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To: Steve Eisenberg
The article says "All these Arab governments and their friends have been spreading slanders about Chalabi to the State Department and the CIA. Those agencies have come to see him as a destabilizing force in the region."

While both sentences are true, the implied connection between them isn't quite right. State and CIA intensely dislike Chalabi and always have. But the reason is that he speaks quite directly of their past games in the region, their cynical deals, their policy mistakes, their backstabs and sellouts.

He has been consistently pro democracy and anti Saddam for over 30 years. The US State department and CIA can't say as much about *themselves* (leave aside other regional rulers). And they are embarassed about it, so they play smash mouth with the messenger. What they hate about Chalabi is that he refuses to shut up about, among others -

Backing Iraqi Baathists to give Egyptian nationalists competition
After Egypt became tractable, supporting Kurdish rebels working for the Shah and trying to overthrow Saddam
then selling them out to work with Saddam when Iran had its revolution
supporting the war by Iraq against Iran
selling out the 1991 rebellion after Gulf War I
wasting the 90s trying to get a new Baathist tyrant via coup
Calling Iraqi democrats useless dreamers and insisting only a tyrant could run the place

It is not exactly an honorable history, for day to day policy decisions down at the departments, as opposed to the interventions at the level of the president or congress.

The root cause of State and CIA distaste for Chalabi is the oldest Washington bureaucrat's game - CYA...

9 posted on 04/13/2003 6:59:17 AM PDT by JasonC
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To: JasonC
jason, well said ... people are missing the point that Iraqi democracy will be bigger than one man and the INC is bigger than one man.

The INC is the main legitimate opposition group to Saddam, and the pathetic reporters and State and others who are ignoring these groups are missing the point: these are indeed pro-democracy groups and must be the starting point for Iraqi democracy.

If Chalabi has spots, flaws, etc. the Iraqi people will be the ones to care about it or not. he will be *their* politician, not *ours*. It is far *more* critical to create a govt that is free and limited in scope so it cant be socialized corrupted or looted, than to care who will run it. Hoepfully they will have American-style constitution and a bill of rights, and will quickly make clear the respect for minority groups and individuals and respect for property that is vital to having a govt resistent to tyrants and kleptocrats.

We in the US have to take our own intentions seriously: Iraq government of and for the Iraqis.
23 posted on 04/13/2003 10:31:36 AM PDT by WOSG (All Hail The Free Republic of Iraq! God Bless our Troops!)
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