaida?” Rumsfeld brought up the idea that they could make use of the window of oppertunity that the attacks on 9-11 provided to get after Saddam.
What Chalabi said is maybe painful to people who last their son or daughter as an American soldier (what about civlians? in Iraq and Afghanistan?) but this war was allready in the make.
What’s more distressful is that the American’s didn’t had any plan what to do with Iraq after the bombed the place together with the Brit’s.
Most American servicemen are killed after the official end of the war.
Why didn’t they think about the fact that people need electricity and watersupply in the middle of the summer? That sort of things feeds resentment and eventually resistance. (alldo offcourse their is also terrorist attack’s from ex-baath leaders)
And there was allready some bad blood created by the father of this American president by first calling for an overthrow by the Iraqi people themselves which was very brutally put down by Saddam. Bodies where forced to be left on the streets and those massgraves that are found now are mostly from this period. All this was possible because the American army who was at that time still in command in Iraq allowed Sadam’s gunship to fly over to surpress the resitance against Saddam.
So America was right about attacking Iraq but only because the let the Iraqi people down and after the most terrible sanctions ever be enforced on a whole population while Saddam and his thugs where still in power. even more powerful at that time.
I feel that Americans have the responsibility to be way more critical about their goverment and it actions. Always ask why and don’t be to easily satisfied by the answers given.
C’mon people…..
The war in Iraq is not about Bush, Chalabi or the American taxpayer in the first place.
The war in Iraq first and foremost had a profound influence on the life of millions of Iraqis. Ask THEM how they feel about it….
Many a common Iraqi will argue that the influence of the war has overall been positive. Sure, the common Iraqi has a lot to complain about. But at least he CAN complain without getting his head chopped off.
Present day Iraq may not be pretty. But at least present day Iraq now has a future…..
Chalabi is a crook. The only ‘value’ of his opinion is that it provides a stick to hit Bush. But THAT in itself has nothing to do with Iraq….
kodia: First, I wouldn’t get ahead of myself before saying that the Iraqi people are better off for this war. Second, if you think this war had ANYTHING to do with the welfare of the Iraqi people, you gotta get your head out of the sand. Do you think the Bush administration really care one iota about the Iraqi civilians? It’s the last thread that pro-war people can cling too, and that’s all it is.
A few notes on why I concentrate on American casualties:
Most of my audience is American, according to my logs.
Most Americans don’t care too much about “other folks” (sad, but true.)
I’m trying to avoid preaching to the choir. The people who really need to hear this stuff are the Americans who don’t care about the other people. By concentrating on the American casualties and the American taxpayer, I’m hoping to stir up some folks who might not otherwise give a damn.
The other coalition casualties and certainly the Iraqi casualties are never far from my mind. I will try to include them more often…
Chris…
Thanks for your clearly outlined points. Actually, though, I wasn’t referring to blogs like yours at all, but more the major US media. And of course, I am generalizing, but I still suspect as you do in item 2 that many Americans — especially the readerships/viewerships of these major media — really don’t care a whole lot about people outside US borders (including other coalition casualties unfortunately let alone naming who’s in the coalition). Unless of course they have a gripe about something seemingly negative the US has done or is doing, when these obsessively-loyal Americans will then quickly use these outsiders as yet another scapegoat for their own comfortable ignorance.
B2I is one of the places — on the Net or off — where I know I can hear from people who care, both you and the commenters. I’m sorry if you thought I was maligning your great work here in any way. I also hope that more Americans tap into resources like B2I and learn other sides of the “truth” that typically oozes from the major US media conglomerates.
I’m not sure this is totally related, but I read a good quote this morning, from Ivins’ & Dubose’s “Bushwhacked”, that may just apply to BushCo and others who’ve led America — deliberately or ignorantly — into Iraq…
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
— Upton Sinclair
Hi, Ron— I didn’t take offense. I was just trying to explain some of my methods.
This comment on Chalabi reminds me of the sad string of US pupppets in Vietnam — strutting little generals and corrupt politicians amassing wealth from their US patron. It’s fun to look back at the tortured way we justified our support for such figures as Air Marshall Nyuyen Cao Ky (sp?), a professed admirer of Hitler.
Gerald,
I’m not sure if the Iraqi people are better off now. Some are, some aren’t. But all MAY be better off in the future. These days the future is a popular topic among Iraqis. Believe it or not: a year ago the future was no topic because it simply didn’t exist. Try imagine that….
second: I never thought for a second that this war has been about the welfare of the Iraqi people. Nevertheless: It sure did some good (a lot of good, actually) for at least part of the Iraqi population.
Bush doesn’t give a damn. Chalabi doesn’t give a damn. But Chalabi was at least right about one thing: It didn’t matter how, but Saddam had to go. Even if it meant tricking the US into this war. Which I consider a well deserved twist of history, considering the support Saddam received in the past from US administrations.
Personally I have mixed feelings. People lost their lives during the war. That hurts me a lot more than Bush’s and Chalabi’s lies could ever do.
On the other hand: a lot more lives have been saved who would have been lost in the regular ‘consumption’ of people by the Saddam regime. Even though that may never have been on Bush’s mind, it was indeed a result.
As far as I’m concerned, AND as far as many Iraqis are concerned, this was a just war, fought for the wrong reasons.
I don’t see outrage by average voters so Bush
will be re-selected in Nov.
The house just voted down 9-11 extension yesterday, the day before they voted down the CIA leak investigation, but today we have hearings about exposed breast on TV
How sad can this get? Do we need to lose 10000
soldiers in order to get people’s attention?
What I can’t believe, that this lump, Chalabi, had so much pull in Washington.
That this corporate scam of all scams, war profiteering at it’s purest, yet, so damned obvious, isn’t lighting up a fire up the asses of the amerikan people is really amazing.
timbo in Halifax, NS
What many people fail to realize is that Chalabi has Iranian connections. [http://www.stratfor.com/corporate/index.neo?page=basicsample]
Think about the implications of Iran drawing us into a quagmire. They play chess - Bush plays checkers.
What does Iran and Chalabi get out of this? A friendly Shia Muslim nation to replace their enemy Saddam? The chance to humiliate Washington and weaken our chances to ever build another coalition to fight a dangerous mideast nation that actually has WMD? How about pipelines! [http://www.libertythink.com/20040222_archives.html#107767840274391521]
Here are the corrected links for the above comment. For some reason the comment engine added the last bracket to the link.
Chalabi’s Iranian Connections
http://www.stratfor.com/corporate/index.neo?page=basicsample
Chalabi and Iran work on pipeline deals
http://www.libertythink.com/20040222_archives.html#107767840274391521
US wasn’t ‘suckered’. It went for the oil. Plan was concocted before 1996 and was called ‘A new American Military Doctrine’. Purpose - to ‘address the looming energy crisis’. Steps: 1) to ‘de-fang Saddam’ using sanctions and UN inspections; 2) once rendered defenseless, invate Iraq and sequre the oil. The oil is to be routed via Afganistan and across the Indian ocean to Erope, hence, Yugoslavia had to go (really the only possibility, geopolitically). US would never invade Iraq unless assured it was defenseless. WMD is for the birds :-)
DH, you need to buy an atlas. If you go from Iraq to Afghanistan, you’re heading for China, not Europe.
Tayefeth:
It’s good that you bought an atlas. Use it to check the references below - dh (it may take a bit more of an attantion span than just thumbing through the atlas ;-)
The Oil Connection:Afghanistan and Caspian Sea oil pipeline routes (http://www.newhumanist.com/oil.html)
Flashback Pipe Dreams - The Struggle for Caspian Oil (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/europe/caspian100498.htm)
Caspian Sea Region (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/caspian.html)
How Oil Interests Play Out In Us Bombing Of Afghanistan (http://www.moles.org/ProjectUnderground/drillbits/6_08/1.html)
Terror and Oil in Central Asia (http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/oil-pr.cfm)
America, oil and Afghanistan (http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/10/13/stories/05132524.htm)
Is Oil the Real Target in Afghanistan? (http://www.iacenter.org/nowar_oil.htm)
The Price of Oil?…War (http://www.counterpunch.org/goldstein01082003.html)
Pipe dreams (http://www.uzland.uz/2004/january/08/02.htm)
Chalabi wasn’t the only one giving the US intel. If you think this, you are seriously deluded. There was an intel failure, but the failure is shared by France, Germany, and the previous administration who all believed saddam had wmd. Furthermore, wmd was just one justification for the war.
There were the reports that Osama bin Laden is held in Pakistan (captured ‘long’ time ago, awaiting the right moment to boost Bush’s re-election campaign)
Few days ago on yahoo.news there was a questionair regarding how many americans would pay for Osama’s televized execution.
Connection?
I posted the orginal IRNA dispatch in the comment section of “Sunday Express: Bin Laden ‘Cornered’”
Regarding OBL already being captured and lying in wait to be unveiled in this election’s October Surprise, why am I not at all surprised of the possibility? The Bush administration is nothing less than the world leader of the “axis of deceit”. In fact, they’re so despicable, they give deceit itself a bad name. After the mess Dubya left in Texas and elsewhere, and now the mess he’s leaving for the whole country, you’d think people would get wise about the guy.
kodia says” But all MAY be better off in the future. “
uhm, how about the 10 thousand or so who are dead? are they better off? do the ends justify the means?? maybe you should tell the surviving family members of the dead, how they are all possibly better off….
and the calculus that less were killed this way, then with saddam in power, is not only unprovable, i think it’s unethical. (I guess because i do not believe in the ends justifying the means)
also, by this rationale, we should be invading other countries as we speak… china, north korea, cuba, any number of banana republics in africa, all the other ‘stans in asia… etc, etc….
are you (or any other Bush apologist) advocating that? i dont see that happaning anytime soon….
fastducatirider,
Did the ends justify the means when the US invaded Europe during WW2? Most people in Europe tend to think so…..
Did the ends justify the means when the US invaded Iraq last year? Most of the Iraqis I’ve met think so. And trust me, I’ve met quite a few….
The common Iraqi didn’t object when the US entered Iraq in 1991. But many Iraqis felt betrayed (and/or got killed) when the US pulled back.
I realize this may not be welcome news when you’re preoccupied with your presidential election. But what do I care, I’m not a US citizen. Bush is not my president (thank goodness….)
As long as you folks in the US keep looking at the world from your own political perspective, thinks don’t look so good for us in the rest of the world. I don’t care whether you’re pro or against Bush. This is not about Bush. It’s about Iraq…
I, for one, would prefer the US army to always stay at home. But as long as the US administrations keep messing things up abroad, you better damn well fix it when it’s needed. And US administrations, democrats as well as republicans, will keep messing things up as long as they’re not able to look at things from other perspectives. It’s not the US firepower that freightens me. It’s the blind eye to other people’s views where the real danger lies.
I heard a story, the other day, about a senior CIA official stationed somewhere in the middle east.
“Did you learn the local language?”, he was asked.
“No offcourse not”, he replied. “Next year I’ll be stationed somewhere else, so why bother learning the language?”
This, in my mind is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. How can you begin to understand the people you’re with, when you can’t even communicate. Somehow this is so US…
But not all is lost. This site is an admirable attempt to shed some light into the blind eye. How’s your language course getting on, Chris?
;-)
So they lied. Lets not forget how many Iraqis died
in the ‘91 uprising. Maybe is was time for someone
to return the favor.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A10874-2003Apr11?language=printer
ichii arabii, il bass shwayya.
(I speak Arabic, but only a little.)
I can hold a VERY rudimentary conversation. I could order in a restaurant. I can ask how people are, say hello and goodbye, and ask if people speak English or Arabic. It’s daunting in its difficulty. And I thought walking to war was hard.
And thanks for the props, Kodia.
“Did the ends justify the means when the US invaded Europe during WW2? Most people in Europe tend to think so.….”
The US was attacked, and then the Axis delcared war on the US, so I think the ends, defending oneself, does justify the means. Completely different then the Iraqi situation. You cannot honestly compare the two.
“Did the ends justify the means when the US invaded Iraq last year? Most of the Iraqis I’ve met think so. And trust me, I’ve met quite a few.…”
did you happen to ask many of the 10 thousand or so who died? or any of their families?
the rest of your post, i agree with. most in the US couldnt locate iraq on a map, (or washington DC for that matter) so your points are certainly valid. but i think that wasnt what we were discussing… ;-)
For a detailed commentary on the Draft Iraqi Interim Constitution and what it means, please take a look at:
http://worldonfire.typepad.com/worldonfire/
After the South Africans come the Chileans. A Pentagon contractor is hiring security guards for Iraq in Chile, and the Chilean government is worried about a brain drain (or perhaps a brawn drain) of serving soldiers:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1162442,00.html
(And once you’ve hired old South African covert ops guys, where do you go next? Arkan’s Tigers, maybe?)
send it
Chris,
Great site. Thanks for your work.
By the way, that is most heavly accented Arabic I’ve ever read :)
Actually, Chalabi was cut off form U.S. funds yesterday, 5/19/2004. Check out
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1219906,00.html
The Bush administration has severed a lucrative tie to an erstwhile protege, halting payments of $335,000 (£189,000) a month to the Iraqi exile group headed by Ahmed Chalabi.
The decision ends an arrangement which saw the Pentagon funnel $27m to the group over four years, confirming the Iraqi National Congress’s status as the darling of the neo-conservative establishment.
The decision was announced by an official from the Iraqi National Congress to the New York Times yesterday. The monthly retainer of $335,000 for intelligence gathering is to cease on June 30.
… etc.
U.S. papers meanwhile are trying to say Chalabi was getting money from Iran. Who knows, maybe he was, given his level of integrity. FOX news, right wing idiots that they are, are even trying to call him a “spy”. Ha ha ha. That must be the Bush way of trying to avoid admitting how the administration was suckered.
Why hasn’t Donald Dumbsfield been fired or made to resign? Why hasn’t Dubya been impeached? How in the world can we as Americans and tax payers be so stupid? What is wrong with us that we allow an intellecutally bankrupt idiot moron along wtih the rest of the oddities masquerading as humans in the white house take us where we are today and no one has the guts to protest what is going on behind closed doors in Washington? Just the secrecy of the Bush/Cheney white house is or should be enough to make all of us alarmed at the arrogance of a few at a cost to so many and that cost is yet to be calculated must less disclosed, “after all it is our MONEY he is spending”. I am ashamed to be an american, I loath this administration and this accidental president who has to be the dumbest man on the face of the earth surrounded by more of the same. I just can’t believe we allow our tax dollars to be spent on such foolishness and say nothing. It is indeed not just an “I’m sorry, my bad.. kind of thing” to go to war on totally false pretenses, have hundreds of our bravest and youngest die for no reason much less untold innocent civilians every day. I for one have had quite enough and my vote will reflect that in November. It is truly a sad day when congress is called to see photos of torture and humiliation from a country that does not care one bit for us, never has and never will. I do not blame Iraqui’s for the way they feel. We would behave just as badly if someone came over here and decided to invade, occupy and destroy our country because of a personal, insane, totally baseless, idiotic vendeta.
Interesting clip from the New York Times, very recent post: “By all appearances, Ahmad Chalabi reached the pinnacle of influence in Washington four months ago, when he took a seat of honor right behind Laura Bush at the president’s State of the Union address.” To all the world, he looked like the Iraqi exile who had returned home victorious, a favorite of the Pentagon who might run the country once the American occupation ended. Bush is the laughing stock of the world with no end in sight.
Read Salam Pax, “dear Raed” and Baghdad Burning by a 24 year old very bright and gifted writer who lives in Iraq and has been blogging since the war started, it is the truth in 360 degree digital dolby surround sound for all to see.
And thank you so much Christopher Allbritton for your insight and your courage.
It was expected…