Wanted: Ahmed and Salem Chalabi

[demon]

Breaking News..Well, here's a turn-up for the books....arrest warrants issued, by the Iraqi Governing Muppets I believe, for Ahmed Chalabi and his nephew Salem! Ahmed for counterfeiting, Salem for murder....

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) _ A judge says Iraq has issued an arrest warrant for Ahmad Chalabi (AHK'-mahd SHAH'-lah-bee), a former governing council member, on money laundering charges.
And Iraq's chief investigating judge says a warrant has been issued for Salem Chalabi (SAH'-lem CHAH'-lah-bee), the head of Iraq's special tribunal, on murder charges.

 

[Hutch]

Well, well, well. well. well......

One prediction and one possibility.

Prediction: The Bush Administration won't lift a finger to help Chalabi.

Possibility: Extradition of Chalabi to Jordan to stand trial for crimes committed there many years ago.

Sure seems like some of the neo-cons may have bet the wrong horse (I still think they should fire whoever got him that seat right behind Laura Bush at the State of the Union(?))

Innocent until proven guility, of course......

 

[demon]

Hutch:
"Well, well, well. well. well......"

Indeed. Says a lot about the neo-cons who couldn`t get enough of this guy when he was whistling the old WMD tune so loudly.

However, I`d like to strike a note of caution.
While I'd like to think that the party might be over for the Chalabis, I wonder whether the arrest warrants are an elaborate stunt to demonstrate just how "sovereign" Iraq is...the "independent" judicial system investigates former Pentagon favourites and so on. All theatre perhaps.

 

[Mr Manifesto]

Hutch:
"Well, well, well. well. well......"

Indeed. Says a lot about the neo-cons who couldn`t get enough of this guy when he was whistling the old WMD tune so loudly.

However, I`d like to strike a note of caution.
While I'd like to think that the party might be over for the Chalabis, I wonder whether the arrest warrants are an elaborate stunt to demonstrate just how "sovereign" Iraq is...the "independent" judicial system investigates former Pentagon favourites and so on. All theatre perhaps.

I think you're reading too much into it. I think the simple lesson here is, you embarrass the US government, you get hammered. Chalabi certainly isn't the first to be made to fall on his sword for giving Dubya a red face.

I say, "giving Dubya a red face" because I'm sure you're aware by now that nothing is his fault.

 

[Corwyn]

I can just see wubya on prime time presidential address next week;


WMD, Axis of evil, overthrough of a brutal dictator, bring freedom to the peace loving people of Iraq, these were all
misdirections to get to the REAL heart of the evil and our true mission in Iraq - distroy the possibility that Chalabi may sometime in the future, could, if the stars line up right and some nasty elitist liberal takes the white house may come into power and possibly do some harm to America and to stop him from spending any more of that CIA money.

 

[fishbob]

Francis Brooke, a Washington adviser to Mr. Chalabi, said the charges against both men were categorically untrue and said both would return to Iraq to defend themselves. He said that the elder Mr. Chalabi would leave a vacation cabin in the mountains outside Tehran immediately and that the younger man would return to Iraq later from his home in London. Mr. Brooke assailed the magistrate who issued the charges, calling him an unqualified political appointee of L. Paul Bremer III, the former chief administrator of Iraq.

"I see him, personally, as acting as an agent of the U.S. government," Mr. Brooke said of the magistrate, Zuhair al-Maliky.

article

Soprano Politics:
Chalabi was our guy, our 'in' in Iraq, our guy with the insider knowledge, the contacts, the scoop. Our guy that received $300,000 per month from the CIA, as head of the Iraqi National Congress. But he let us down so now we are putting the whack on our guy.

 

[Hutch]

Ummmm..just curious but did anybody else notice that part of fishbob's quote that said:

He said that the elder Mr. Chalabi would leave a vacation cabin in the mountains outside Tehran...

Now let me get this straight. We have a guy who was the darling of many neo-cons, took $300,000+ a month from the CIA/DIA/State Department, and provided 'inside' information on Iraqi politics and WMD's---and he's vacationing in IRAN?!?!?!

Am I the only one who finds this just a teensy bit ironic?