Posted on 08/12/2004 4:28:15 PM PDT by lizol
Iraq insecurity exacerbated by coalition weakness’
Ahmad Chalabi thinks US behind counterfeit charge BAGHDAD: A US takeover of Polish command in the restive holy city of Najaf hot on the heels of the Philippines’ withdrawal of its troops from Iraq has underscored a weak multinational force in which Anglo-US domination only exacerbates insecurity, analysts said yesterday. As of Monday, American marines took command of the provinces of Najaf and Qadisiyah, amid what the Polish military described as a “deteriorated security situation” in the central Shiite Muslim pilgrimage city. Where the 6,500-strong Polish-led multinational division was responsible for five provinces, they now retain control of only three, undermining the strength of the 32-member multinational military alliance in Iraq. A key US ally, Poland contributed special forces to last year’s invasion of Iraq, but will slash its contingent from 2,500 to about 1,500 staff early next year. The US takeover came days after intense fighting engulfed Najaf after US troops intervened at the request of the local governor to help Iraqi forces crush radical militiamen holed up in the city. But the governments of the troops operating under Polish command, had agreed to conduct only stability and security operations in Iraq. The Najaf offensive falls outside that remit, regardless of the Iraqi government’s determination that US troops help bring control back to the city. Among the administration, whose biggest task is to restore security, there has been a hint of impatience with US allies who have bailed out. Speaking last Wednesday about a Saudi proposal to send a Muslim peacekeeping force to Iraq, President Ghazi Al Yawar said prospective Arab contingents should stand firm when the going gets tough. “They should not be symbolic in number ... forty and fifty. And whenever they have any trouble they return home,” he said, just days after Manila evacuated its 51-strong contingent to save the life of a truck driver held hostage. Washington branded the decision akin to caving in to terrorists. As a result, Manila expects a reduction or suspension of US development aid, a senior Philippine diplomat has said. “The multinational presence is very important because the greater the number of countries that participate in this, the more legitimacy it has and the better it is accepted by the local people,” said Hussein Sinjari. Instead “there is an increasing perception of British and US domination,” added the president of the Iraq Institute for Democracy. At the London School of Economics, international relations professor Barry Buzan believes that bailing out, rather than staying, may ultimately be the lesser of two evils. “I don’t think the Americans and British can do good here,” he said. The result of departure may be civil war, “but it would be a local one, confined to the Middle East and Iraq”. Instead, the longer the coalition grapples with the security headache, the greater the damage to the Western coalition and the more it fuels Osama bin Laden’s crusade, he added. n TEHRAN: Ahmad Chalabi, once tipped to lead Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s fall, said yesterday his former US allies were pulling strings to end his political career, making him unsure of a fair trial on his return home. Chalabi faces arrest on a charge of counterfeiting money as soon as he returns to Iraq from Iran, where he has been attending a trade conference. He dismisses the charge as ridiculous. Formerly a darling of the Pentagon, Chalabi has fallen foul of his old paymasters who accuse him of supplying false intelligence over Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction and of leaking secrets to Iran. “The principal motive is to keep me out of the political process or hamper my participation in it,” the former mathematics professor and banker said in an interview in his hotel room in Tehran. He said the CIA was involved “to a considerable extent”. “This is a classic situation, they have done it in South America ... It is not a domestic Iraqi issue,” said Chalabi, the scion of a merchant family. “The Americans create structures in the judiciary and special units in the police and security which are ostensibly part of the government of Iraq which have covert channels to the Americans who direct them to do their bidding.” Chalabi’s nephew Salem, the administrator supervising Saddam’s trial, also faces arrest after being charged with murder. He is currently in Britain. The warrants against them were issued by Zuhair Al Maliki, a judge whose independence has been questioned, even by Chalabi’s political rivals. Chalabi says the US-led administration promoted Maliki from junior lawyer to judge after he worked as an interpreter for US forces. When asked whether this meant he could still get a fair trial in Iraq, he replied: “I do not know.” Despite this, Chalabi said he would return to Iraq in a few days but declined to reveal the date, adding he was confident he would easily win his case.
Who gives a damn about Chalabi? How much false information did he give us before we went to war? He can go see his 72 virgins for all I care.
I put forward a theory that Chalabi was working with the Iranians...
My theory was that Chalabi wanted to be the next pseudo dictator in a post Saddam Iraq. His plan was to use the U.S. to oust Saddam, then use Iran to oust the U.S., and then get U.N. peace keepers in to help with security, and finally rebuild the army using oil money and kick the peace keepers out.
Sounds about right.
MY EYES! MY EYES!
Insert ".<.p.>." (without the periods) for paragraph breaks if you want your posted article to be read.
Ahmad Chalabi thinks US behind counterfeit charge
BAGHDAD: A US takeover of Polish command in the restive holy city of Najaf hot on the heels of the Philippines’ withdrawal of its troops from Iraq has underscored a weak multinational force in which Anglo-US domination only exacerbates insecurity, analysts said yesterday.
As of Monday, American marines took command of the provinces of Najaf and Qadisiyah, amid what the Polish military described as a “deteriorated security situation” in the central Shiite Muslim pilgrimage city.
Where the 6,500-strong Polish-led multinational division was responsible for five provinces, they now retain control of only three, undermining the strength of the 32-member multinational military alliance in Iraq. A key US ally, Poland contributed special forces to last year’s invasion of Iraq, but will slash its contingent from 2,500 to about 1,500 staff early next year.
The US takeover came days after intense fighting engulfed Najaf after US troops intervened at the request of the local governor to help Iraqi forces crush radical militiamen holed up in the city. But the governments of the troops operating under Polish command, had agreed to conduct only stability and security operations in Iraq.
The Najaf offensive falls outside that remit, regardless of the Iraqi government’s determination that US troops help bring control back to the city. Among the administration, whose biggest task is to restore security, there has been a hint of impatience with US allies who have bailed out.
Speaking last Wednesday about a Saudi proposal to send a Muslim peacekeeping force to Iraq, President Ghazi Al Yawar said prospective Arab contingents should stand firm when the going gets tough. “They should not be symbolic in number ... forty and fifty. And whenever they have any trouble they return home,” he said, just days after Manila evacuated its 51-strong contingent to save the life of a truck driver held hostage.
Washington branded the decision akin to caving in to terrorists. As a result, Manila expects a reduction or suspension of US development aid, a senior Philippine diplomat has said. “The multinational presence is very important because the greater the number of countries that participate in this, the more legitimacy it has and the better it is accepted by the local people,” said Hussein Sinjari.
Instead “there is an increasing perception of British and US domination,” added the president of the Iraq Institute for Democracy.
At the London School of Economics, international relations professor Barry Buzan believes that bailing out, rather than staying, may ultimately be the lesser of two evils. “I don’t think the Americans and British can do good here,” he said. The result of departure may be civil war, “but it would be a local one, confined to the Middle East and Iraq”.
Instead, the longer the coalition grapples with the security headache, the greater the damage to the Western coalition and the more it fuels Osama bin Laden’s crusade, he added.
???
n
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TEHRAN: Ahmad Chalabi, once tipped to lead Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s fall, said yesterday his former US allies were pulling strings to end his political career, making him unsure of a fair trial on his return home. Chalabi faces arrest on a charge of counterfeiting money as soon as he returns to Iraq from Iran, where he has been attending a trade conference. He dismisses the charge as ridiculous. Formerly a darling of the Pentagon, Chalabi has fallen foul of his old paymasters who accuse him of supplying false intelligence over Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction and of leaking secrets to Iran. “The principal motive is to keep me out of the political process or hamper my participation in it,” the former mathematics professor and banker said in an interview in his hotel room in Tehran. He said the CIA was involved “to a considerable extent”.
“This is a classic situation, they have done it in South America ... It is not a domestic Iraqi issue,” said Chalabi, the scion of a merchant family. “The Americans create structures in the judiciary and special units in the police and security which are ostensibly part of the government of Iraq which have covert channels to the Americans who direct them to do their bidding.”
Chalabi’s nephew Salem, the administrator supervising Saddam’s trial, also faces arrest after being charged with murder. He is currently in Britain. The warrants against them were issued by Zuhair Al Maliki, a judge whose independence has been questioned, even by Chalabi’s political rivals.
Chalabi says the US-led administration promoted Maliki from junior lawyer to judge after he worked as an interpreter for US forces. When asked whether this meant he could still get a fair trial in Iraq, he replied: “I do not know.” Despite this, Chalabi said he would return to Iraq in a few days but declined to reveal the date, adding he was confident he would easily win his case.
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