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May 05, 2005

Old Crooks Never Die; They Just Go Into Government

You'll recall that good ol' Ahmad Chalabi was appointed acting oil minister of Iraq last week, but he was only to remain in the post until such time as a permanent oil minister could be named.

It was thought on Tuesday that the government had agreed upon a permanent minister, but, lo and behold:

“There was a last minute hitch. Ahmad Chalabi remains acting oil minister,” said Jawad al-Maliki, a senior official in Jaafari’s Dawa Party.

Hmm . . . I wonder what that "last minute hitch" could have been? Well, we know it wasn't pressure from Uncle Sam, who gave the Iraqis sovereignty last June. On the other hand,

Ahmad Chalabi, the one-time Pentagon favorite who fell from grace in Washington amid accusations that he gave U.S. intelligence to Iran, has received a congratulatory call from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about his new Iraqi Cabinet posts.

U.S. officials said Rice called the secular Shi'ite politician on Tuesday to congratulate him on becoming deputy prime minister and acting oil minister in Iraq's first elected government since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Did you know Chalabi was deputy prime minister, too? Yes, this guy--the very one who provided all the bogus intelligence about Saddam Hussein's WMD programs and who likely gave U.S. secrets to Iran--has not one but two posts in the new, "independent" Iraqi government.

Ain't freedom grand?

(Links courtesy Antiwar.com.)

Posted by Mike Tennant at May 5, 2005 10:56 AM

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