Ahmed and Salem Chalabi
First an overview. Ahmed has been paid an estimated $2 million for securing a contract for the ERINYS company to provide security for oil field facilities in Iraq. Workers are paid less than those employed by the higher-profile security forces (who are usually ex-Coalition military), even though the oil field work is dangerous.
"In another controversial move, ERINYS has brought thousands of highly paid mercenaries into Iraq -- many former members of the secret police of South Africa's now-defunct apartheid regime. These white South African trainers are typically paid $5,000 a month -- or about 45 times more than their Iraqi counterparts."
Ahmed, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, and his nephew Salem have both been heavily involved in drafting an interim constitution.
Ahmed has been outspoken in saying the U.S. should not use force against Sadr in the holy city of Najaf. There is speculation that Ahmed earlier had actually advised the U.S. to move against Sadr--which provoked the recent uprising. The suggestion is that Chalabi was confident that he had Sistani's support to become President (or Prime Minister--whichever is more powerful?) in the new Iraq, and Sadr was a marginal but potentially dangerous player. Unfortunately, the U.S. attack seems to have made Sadr less marginal.
Salem, a lawyer, has been named Director General of the tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein.
Paul Bremer has announced that Baathists will now be incorporated into the military, security forces and professions including teaching. He says this was always part of the plan, and is not an about-face. Remarkably, Ahmed is openly critical of this move; it is clear he was one of the major proponents of de-Baathification last year.
Now it seems official that Ahmed and other U.S.-appointed members of the IGC will be jettisoned as the UN builds a Council with more popular support in Iraq. Ahmed's organization may even lose more than $300,000 per month in funding that it has been receiving. (Ahmed has received an estimate $40 million from the U.S. Congress over the past decade).
Now it gets--I guess the word is Byzantine. Many of the allegations about corruption surrounding the UN oil-for-food program that ran during the Saddam years have come from a committee chaired by Ahmed. The allegations received a high profile when they were published in a newspaper owned by Ahmed. The allegations make the UN look bad, and Ahmed is on record as not wanting the UN to get involved in Iraq. Bremer, confirming that he no longer trusts Ahmed, is insisting on further investigations of these allegations being done by a third party.
Josh Marshall has given more background on Salem's activities, including the fact that while Salem has been securing lucrative contracts in Iraq, he has a powerful friend in Washington; Salem's business partner is a former law partner of a person who actually has some of the responsibility for dispersing these contracts: Doug Feith.
All of this provides some background to a long post by Juan Cole (check all the good recent posts)--but still makes it a bit surprising. Richard Perle showed up somewhat unexpectedly to testify in Congress--and argued that power should be given to "the Iraqis," but there should be no hurry about elections. This seems to mean: give power to Ahmed Chalabi.
So the Chalabis, who may have been put where they are, and made very rich, by the neo-cons, are still trusted by at least some of the neo-cons--despite everything.
See Josh Marshall again for more.
Juan Cole has also added more today, including more detail on the Salem Chalabi--Doug Feith connection, and a link to a source that explains that Germany was subjected to de-Nazification that was far less severe than the de-Baathification that Iraq has gone through--directed, apparently, by Ahmed Chalabi.
"Liberation" would be a funny name for stripping away many layers of government, security, and civil authority (including school teachers) in Iraq, leaving it worse off than Germany was left after its military defeat in 1945.
UPDATE: part of the Ahmed story in the NYT, April 27.
UPDATE: More in another NYT article, this time on the Counter Terrorism Evaluation Group created by Douglas J. Feith:
"At the end of 2001, Mr. Maloof and Mr. Wurmser briefed top Pentagon officials as well as John R. Bolton, the under secretary of state for arms control and international security and a veteran of the American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Maloof also met with Mr. Perle at his suburban Washington home. As chairman of the Defense Policy Board, an advisory group, he had security clearance.
"That session was interrupted by a call from Ahmad Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress, an exile group. At Mr. Maloof's request, Mr. Perle asked Mr. Chalabi, now a member of the interim government of Iraq, to have his staff provide Mr. Maloof information gleaned from defectors and others. The request was unusual, because Mr. Feith's analysts were supposed to review intelligence, not collect it. And Mr. Chalabi at that time had a lucrative contract to provide information on Iraq exclusively to the State Department, which would send it along to the intelligence agencies.
"Mr. Maloof later met with member of the Iraqi National Congress's staff. As it turned out, Mr. Chalabi was a risky source: some of the information his group provided was incorrect or fabricated, intelligence officials now believe."
Some very intelligent people put themselves at the mercy of Ahmed Chalabi, on the grounds that he had information that the CIA was somehow hiding from the President.
UPDATE: It seems the U.S. is now re-Baathifizing--not just for school teachers, police, or government officials--but for high-ranking generals, one of whom reported directly to "Chemical Ali."
Quite a change. (Washington Post via Kevin Drum).
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