Chalabi Chatter

Blogolution.com ^ | 4/11/03 | Ken Weeks

[Callahan]

CHALABI CHATTER

Like everybody else, I've been trying to get a handle on Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi National Congress leader, who some people would like to see as the new President of Iraq, despite some rough edges. Chalabi is also the focus of the latest unfortunately public Pentagon-State tiff. I must admit, it annoys me that he doesn't have a totally clean slate. Seems like it just makes things that much more difficult. The anti-war elites are in desperation mode because their "quagmire" predictions didn't materialize and they brought out the knives for this guy without skipping a beat (none offer an alternative beyond vague statements about the U.N.). The NY Times trashed him in an editorial a couple days ago. Here's the inaugural hatchet-job by Joe Conason and another Conason mini hit-piece in Salon. For these folks, it's settled. The Iraqi dissident is a crook with no redeeming qualities who is going to be "installed" as the head of a "puppet regime." If only they had opposed Saddam with such passion! For Mr. Chalabi's side of the story, read this counter-offensive from the Wall Street Journal and this sentimental column by Jim Hoagland. However, the most interesting Chalabi defense I've read comes from Chris Suellentrop in Slate:

Chalabi's military failures, his poor bookkeeping, and his lack of support inside Iraq have led some people at the State Department and the CIA to be skeptical about his prospects. But a more worrisome possibility is that some people inside the United States government don't like Chalabi because he's serious about trying to create an Iraqi democracy. Foreign-policy "realists" may prefer a pro-American dictator who is more interested in security than popular sovereignty. The Iraqi dissident Kanan Makiya said as much in the New York Times Magazine in March: "Some people in the government are talking democratic change," Makiya told the writer George Packer, "and there are other people who think that's all a pile of garbage. These others are in the State Department and the C.I.A. today."

Suellentrop's angle is that the bag of skills that made Chalabi a so-so freedom fighter also make him an excellent American-style politician--a disliked but nevertheless necessary component of American-style democracy. Corrupt? Maybe. But it strikes me as bitterly ironic that the man the NY Times accuses of being a Bush stooge might ultimately be shot down not because he's a theif or a fascist, but because he represents true democratic reform in Iraq.

[MEG33]

We shall see.

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[dwilli]

Like everybody else, I've been trying to get a handle on Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi National Congress leader, who some people would like to see as the new President of Iraq I see him more as a latter day Shah of Iran

[dwilli]

Like everybody else, I've been trying to get a handle on Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi National Congress leader, who some people would like to see as the new President of Iraq. I see him more as a latter day Shah of Iran.

[Illbay]

I've arrived at the point where I no longer worry about what the Bush administration is doing. They have proven to me, time and time again, that they are determined to do the right thing when it comes to our national security interests.

If Mr. Bush says Chalabi is a good guy, then I believe him, no matter what the bicoastal media types have to say about it.

[Rodney King]

Chalabi's military failures, his poor bookkeeping, and his lack of support inside Iraq have led some people at the State Department and the CIA to be skeptical about his prospects

A relative of mine has been riding around with Dr. Chalabi for the past few days. In fact, he emailed me a picture of him with the Dr. from the other day. Anyway, he tells me that State is full of sh*t and that everywhere Dr. Chalabi goes throngs of people gather to hear him and cheer him wildly.

[Arkinsaw]

I've arrived at the point where I no longer worry about what the Bush administration is doing. They have proven to me, time and time again, that they are determined to do the right thing when it comes to our national security interests.

I also am feeling pretty much this same way. At the same time, I was very disturbed by the way Chalabi was criticizing Jay Garner ONE DAY after the fall of Baghdad and before Garner had a chance to do anything at all. The White House was forced to respond to the criticisms.

I don't like that. It strikes me as political maneuvering at our expense. Right now Iraq does not need political maneuvering.

[WOSG]

Conason trashing Chalabi? For having a checkered past?

hmmmmm. He holds Chalabi to a *higher* standard than he held Clinton.

"I am deeply saddened that the CIA and State are full of anti-Iraqi-democraty weenies that will undermine our foreign policy with their own moral cowardice."

[jd777]

I've been trying to get a handle on Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi National Congress leader, who some people would like to see as the new President of Iraq. I see him more as a latter day Shah of Iran.

Not sure how you came to the conclusion. He just offered statement a statement today on Iraq attempting to emulate the democratic system in INDIA. You might want to continue "trying to get a handle" on him.

[antaresequity]

I don't like that. It strikes me as political maneuvering at our expense. Right now Iraq does not need political maneuvering.

Consider the possibilty that this 'animosity' might be designed and not substantative...

The people of Iraq are a people of tremendous pride...it will take a man who appears to Stand Up To the US to a degree to win the hearts and mind of skeptical Iraqis...

I am in Shock and Awe of Bush...he says what he is going to do and then does what he says....

[Arkinsaw]

Consider the possibilty that this 'animosity' might be designed and not substantative...

Well, maybe. But it pains me to see Chalabi on tv right now telling the interviewer that Gardner's job will be done in a few weeks and there will be no need for him. I don't believe that at all and I think Chalabi is causing problems just by saying it. He has a burr up his butt for Gardner for some reason.

If thats all part of the plan great, but Rumsfeld sure has a pained look on his face when he hears it.

[AM2000]

India a model for Iraq, says Ahmad Chalabi (head of Iraqi National Congress)

[Arkinsaw]

India a model for Iraq, says Ahmad Chalabi (head of Iraqi National Congress)

India might not be a bad model for civil institutions as long as they don't have India's psycho foreign policy.

[MHGinTN]

When the Iraqi people go to the polls and freely elect leadership (not just a leader, but representatives also), then Chalabi can take his chances. If he's elected, fine. But the primary focus should be to give the Iraqi people a choice in free elections. Much more perilous is the Iran-Syria-Saudi-PLO-Hezbollah-Hamas desire to prevent freedom from taking hold in Iraq. Something tells me that Chalabi will do his work, run for election, then step aside if and when he is rejected by the Iraqi people.

[dwilli]

Got me convinced:




India's Holy Wars
Scenes from an Internecine Religious Battleground
DIAN MUELLER

India is in deep turmoil on a number of religious fronts. While the mainstream press focuses mainly on the conflict between predominantly Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan over the threatened separation of the Indian Jammu and Kashmir state, the death toll rises in other parts of the country as internecine war widens.

Muslim-Hindu Clashes

On Jun 25, a bomb exploded in a mosque in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, injuring two people. An ensuing riot injured five more, including a TV crew. This led to a one-week curfew in Muslim-dominant areas of Guntur and the state capital, Hyderabad, where police guarded both mosques and churches. It was yet another sad chapter in the boiling conflict between Indian Muslims and Hindus.

The stabbing death of Kailish Mali on Jul 10 in Malpura, Rajasthan, led to 10 more murders. Mali, a Hindu, was a central defendant in the 1992 killings that followed the Hindu fundamentalist destruction of a local mosque. An indefinite police curfew was imposed to halt the violence.

Another source of intense, on-going conflict has been the 1992 demolition of a 16th-c. Uttar Pradesh mosque, which has led to 3,000 deaths. Last Dec, Indian Prime Minister (PM) Atal Behari Vajpayee tried to defuse the controversy caused by the efforts of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to build a Hindu temple on the site. Speaking in the parliament's lower house, he claimed his coalition government's agenda didn't include the divisive issues supported by his own party.

The BJP is the largest member of the National Democratic Alliance, which resumed power last Fall but rejected the BJP's positions on the temple construction and loss of Jammu and Kashmir's special rights. The BJP rose to prominence in the mid-1980s on a wave of militant Hinduism.

Hindus claim the site of the former mosque as the birthplace of the God Ram. The PM's remarks followed the purported reassertion of the BJP position by Uttar Pradesh's chief minister. But Vajpayee also rejected calls for the resignation of three BJP members for alleged participation in the mosque's destruction. Dismissing the PM's assurances, the opposition Congress party held a walkout.

Intra-Hindu Violence

The 2,500-year-old Hindu caste system is being violently assailed in Bihar state, which has become a "large battleground of caste senas [armies]," reports Indian Express. Dozens of people are killed every year in the conflict, and approximately 5,000 have died in the past decade. On Jun 15, the upper caste landlords' militia shot 34 lower caste villagers. It was the eighth such mass murder in six months, but the first directed at the community of Bihar's state chief minister Rabri Devi.

Eleven members of the Ranvir Sena (RS) were arrested for the massacre, an apparent retaliation for the murder of 12 upper caste Bhumihar members and the village's alleged harboring of last year's attackers on an RS-protected village. The sena called on Devi to resign, holding her responsible for the Bhumihar deaths, which may have been the work of the People's War Group or the Maoist Communist Center (MCC). Both claim to represent the lower castes.

On Jun 19, the two groups declared that they would avenge the RS murders by targeting an upper-caste village. "This is a class war," proclaimed MCC spokesman Badal. In response, RS Area Commander Upendra Singh promised that his group would "kill 10 times the number they kill." Local police requested 400 soldiers from the federal government to tighten security.

Devi's husband and former state chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, who is also president of the Bihar-ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal, called the murders an attempt "to defame and pull down" his government. Although caste violence isn't a recent invention, it worsened after an amendment to India's constitution gave political, property, schooling, and employment rights to the lower castes.

Analysts speculate that the latest developments will re-intensify the violence, partially because of the shift in the RS' focus from the "untouchable" Dalits caste to the more influential Yadavs. "We are fighting a war of honor," asserts Singh. "We are fighting for our existence. We don't know when this war will end."

Attacks on Christians

With Christians comprising 2.3% of India's one billion people, allegations that missionaries unethically convert poor Hindus is at the heart of another battle. On Jun 3, for example, Christian activists held a demonstration in Calcutta protesting alleged misinformation about tribal Christians in Orissa state reconverting to Hinduism. Orissa officials had reported that about 72 conversions were performed by a Hindu holy man in Manoharpur, site of the murder of a missionary family last year, allegedly by fanatic Hindus. A member of Bajrang Dal, a hardline Hindu group, was arrested in that case.

A few days after the demonstration, Father George Kunjhikandam was beaten to death in Uttar Pradesh. Despite the official conclusion that the murder wasn't religiously motivated, the All India Catholic Union saw it as part of a pattern, including the beating of missionaries in the same area in April. One of the witnesses to Kunjhikandam's death committed suicide in police custody, prompting increased security for the second witness and the arrest of two police officers accused of torturing the first.

On Jun 8, four churches in Goa, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh states were bombed, causing one injury. Exactly one month later, another bomb exploded outside a Karanataka church; yet another went off outside a southern India church the next night.

Christian leaders blame the Hindu nationalist-led government coalition for not controlling militant groups. "It is open season on Christians again," charges John Dayal, convenor of the United Christian Forum for Human Rights.

BJP member Venkaiah Naidu counters, "Since we came to power, there has been a campaign to denigrate us." BJP Gen. Sec. J.P. Mathur says the evidence suggests that the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan was responsible for the Jun 8 bombings. Pakistan denies the charge.

Christians are seeking help from the UN and Amnesty International. They "have no faith in the Indian government," according to United Forum of Catholics and Protestants leader Herod Malik, organizer of the Culcutta protest. "The Indian government will not protect Christians from the destructive drive of fundamentalists," he asserts. As of early June, Christian leaders had documented 35 anti-Christian incidents this year.

A clear example emerged on Jun 23, when police reported damage to the crosses on 40 graves in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh. The same day, in Phulwani, Orissa, a Hindu woman threw boiling oil at a mob of hardliners from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), or World Hindu Council. They'd come to evict a Catholic priest from her house. Jhunu Pradhan was cooking dinner when the VHP radicals entered, threatening to kill her if she didn't give up Brother Kuzur, whom they had been pressuring Jhunu and husband Gobardhan to expel for six months. When they began beating her with wooden clubs, Jhunu launched the pan of oil, seriously wounding group leader Paramananda Gir.

The following day, PM Vajpayee called on state governments to vigorously pursue every instance of such violence. "My government is committed to upholding the law of the land which guarantees equal rights to all our citizens without any discrimination, but no rights to anybody ... to spread ill-will and hatred," he declared. During Vajpayee's June visit to Rome, Pope John Paul II asked him for a guarantee of religious freedom. In response, the PM characterized the recent violence as "aberrations and exception to the general texture of peaceful and cordial relations between the various communities."

A Culprit Fingered

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, or National Volunteer Corps) is considered the wellspring of Hindu ideology, including that of the BJP. Christian leaders directly accuse it of organizing religiously motivated attacks. But RSS denies prejudice against India's Muslims and Christians. At the conclusion of a two-day RSS meeting in July, it also denied the involvement of any Hindu group in any anti-Christian attack.

"A major section of Church leaders backed by some of the media are painting the RSS and other Hindu organizations in the darkest colors by accusing them of atrocities on the Christian minority in the country," protested RSS Joint General Secretary Madan Dass. "A few stray incidents, some of which are outright fake and concocted, are being propagated as RSS machinations." He added his support to the vigorous prosecution of religious violence, noting that it "needs to be unreservedly condemned."

In February, proposed further constitutional revision by the government sparked an outcry among Christian leaders. Vajpayee asserted that unspecified revisions were imperative, while critics charged him with attempting to change India into a presidential government. A commission formed to review possible changes was denounced as undemocratic and unrepresentative of India's diversity.

In a letter to the PM, Archbishop Alan de Lastic, chief of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, charged that none of the "many representative bodies in our democratic republic has been consulted in the entire process." He noted that the country's minority groups were "greatly surprised" by the review, and feared "no democratically acceptable result can come from a structure which is itself rooted in what the people perceive to be undemocratic decisions."

John Dayal, convenor of the United Christian Forum for Human Rights, argues that any such review should consider the increased violence against minorities who are living in "an atmosphere of hatred."

Continued Counter-Charges

Amidst intensified violence, the VHP has requested action by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the victimization of Christians. The VHP believes the attacks are part of a conspiracy against the BJP-led coalition. K.M. Khan, who headed a Congress party investigation of the attacks, also called for a CBI inquiry. He cited an increase in violence since Sonia Gandhi, a Roman Catholic, became the party's president last year.

According to The Times of India, the country's "antagonism at ground level has taken such an intense form that the conflict is unmanageable for political leaders of all hues." Nevertheless, the federal government is hopeful, and is considering both a new anti-terrorism law and an agency to deal with violence. In June, state officials and police chiefs met in New Delhi to discuss the problems, as well as other crimes against the state. While continuing to point a finger at Pakistan, Interior Minister Lal Krishna Advani told the gathering, "We must get into the depth of these cases and punish the guilty, whoever they are.

"The epicenter of religious fundamentalism has come to stay in our neighborhood," he added, "which seems to have become the headquarters for terrorists operating in a number of countries the world over. The government of Pakistan ... is waging a proxy war, promoting, abetting, and sponsoring terrorism as a state policy," particularly in Kashmir.

[jd777]

I gather you're suggesting democracy has not worked in India? Because of these religious conflicts? Come on, dwilli. They have a functioning legislature, regular elections, and a british influenced judicial system. These conflicts aside, they are a success. I promise you American democracy was condemned from europes monarchies after our Civil War where 500,000 americans were killed. But we survived. Don't you agree?

Btw, who would you like to run Iraq?

[dwilli]

No I was just pointing out that there are better societies to model a new government afte.

I just cannot imagine the United States trying to impose
a leader upon Iraq with the baggage this guy is toting, guilty or inferred.

I think that the three tribes of Iraq should decide who their government should be afer six months or so under US military presence.

[jd777]

I was just pointing out that there are better societies to model a new government after .

I can't argue with that. My guess is he was trying to find an example from his region. It might have sounded strange if he suggested a "U.S. style" democracy. I think he was looking for a regional equivalent.

My only issue with with your idea is the suggestion that the "three tribes" decide what their government should be. Fine for them to decide who should run it. But how it should be run? We need to move away from tribal society toward modern democracy. I think we need to avoid a king ruling over a tribal council. I think we could do better for the iraqi people. If possible we should try to create federal structure, with a judiciary and legislature.

It's fine if it's not chalabi, but couldn't we use our work in Japan after WWII as an analogue for Iraq?

[dwilli]

THe Japanese were for the most part culturally the same throughout their population, religeous differences, but
ethically and ambitions-wise the same.

I see Iraq with a, heaven forbid, Israeli or Italian type of government with many different groups in many parlimentary squabbles.