IRAQ NEWS, SATURDAY, MAY 22, 2004 I. BBC, US UNDER FIRE FOR RAID, MAY 21 II. BOSTON GLOBE, THE ATTACK ON CHALABI, MAY 22
I. BBC, US UNDER FIRE FOR RAID BBC May 21, 2004 19:06 GMT US under fire over Chalabi raid The US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council has criticised Thursday's raid on the home and party HQ of one of its leading members, Ahmed Chalabi. Council members meeting in Baghdad to discuss Thursday's events blamed the US-led coalition for the raid and said they would seek an explanation. Speaking after the raids, Mr Chalabi said Iraqi and US personnel took part, seizing papers and computer equipment. He accused the Americans of trying to discredit him. But US officials maintain that the Iraqis were responsible for the operation and are handling the investigation. At least one member of the US-appointed council has threatened to resign over the issue. Mr Chalabi was once close to the US but has become increasingly distanced. 'Not political' The council adopted a statement criticising the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) for not giving advance notice of the raids and for what it described as the rough behaviour of Iraqi police during the raid. What the Americans have done earned me a medal from the Iraqi people Ahmed Chalabi An official attending the meeting told Reuters news agency that everyone present thought the coalition was behind the raid. However, the US State Department said earlier the reasons for the operations had been "legal and investigative" rather than political. A senior official of the US-led coalition occupying Iraq told AP news agency that several people had been arrested on allegations of "fraud, kidnapping and associated matters". In Washington, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he had not been informed of the raid before it happened. Mr Chalabi, meanwhile, told the Arab TV station al-Arabiya that he was proud to have become a target of the coalition. "What the Americans have done earned me a medal from the Iraqi people," he said. "It invalidated everything that had been said about me being with the Americans, it showed that I was with the Iraqi people all along." In a BBC interview on Thursday Mr Chalabi said that while he was a friend of the US he believed that the CPA was trying to impose something unworkable on Iraq. Intelligence Last year, Mr Chalabi was one of the first Iraqi exiles to be flown back into Iraq following the US-led invasion. He was seen by Pentagon officials as a possible future president. As recently as January he was a special guest at President George W Bush's annual State of the Union address. But since then Mr Chalabi appears to have fallen out with his Washington backers - and not just over his criticisms of the US-led occupation. There has also been criticism in Washington over Mr Chalabi's alleged links with Iranian hardliners, as well as the quality of intelligence passed to the US by his party, the Iraqi National Congress (INC), in the run-up to the invasion. The Pentagon recently cut off some $340,000 a month in funding to the INC. II. BOSTON GLOBE, THE ATTACK ON CHALABI Boston Globe GLOBE EDITORIAL The attack on Chalabi May 22, 2004 AHMED CHALABI is no angel. Even among Iraqis and Americans who bear no grudge against him, the Iraqi exile most responsible for getting Americans to overthrow Saddam Hussein has a reputation for being devious, autocratic, and self-aggrandizing. He has surrounded himself with some suspicious characters. But this week's flamboyant raid on Chalabi's home in Baghdad and the offices of his party, the Iraqi National Congress, smacks of score-settling by the US proconsul in Iraq, Paul Bremer, and Chalabi's enemies at the State Department and the CIA. Bremer's claim to be uninvolved in the raid -- during which plainclothes Americans directed Iraqi police who smashed things up -- is hardly credible. Bremer has incentives to discredit Chalabi. It is an open secret that the transition government UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is selecting, in consultation with Bremer, will exclude Chalabi. Also, in one of his many reversals, Bremer recently decided to undo his own de-Ba'athification strictures. It can be argued that Bremer went too far when, after disbanding Iraq's army, he decreed that the many teachers, functionaries, and professionals in the Ba'ath Party could not return to their posts. Nevertheless, Chalabi has been an ardent proponent of a thorough de-Ba'athification process. By criticizing Bremer's turnabout, Chalabi renewed a bitter conflict with State Department officials partial to the notion -- pushed by the Sunni elites ruling autocratic Arab regimes aligned with Washington -- that for the sake of stability, a Sunni strongman should be brought to power in Baghdad. This retrogade prescription was blurted out by Jordan's King Abdullah, who said in a recent interview with The New York Times that Iraq should be ruled by "somebody with a military background who has experience of being a tough guy." This is the kind of calamitous advice that encouraged earlier US administrations to ignore Saddam Hussein's gassing of the Kurds in the late 1980s and his other acts of genocide against Shi'ites and marsh Arabs in the early 1990s. Worst of all, the bullying effort to sideline Chalabi looks like one more blatant US attempt to meddle in Iraqi politics.
