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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Ozeti
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Washington fetes its enemy's enemy Doubts about Iraqi oppositionleader's
are put to one side
probity
February 22, 2002 The Guardian Julian Borger in Washington
Like many people in Washington these days, Ahmed Chalabi has a plan to get rid of Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi
opposition leader just needs 11 weeks of training for his followers, anti-tank weapons, air cover, the support of special
forces and some protective gear against chemical oi"biological attack.
Mr Chalabi is confident that he will get all he seeks. In the current political climate, he has been feted from one end
of Washington to the other as the man of the hour.
But the drums of war cannot entirely drown out persistent questions over his integrity. There are som~" in
Washington who doubt that the 57-year-old former mathematician and banker even has a guerrilla force to command
any more, and suggest that his war plan is simply the latest in a series of confidence tricks designed to squeeze
money out of the US government. Many of the doubters work in the state department and the CIA, which view
his Iraqi National Congress (INC) with ill-disguised contempt. But as the resolve to fight President _Saddam
spreads in Washington, Mr Chalabi's adversaries have been on the defensive, while his backers in the Pentagon,
Congress and White House have brushed away the nagging questions - at least for the time being. "
Only days before George Bush's recent bellicose state of the union message, the state department had threatened
to cut off the INC's" funding because of bookkeeping irregularities. But by January 30, the doubts were overtaken
by patriotic resolve. Anyone prepared to fight the Baghdad regime was embraced, and on that very day Mr
Chalabi had his funding restored.
As for his war plan, he said he was "encouraged by the response". Wheels have begun to turn, Mr Chalabi confided,
but he could not give details. "The United States will help us to train and equip light anti-tank battalions, welltrained
and highly mobile. Those people, once on the ground, will be able to defeat Saddam's forces."
It would take 11 weeks to train and equip those forces, he added.
In the course of a 90-minute interview, a confident Mr Chalabi frequently laughed, an,d discussed the defeat of the
400,OOO-strongIraqi army as if it was a mere formality. In his view, President Saddam's army was hollow - packed
with ill-trained conscripts.
Mr Chalabi gave a theoretical example: a rebelincursion across the Kuwaiti border to capture a froritier town~ The
rebel force would be protected from counter-attack by US air power, and within days the key southern city of Basra'
would fall as its garrison mutinied. "Once that happens, our problem will not be finding people - our problem will
be absorbing people," he said. His main concern was retaliation with chemical" or biological weapons, and he
,;"ould want his men to be trained and equipped to protect themselves, he said. '
First of all, however, Mr Chalabi has to survive the doubters
in Washington.
Questions about his probity are part of the problem. Hewas convicted in a Jordanian court about 10 years ago for"
embezzling money from depositors in a banking scandal. More recently, the state department found that abôut half "
of a $4m (£2.8m) disbursement in US funding was not properly accounted for. "
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Mr Chalabi said he was the victim of a setup in Jordan by cronies of the late King Hussein."The accounting issue
was dismissed as the quibbles of a bureaucracy which was ill-suited to a covert war, in which few receipts were
issued. The more serious question, given Washington's stated aim of "regime change", is whether he can rally
opposition forces. "" "
Leith Kubba, who helped Mr Chalabi to found the INC a decade ago, but who left after concerns that it was becoming
a US foreign policy tool, has serious doubts. He believes that the only substantial rebel forces in Iraq are commanded
by the Kurdish Democratic party leader, Massoud Barzani, and the Tehr,an-based Shi'ite deric,
Mohamri1ed Bakr Hakim. "These people dictate the agenda," Mr Kubba said. .
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