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  Searching for Saviors in Strange Places
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ContributorArmyDem 
Last EditedArmyDem  Oct 26, 2005 01:56am
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CategoryCommentary
MediaWeekly News Magazine - TIME Magazine
News DateWednesday, October 26, 2005 07:55:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionCould Ahmad Chalabi end up running Iraq?

Posted Saturday, Oct. 22, 2005

You remember Ahmad Chalabi. He was once the Bush Administration's favorite Iraqi exile. His group, the Iraqi National Congress, provided all sorts of wondrous reports about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (some of which Judith Miller disseminated in the New York Times). He convinced certified hardfellahs like Vice President Dick Cheney that American troops would be greeted in Baghdad with flowers and candy. He was smooth as oil and wicked smart, with a math degree from M.I.T. More than a few Bush Administration officials hoped Chalabi would quickly take control in Baghdad after Saddam was deposed, and allow the U.S. to get out of Dodge within months.

Wrong, of course. And when the Iraqis proved to be just a bit less welcoming than Chalabi had predicted, and no WMD were found, he fell hard. By the spring of 2004, Chalabi's home was raided by U.S. forces. His associates were suspected of fraud, torture, kidnapping and misuse of U.S. funds. Chalabi was suspected of spying for the Iranians. But nothing much came of that. Chalabi soon leveraged American disapproval into Baghdad street cred and a burgeoning career as a leader of the Shi'ite coalition. He currently serves as Deputy Prime Minister in Ibrahim al-Jaafari's government. And now—trumpet clarion here—he is coming back to Washington in November at the invitation of Treasury Secretary John Snow. But Chalabi will have potentially more significant meetings with National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and perhaps Condoleezza Rice, both of whom—according to high-ranking Administration officials—believe that he is a plausible and acceptable candidate to be the next Prime Minister of Iraq when that nation votes, yet again, for a new government on Dec. 15.
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