Who Is Ahmad Chalabi?

November 20, 2003 11:15 AM

Just who is this Ahmad Chalabi guy ?
posted by jpoulos (13 comments total)

A one-man Cuban exile community. There was a brief period a year or so ago when he might have been the most influential person in the world.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 11:47 AM on November 20, 2003

A convicted felon.
A proven liar.
He who would be King.
The neocons best friend.
A cheat.
A failed businessman.
An unreliable source of intelligence information.
A fraud.
A liability for all US taxpayers.

No wonder Cheney loves him so!
posted by nofundy at 11:54 AM on November 20, 2003

TONY JONES: (...) For example, if Ahmed Chalabi had been chosen, there'd be plenty of questions over whether he was the right man to be leading the country and, sooner or later, people would be asking, possibly, the same questions about him as they are asking about other Iraqi leaders?

ROBERT BAER: Chalabi was never a candidate to head Iraq.
He never had any legitimacy.
He still doesn't have any legitimacy.
He's a fine person, but he has no following in Iraq.
I'm talking about a Sunni Arab Muslim with following in the military, the police, who wouldn't be exactly clean, but it would be a lot easier transition than we're seeing today.
And somebody with some popularity
posted by matteo at 12:16 PM on November 20, 2003

He has some friends in Washington DC, principally at the Pentagon and among the staff of the Defence Intelligence Agency. According to the former CIA officer Bob Baer, whose book See No Evil was published last month, Chalabi's influence is now stronger than it was because, as Baer puts it: "He talks their language. He knows how to make himself clear and knows what they want to hear. He doesn't go round in circles like every Arab you ever sat down with in the Middle East."

Is this man leading us to war with Iraq? When Dr Ahmad Chalabi talks about toppling Saddam Hussein, the US hawks listen. Henry Porter meets the Iraqi dissident who wants to free his country by any means
Wednesday April 10, 2002 -- The Guardian
posted by matteo at 12:24 PM on November 20, 2003

A quick anagram search reveals Amhad Chalabi as "A cabal had him" - coincidence? I think not. Conspiracy theorists rejoice.....
posted by Pressed Rat at 12:28 PM on November 20, 2003

Matteo dude, why did you do that? Twice?

Is your comment more important?
posted by jon_kill at 12:36 PM on November 20, 2003

If you are like me, you might not have time to follow all the links in this post. My choice for the most informative regarding Chalabi and the INC neo-con job is the PBS Frontline link, which leads to this set of interviews part of the excellent Truth War and Consequences series that contained a very interesting interview with Greg Thielmann.

Who is Chalabi? The guy who told them what they wanted to hear.
posted by ahimsakid at 1:05 PM on November 20, 2003

Just who is this Ahmad Chalabi guy, and can I get him to give me a job (preferably one that doesn't require handling weaponry) ?
posted by wendell at 1:23 PM on November 20, 2003

My (otherwise unparsable and mean) grandmother told me two things in her life that made sense. One was to never trust a man with a pinky ring, and the other was to never trust a man with his own private army. Chalabi violates number two.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 1:28 PM on November 20, 2003

Didn't we learn anything from Vietnam? I guess going AWOL from the Air Nation Guard has its consequences.
posted by Bag Man at 3:12 PM on November 20, 2003

Didn't we learn anything from Vietnam?

We learned to blame the media.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 4:55 PM on November 20, 2003

I agree he's a sketchy character, but those links and the posts seem to be behind the times. As should probably be expected he seems to be biting the hand that he led. He's pushing against the US and for more control for Iraq and, just coincidentally I'm sure, himself lately. He's now pushing for much more Iraqi control that the Europeans are for. He seems like he's a damn smart Machiavellian( went to MIT and U of Chicago for Math degrees). He certainly doesn't seem like Cheney's man to me anymore. It might be good for Iraq to have a man like him right now.
Couldn't find any great links, but here are a couple that show that he's not a puppet. More like a puppet master.
1 2
posted by superchris at 6:05 PM on November 20, 2003

A puppet master is what I'd call him. Chalabi has been itching for the US to invade Iraq longer then the neocons have and it was his INC that supplied the media with Iraqi dissidents for a good amount of the stories about the evil Saddam leading up to the war. His dissidents are responsible for a lot of the bad intelligence, so basically Chalabi had a scared Cheney, a delusional neocon cabal, and an America itching for revenge so he supplied the justification for the war in Iraq and he stood to gain a lot business wise from the overthrow of Saddam.
posted by jbou at 8:07 PM on November 20, 2003