Antiwar.com Blog

Ever the opportunist, the “Hero in Error” accuses Tenet of everything he himself did :

Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi accused CIA director George Tenet on Thursday of being responsible for allegations that the former exile leader passed intelligence information to Iran.

Chalabi, a former member of the Iraqi Governing Council, made the accusation after President Bush announced that Tenet was stepping down as CIA director for personal reasons.
[…]
Speaking to reporters, Chalabi lashed out at Tenet, saying the effects of his policies toward Iraq over the past years “have been not helpful to say the least.”

“He continued attempting to make a coup d’etat against Saddam in the face of all possible evidence that this would be unsuccessful,” Chalabi said. “His policies caused the death of hundreds of Iraqis in this futile efforts.”

Chalabi also accused Tenet of providing “erroneous information about weapons of mass destruction to President Bush, which caused the government much embarrassment at the United Nations and his own country.”

This little speech requires breathtaking chutzpah. Of course this Tenet Did It line isn’t original to Chalabi. Here are some Perles of Great Wisdom:

Mr. Chalabi’s allies in Washington also saw the Bush administration’s decision to sever its ties with Mr. Chalabi and his group as a cynical effort instigated by the C.I.A. and longtime Chalabi critics at the State Department. They believe those agencies want to blame him for mistaken estimates and incorrect information about Iraq before the war, like whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

One of those who has defended Mr. Chalabi is Richard N. Perle, the former chairman of the Defense Policy Board. “The C.I.A. has disliked him passionately for a long time and has mounted a campaign against him with some considerable success,” Mr. Perle said Tuesday. “I’ve seen no evidence of improper behavior on his part. No evidence whatsoever.”

Mr. Perle said he thought the C.I.A. had turned against Mr. Chalabi because he refused to be the agency’s “puppet.” Mr. Chalabi “has a mind of his own,” Mr. Perle said.

Whatever you think of the Richer Perle’s insights, this Steve Gilliard analysis strikes me as sensible:

Perle is a mark. The CIA doesn’t control sigint and he knows this. DOD runs the NSA and until last month Chalabi was their boy. The evidence against him had to come from DOD, not the CIA and is vastly more credible because of it. Hell, the CIA wouldn’t even know about SIGINT issues unless NSA briefed them on it. Anything to do with codes and Chalabi went from the Army Security Agency (the army’s cryptanalysis service) straight back to NSA headquarters. The CIA may have been in the loop at some point, but this was developed inside DOD, not as some CIA smear campaign.

It isn’t clear yet whether Tenet jumped ship or walked the plank, but this finger-pointing by Chalabi and Perle is just more of the same level of neocon garbage that sufficed for “evidence” when they were making their case for the US aggression against Iraq.

According to Michael Lind, writing wistfully in the Financial Times, the Iraq campaign has punctured the “mystique” that made the American Empire possible.
Lind laments that the neocons had fouled the playground for the “neoliberals” like him – a breed that cheered Clintonian interventions as a way of establishing the Kagan-Kristolian Benevolent Global Hegemony (BGH) by using international institutions, instead of tearing them down:
“neoliberalism, like neoconservatism, depended on the mystique of American power… The horrors that we know about, and those about which we have yet to learn, are even more fatal to the neoliberal project than to its neoconservative rival…”
“What population now will want US soldiers in their country…? […] Without US forces doing the heavy lifting in UN or Nato interventions, the ambitious neoliberal strategy of muscular internationalism becomes impossible.”
He concludes:
“Now that America’s reputation for benevolence and irresistible power has been severely damaged, the US will be forced to settle for a far more modest role in the world than that sought by both neoliberals and neoconservatives.” Continue reading “Empire Discredited?!”

Iraqi Governing Council Takes Bold New Step Of Renaming Itself

Iraq took a mighty step forward toward creating an independent sovereign government this week as the Iraqi Governing Council — a group of U.S. appointed Iraqi exiles seen as largely subservient to U.S. demands — renamed itself and became a group of dynamic, independent thinkers — made up of the very same people.

“I am a new man!” cried Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. “I could order American troops out of Iraq tomorrow if I wished!”

Asked if this was true, Allawi became suddenly sober and said,” I don’t know. Let me make a call.” After disappearing into his study and making an overseas call, Allawi emerged and answered, “No. I can’t.”

Read the rest….

Well, well. The Religious Policeman was right.

Saudi Elite Forces capture Terrorists

Well, only one actually. Three others escaped, as they always do, because that is how it is foretold in the old prophesy from the Sage of Riyadh

“Tho’ many be surrounded,
and the surrounding be complete,
all shall escape
but the one with bad feet”.

I’ve now seen the footage of their assault on the building in Alkhobar, getting out of the helicopter. Well I must have missed a bit, when they first threw out their Zimmer frames. I thought it was absolutely scandalous. I was always taught that it was good manners to help infirm or old people out of a vehicle. Yet there they were, having to struggle out of that chopper all by themselves, nobody to lend a hand, poor old dears. Suppose one of them dropped their teeth on the ground – with their eyesight, they could spend all day looking. I thought for a moment that I’d spotted my old Grandmother, I thought “She’ll kick the sh*t out of those terrorists, no trouble”, but sadly she was snoozing in the next room. It’s a good job there was an invalid elevator fitted in that building, otherwise they’d still be up on the roof even now.

There are many theories as to how the three escaped, and indeed whether they departed hours before the helicopter appeared.

From the New York Times:

The tipping point came when Mr. Johnston, a 59-year-old Texan, learned that three of the four terrorists who attacked the Oasis Residential Resorts and other Western targets in Khobar and killed 22 people had eluded capture.

The attackers managed to escape during a confused moment and shoot their way through the weakest checkpoint, guarded by just two police cars, a Saudi official said. They were long gone by the time commandos landed on the roof at dawn.

Must-read post by Lawrence of Cyberia

Dexter Filkins writes:

Asked about the selections of the prime minister and the president, which became divisive decisions, he alluded to the role of L. Paul Bremer 3rd, the chief American administrator here.
.
“The government of Iraq, I sometimes say – I’m sure he doesn’t mind my saying it – Bremer is the dictator of Iraq,” Brahimi said. “He has the money. He has the signature. Nothing happens without his agreement in this country.”
.
Brahimi did not get into details, although people close to him suggested last week that he had reluctantly agreed to the selection of Iyad Alawi as prime minister only after U.S. officials had pushed him.

Gee whiz, I’m so surprised that Bremer interfered after all.

---

InstaMonger calls it a “Diplomatic Success” to “sucker” the UN. If the ham-fisted “diplomacy” exercised by Bremer is an example, it’s no wonder the US has no allies and is despised worldwide.