Free Republic

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...

Some are unhappy that the U.N. was bypassed in the selection of a Shiite physician to head the interim government. BY ROBERT MORAN AND RON HUTCHESON Knight Ridder Newspapers BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iyad Allawi, a Shiite doctor who survived an assassination attempt by agents of Saddam Hussein and later tried to overthrow the former dictator, was tapped Friday to be the new prime minister of the Iraqi interim government. Allawi, a neurologist by training, will be the top official in the transitional government when it begins functioning with the transfer of sovereignty on June 30. Elections for a permanent government...