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IN IRAQ they say “Lil quta sabat arwaah” — the cat with seven lives. No matter how many times Ahmad Chalabi is knocked down, his enemies just cannot kill him off. Exiled, disgraced, convicted, branded a collaborator, overlooked in Iyad Allawi’s Government, then rubbished and dropped by his Washington paymasters, the former exile remains widely disliked by many ordinary Iraqis. Yet Mr Chalabi is now poised to gain a top job in the new Shia-led Government, and conceivably the prime ministership. The victorious Shia coalition was deadlocked last night over its choice of prime minister, with its 140 newly elected...

Soon the whole Middle East will see Iraq's national assembly at work. ALL RIGHT. LET US make an analytical bet of high probability and enormous returns: The January 30 elections in Iraq will easily be the most consequential event in modern Arab history since Israel's six-day defeat of Gamal Abdel Nasser's alliance in 1967. Israel's pulverizing defeat of the Arab armies dethroned Nasserism, the romantic pan-Arab dictatorial nationalism that had infected much of the Arab world, particularly its intelligentsia, during the 1950s and '60s. With the collapse of Nasserism, the overtly secular socialist-cum-fascist age in the Middle East closed--except in...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Top Shiite politicians failed to reach a consensus Wednesday on their nominee for prime minister, shifting the two-man race to a secret ballot and exposing divisions in the winning alliance. In a chilling reminder of challenges facing the winner, a videotape showed a sobbing Italian hostage pleading for her life. After hours of closed-door meetings, members of the United Iraqi Alliance agreed to hold a secret ballot to choose between Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Ahmad Chalabi, most likely on Friday, said Ali Hashim al-Youshaa, one of the alliance's leaders. The contrast between the two candidates is stark...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 15 - The race for the top job in Iraq's new government narrowed Tuesday to two leaders in the Shiite alliance, with Ibrahim Jafari of the Dawa Party squaring off against Ahmad Chalabi, who was mounting a last-minute stand against his rival. Dr. Jafari, a physician who spent more than 20 years in exile and is now a deputy president in the interim government, improved his chances on Tuesday when he persuaded another rival, Adil Abdul Mahdi, to withdraw from the race. Dr. Jafari's party, Dawa, and Mr. Mahdi's, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in...

In what is emerging as a spectacular coup for Iran, it is becoming ever more clear that the Islamic Republic not only supported the war in Iraq, but actually used its covert agents to help make the case, often with falsehoods, for the American invasion. In recent days, Iraqi dissident Ahmad Chalabi received support in his bid to become Prime Minister of Iraq from Muktada al-Sadr, a Shia terrorist with links to Iran. The al-Sadr family has been cooperating with Iran and Iran-sponsored Lebanese Hizballah since the overthrow of the Shah. Spokespersons for both al-Sadr and Chalabi have confirmed cooperation...

Last update: February 12, 2005 at 9:10 PM Politician's stock on the rise again Dexter Filkins, New York Times February 13, 2005 CHALABI0213 -snip- One Iraqi who may hold the key to Chalabi's future is Muqtada al-Sadr, the young cleric who led a series of uprisings against the U.S. military last year. According to aides for both men, Al-Sadr has promised to back Chalabi in his bid to become prime minister. Despite his outlaw status -- he is under indictment for murder and has been in hiding -- Al-Sadr fielded several candidates in the election. And his coalition appears likely...

The foreign policy establishment picked a loser; Allawi is a Baathist who lacks appeal or the right vision IT WAS gracious of Iyad Allawi, the Iraqi interim Prime Minister, to thank the British people for their support in the pages of The Times last week. Quite rightly, he acknowledged the hefty price in blood and treasure paid by this country to bring democracy to Mesopotamia. Understandably, Mr Allawi did not say that both he and his own al-Iraqia list have been the greatest beneficiaries of British and American support in recent years. For this former Baathist has long been a...

. Chalabi Is Back An apology is in order. By Barbara Lerner The Iraqi election was a moving display of courage and a great victory, for America, for Iraq, and for our much-maligned president. But when the full results of this historic election are released later this week, it's a safe bet that we will find ourselves having to deal, once again, with another much-maligned man: Ahmed Chalabi. And since our CIA and State Department did the maligning, Chalabi's expected election victory presents what diplo-speakers call "a challenge." Chalabi is a longtime Iraqi leader, a secular Shiite coalition builder, before...

Analysis: Chalabi's magical comeback By Claude Salhani UPI International Editor Published February 1, 2005 WASHINGTON -- If U.S. foreign policy planners were Machiavellian enough, one could be led to believe that they planned the whole affair surrounding former Pentagon golden boy Ahmed Chalabi, the man most likely to become the new prime minister of Iraq. But their track record -- and history -- has proven otherwise. Chalabi, a long-time Iraqi exile who initially based himself in London, was at first supported by Richard Perle, a neo-conservative policy-setter. Chalabi first came into the limelight over his debacle in Jordan in 1992,...

Since midsummer, the Senate Intelligence Committee has been attempting to solve the biggest mystery of the Iraq war: the disparity between the Bush Administration’s prewar assessment of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and what has actually been discovered. The committee is concentrating on the last ten years’ worth of reports by the C.I.A. Preliminary findings, one intelligence official told me, are disquieting. “The intelligence community made all kinds of errors and handled things sloppily,” he said. The problems range from a lack of quality control to different agencies’ reporting contradictory assessments at the same time. One finding, the official went...

The recent threats and accusations that the defense minister in Iraq, Hazem Shaalan, has made against Ahmad Chalabi illustrate ... the urgency of the elections that will elevate a new, democratic government in Baghdad. *snip* Some day an enterprising scholar may write a book exposing the Jordanian shenanigans in the current war. *snip* Only a month ago, Mr. Shaalan and Prime Minister Allawi privately urged the White House to cancel the elections that will likely result in their early retirement from Iraqi politics. When the president demurred, Mr. Shaalan threatened to arrest those who are poised to defeat him with...

NBC news is reporting: But Pentagon officials told NBC News that they were acting at the behest of Iraqi authorities investigating the disappearance of millions of dollars in cash and other assets following the fall of Saddam Hussein. Arrest warrants issued for 16 people An Iraqi judge issued arrest warrants for 16 people affliliated with the INC, and an unknown number were arrested, the officials said. Chalabi, himself a member of the Governing Council, was not arrested, and scheduled a news conference later in the day to discuss the raids. As NBC News reported earlier this week, Chalabi and his...

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Lebanon's finance minister on Sunday downplayed the Iraqi Defense Ministry's transfer of $500 million to a Beirut financial institution, saying he would expect such a transfer to be legal if it was made by the Iraqi government. In southern Iraq, the politician demanding a probe into Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan's decision to make the cash transfer said he would not flee his country. Ahmad Chalabi said he was staying despite Shaalan's threat to arrest him and turn him over to Interpol based on an old Jordanian bank fraud conviction.Finance Minister Elias Saba told the private...

Defense minister threatens to arrest opponent in secret cash purchase. BAGHDAD, IRAQ – Earlier this month, $300 million in dollar bills was taken from Iraq's central bank, put into boxes and put on a charter jet bound for Lebanon, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. The money was to be used to buy tanks and weapons from arms dealers, the officials said – part of an accelerated effort to assemble an armored division for the Iraqi army. But where the money went, to whom and for what, remains a mystery. The deal appears to have been arranged outside the financial...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Authorities will arrest prominent politician Ahmad Chalabi after the current Islamic religious holiday for allegedly defaming the Defense Ministry, the defense minister said Friday. Legal proceedings against Chalabi are to begin after the Eid al-Adha holiday ends Sunday, Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said. Shaalan's statement followed allegations by Chalabi that the defense minister shifted $500 million from the ministry. That has led to charges and countercharges by the two Shiite politicians, who are running for parliament on separate tickets in the Jan. 30 national elections. "We will arrest him and turn him over to the Interpol,"...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iraq's interim defense minister said on Friday the government would arrest Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi after the Eid al-Adha holiday for allegedly maligning the defense ministry. "We will arrest him and hand him over to Interpol. We will arrest him based on facts that he wanted to malign the reputation of the defense ministry and defense minister," Hazim al-Shaalan told Al Jazeera television, adding the measures would start after the Muslim holiday which began on Jan. 20.

Despite the lack of security in Iraq today, a democratic, pluralistic Iraq is the only acceptable outcome. Iraq's unity can be best secured through the involvement of all groups in the political process. The concerns being voiced by many in the international community, of the fear of Sunni marginalization and Shiite domination, were the same concerns that allowed Saddam to last as long as he did. Those arguments are reappearing today, to close the door of hope and opportunity for the Iraqi people. But Saddamism without Saddam is simply not an option. Iraq's people are already realizing their objective of...

BAGHDAD, June 30 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein, who brutalised Iraqis for decades, said good morning and sought to ask some questions when the United States handed him over to Iraqi justice on Wednesday, a witness said. Saddam, who was captured hiding near his hometown of Tikrit in December, looked in good health as he appeared before an Iraqi judge in the first legal step towards a trial for the cruelties he inflicted during his 35 years of power. "Saddam said good morning and asked if he could ask some questions," Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of a tribunal...

<p>WASHINGTON — A senior Defense official placed under investigation by the FBI (news - web sites) on allegations that he tried to steer Iraqi reconstruction contracts toward friends has been removed from office, Pentagon (news - web sites) officials confirmed Friday.</p>

Liberals on Capitol Hill and in the media are screaming, "Where are the weapons?" Since the White House had argued that disarming Saddam was the main reason for going to war, not finding his forbidden weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) all lined up like prizes at a seaside shooting gallery has excited the president's political enemies to cry foul. Ewan Buchanan, spokesman for chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, assures Insight that "it's far too early to tell" whether forbidden weapons remain in Iraq or where they might be. "It doesn't surprise me that U.S. forces haven't found anything yet....