Posted on 04/27/2003 12:03:37 PM PDT by kattracks
The man backed by many in the Bush administration to head Baghdad's postwar government said Sunday that documents uncovered over the weekend show that Saddam Hussein tried to recruit U.S. citizens to undermine the Bush adminsitration's war effort in Iraq.
"We have captured a great many files of Saddam's services and there is astounding information about the extent of their networks and their efforts to recruit foreign nationals - including Americans - to work in the Mukabahrat [Iraqi intelligence service]," said Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress.
"I think that this is something that must be pursued," Chalabi told "Fox News Sunday." "The files contain a great deal of information about how [Iraqi intelligence] compromised people, how they bought agents and how they influenced foreign leaders."
While Chalabi declined to name names, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol suggested a few minutes later that U.S. journalists as well as elected officials were among those targeted by Saddam's Mukabahrat recruiters.
Discussing the case of George Galloway, the antiwar British politician who allegedly took over a million dollars from Baghdad, Kristol said that Galloway was "the tip of the iceberg."
"There were reporters - including many Arab reporters - who were on Saddam's payroll," he told "Fox News Sunday's" Tony Snow.
The Weekly Standard editor singled out the Al Jazeera television network, which was sympathetic to both Saddam Hussein and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.
"Saddam showered gifts [on reporters]... Mercedes limousines would show up at the homes of various journalists in Jordan, Egypt, etc.," Kristol claimed.
He added that the recipients of Baghdad's largesse may also have included "other Western politicians, perhaps, [who] were on the take."
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Interesting how the highly selective "anti-war" scum have totally shut up when the employment status of traitor Galloway was revealed.
Find the ones he was able to recruit, give them their day in court, and the next day hang them in public.
Lots of them no doubt work in Hollywood, CA.
It could be all not true but by me, this guy is a thief and criminal of the highest order.
which makes me wonder why on earth so many in the Bush administration like him. He outright robbed and constantly swindled the bank of Jordan.
To me it's like putting Ken Lay in charge of rebuilding Iraq.
Is Ahmed Chalabi to become the new face of Iraq? |
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Correspondents Report - Sunday, 13 April , 2003Reporter: John ShovelanHAMISH ROBERTSON: But first, the American-led Coalition may have won the war in Iraq, but winning the peace could turn out to be a tougher proposition.
Even when order is restored to the streets of the country's cities, Washington's plans for an interim administration to fill the current power vacuum are proving highly controversial. The US Defence Department is trying to defend the credibility of its protégé, the Iraqi politician, Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress. The decision by the American military to fly Mr Chalabi to southern Iraq prompted widespread speculation that he's to be anointed as the head of an Iraqi interim administration. Mr Chalabi has ties with senior Republicans in the US Congress that go back more than a decade. From Washington, John Shovelan reports. JOHN SHOVELAN: Ahmed Chalabi is a controversial figure. He fled Iraq in the 1950s as a youth, and his supporters now view him as the country's hope in the 21st Century. He was flown to Nasiriyah under US military escort last week. Officials in the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency doubt that after more than 30 years in exile he's capable of winning much popular support inside the country. But Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Defence Secretary, says Chalabi has already made an impact inside Iraq. PAUL WOLFOWITZ: I would note it's an interesting picture. Chalabi spoke in Nasiriyah to a crowd of some 10,000 people. We didn't assemble them. It's interesting that he can summon a crowd of 10,000. It is useful as reported by our people on the ground that he had a calming effect in Nasiriyah which is useful. But we're not singling him out. I'm a little puzzled at how much press commentary suggests that we're singling him out. He's one of many Iraqis that we hope will debate and discuss and give the Iraqi people, who are increasingly free to voice their views, a chance to decide who they like and by what process they want to pick their leaders. JOHN SHOVELAN: The US Government is trying to arrange a meeting of Iraqi politicians for this week in Nasiriyah. The meeting would pave the way for a Baghdad conference and eventually an interim Iraqi authority which would work with the US military in running Iraq until a new government is formed. The US Department of Defence is in charge of the reconstruction effort. The Pentagon 's decision to fly Chalabi into Nasiriyah with some 700 Iraqi National Congress supporters was widely seen as a pre-emptive strike in the internal dispute over the future of Iraq. But Mr Wolfowitz denies this. PAUL WOLFOWITZ: Chalibi is one of a number of Iraqis who have played a significant role during the darker period of the 1990s in calling attention to the plight of the Iraqi people. In trying to unify them and mobilise them. I recall the experience in 1991 when he took the initiative and was able to bring together six Iraqi leaders, the two chief Kurdish leaders, two Shi'ah and two Sunni to meet with Secretary Baker and National Security Advisor Scowcroft. He's not an insignificant figure. But we're also not trying to anoint him or anyone else as the future leader of Iraq. JOHN SHOVELAN: News reports in the US say government officials from four of the six countries bordering Iraq have cautioned the United States against giving Chalabi too much power. And within America his critics cite his conviction in Jordan for bank fraud in the 1980s. PAUL WOLFOWITZ: What we hope to have is a process that will be unique in Iraq's modern experience but not unique in American experience where people get up and speak and they get up and debate. And their neighbours say, Oh, I think that makes sense. Or they say, Well, that may make sense, but that SOB was actually working for Saddam and killed my brother. I mean, you need a process of exposure. JOHN SHOVELAN: But Mr Wolfowitz warned Iraq’s neighbours not to interfere with the process which is beginning. PAUL WOLFOWITZ: I think it is important that Iraq's neighbours not meddle with Iraq. I think it is important for Iraq not to become a threat to its neighbours as Turkey is concerned. It's even more important or equally important that its neighbours not try to undermine Iraq and destabilise it. JOHN SHOVELAN: Mr Chalabi may have stronger backing in the US than he does in Iraq. A report in the Los Angeles Times says a recent CIA report on Iraqi sentiments about a post-Hussein Government concluded that "overwhelming numbers" of Iraqis were suspicious and sceptical of Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress. John Shovelan, Washington. |
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I'll hazard a guess.......... Mc Dermott & Bonoir.
Hmmm. I've never heard this. The only news channel I watch, Fox News, says that this guy doesn't have the backing of the White House, and that he wouldn't be their choice to head a post-war government. Anybody else heard anything along these lines?
The implication as I understand it, is that there were many efforts to try and "recruit" American supporters. I'm not getting any feel that there was a whole lot of success.
But yeah, Fisk was getting money from Iraq I'm sure of it. And if I had to continue to guess names....lessee
Scott Ritter, definitely. Robert Fisk I've no doubt. I'm thinking maybe Sean Penn. I don't think many of the Hollyweird celebrities were on the take but some I'd argue, were. Sean Penn, a nobody who needed a boost to his career, and idiot that actually went to Baghdad, I'd say he was getting something out of it. Possibly Janine Garafolo but I dunno, lots of people are just idiots, not in any way smart enough to arrange a bribe.
As for American politicians....Cynthia McKinney I've absolutely no doubt. Maybe that idiot in Washington state. I'm betting Saddamn tried to horn in on the congressional black caucus but my gut tells me it was no go.
Ah, yes....the Clintons. They'll never find anything on ole Willie that will be outright incriminating but I suspect slick Willie was getting something on the side. If nothing else, he might have sold his soul to get that peace prize. Already there's speculation that Bill Clinton and traitor George Galloway were good buddies.
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