Wie wordt de nieuwe president van Irak ?

[Darwin]

Als er iemand genoemd wordt om na de interim-regering Irak te leiden, valt dikwijls de naam Chalabi.

Maar is deze man, die zich graag op de voorgrond lijkt te plaatsen en voortdurend kritiek heeft op de aanpak van de Amerikanen en Britten, nu inderdaad de geknipte man die de grote verzoener moet worden voor alle Irakezen in het post-Saddamtijdperk?

Laat ons even meelezen met wat ene zeker Kareem Fahim over hem te vertellen heeft :



Iraq's Man Who Would Be King
[size=5]Recalling Ahmed Chalabi[/size]
by Kareem Fahim
April 9 - 15, 2003

AMMAN, JORDAN—With the entrance of coalition troops into Baghdad, all the battle talk is giving way to speculation about post-war Iraq, most of it focused squarely on the troubling issue of what kind of government will be put in place, and for how long. Despite White House assurances last weekend that domestic Iraqis will play a preponderant role, no one believes that the ambitions and influence of Ahmed Chalabi, the wealthy, charismatic head of the London-based Iraqi National Congress (INC), who until recently was regarded as the front-runner in any future prime minister stakes, will be quashed. Chalabi has been lobbying American officials for the post, in one way or another, for a decade. At press time, he had finally flown back to the country he left in 1958, to the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah, where a projected 700 of his fighters are helping the coalition war effort. The INC fighters, according to statements by the U.S. Army, will form the basis for Iraq's future army.

Chalabi's relationship with key figures in the Bush administration has been noted often, and his supporters are said to include Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, and especially Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz. Less cozy are his dealings with the CIA, and especially the State Department, both of which oppose any real leadership position in post-war Iraq for Chalabi and the exile groups he represents. This disapproval, along with international calls (including British) to broaden administration of the country beyond the exile groups, may explain the White House's distance from the INC as the details about post-war plans start to trickle out.

Chalabi told CBS's 60 Minutes last Sunday, "I'm not a candidate for any position in Iraq, and I don't seek an office. I think my role ends with the liberation of the country." Whether he has flown to Nasiriyah for a vacation remains a question. The State Department will say only that "Chalabi is a private citizen," and can do as he pleases.

But U.S. government sources told the Voice that Chalabi is still very much a Wolfowitz favorite, and that it is hard to imagine he'll be sidelined in any new government. Recent reports suggest that Chalabi may have found a post as an adviser to the post-war finance ministry, seemingly a useful place for the MIT and University of Chicago-educated mathematician, whose business experience includes starting what was, at one time, Jordan's second largest bank.

But it is precisely this business experience, and Chalabi's indictment in 1992 for embezzlement and fraud (among other charges), that worry many in the Jordanian financial community who have had dealings with him. The details of this story are of, course, in dispute, with Chalabi saying charges brought against him in the wake of his Petra Bank's collapse in 1989 were "political," and were due in part to his opposition to Saddam Hussein, who Chalabi says put pressure on Jordan's King Hussein to close Petra Bank and indict him and his associates. But Jordanians willing to talk about the scandal, like Mohammed Said Nabulsi, who, as former head of Jordan's Central Bank, had to clean up Chalabi's financial mess, say it was a mess purely of Chalabi's making. At best, these men say, he was grossly negligent, at a tremendous cost not only to the Jordanian economy, but to thousands of shareholders in Petra Bank, and at worst, in the words of Nabulsi, he "was a crook who absolutely cooked the books to hide his crimes."

A spokesman for Chalabi could not be reached by press time.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


"I knew Chalabi socially, and usually saw him at some third person's dinner parties," says Jordan's former deputy prime minister, Jawad Al-Anani. Al-Anani frequently refers to Chalabi as a kind of genius, a man who would pepper political dinner talk with discussions of mathematical principles. In a phone interview with the Voice, Al-Anani's recollections of the scandal fall somewhere between the strong opinions held by Chalabi's enemies and supporters, and he seems unconvinced that Chalabi is the crook many here in Jordan have made him out to be.

Despite this, he says, at the time Chalabi was running the bank, the two didn't really get along. "He was a political animal, a man who would try and influence government policy in ways that were sometimes . . . immature," says Al-Anani.

Chalabi was so well connected, says Fahad Al-Fanak, a columnist for the Jordanian daily Al-Ra'i, that he finds Chalabi's claims to have been the victim of a political conspiracy hard to swallow. "If politics was at work in this case," he says, "it only worked in Chalabi's favor."

In 1988, Jordan was in the midst of a severe financial crisis, running chronic budget deficits and defaulting on its external loans. The value of the dinar had plunged, and as a result, banks in Jordan were asked to deposit 30 percent of their foreign exchange holdings with the Central Bank. Of all the banks in Jordan, according to Nabulsi, only Chalabi's Petra Bank was unable to comply.

"So Chalabi tried to buy dollars to cover himself, running around feverishly to meet the demand for foreign exchange," says Al-Anani. "He used to sell dollars in the market in a show of bravado." A new government came to power in 1989, and by then, Petra Bank's difficulties were totally exposed. The bank was closed, and though the depositors were paid off, several thousand shareholders lost millions. Chalabi fled the country, allegedly in the trunk of a friend's car.

"I can't tell you how much he embezzled, he and his brothers," says Nabulsi. "It was not a mistake. He doesn't make mistakes." Nabulsi admits that investigations into the bank's finances, and Chalabi's improprieties, were never able to determine how much, if any, he stole, and how much he simply lost. Nonetheless, the damage to Jordan was done. "The impact was much, much greater than the Enron case," says Nabulsi. Half a billion dollars was lost, some 10 percent, he says, of Jordan's gross national product at the time. To the charges that the case against Chalabi was political, Nabulsi says simply, "It is like Enron telling the government that Bush was out to get them."

The Petra Bank scandal is not the only black mark on Chalabi's résumé. In January of last year, the State Department suspended funding to the INC, citing "financial management and internal control weaknesses." While the move may highlight State's discomfort with Chalabi's group, it is hardly an isolated accusation. Laith Kubba, a former INC spokesperson, told the Financial Times in December that in the early 1990s, when the group was receiving up to $325,000 a month from the CIA, there was "zero transparency about the INC's finances."

Some have suggested that if the Jordanian government hadn't closed down Petra Bank, Ahmed Chalabi would perhaps have been able to make good on the bank's losses, that he simply had many pots cooking at once, and that the government's intervention screwed up his grand design. Jawad Al-Anani isn't sure.

"I distinguish between a criminal act and bad judgment," he says. "I found that he was ambitious. He built a huge structure, a stalagmite configuration of companies, if you will. I was inclined to believe he did not have a sinister plan to cause the economy to collapse.

"Still," he continues, "the whole thing left people in deep financial trouble. The man was plowing in other people's lands, and no one was stopping him."

Al-Anani believes that if the rumors that Chalabi will be assisting with Iraq's finances are true, it's not necessarily terrible news. "If he has a good team, people who are concerned with the nitty-gritty, he'll be alright," he says. "He's a strategist, and he has a good mind, but he is bad with the nitty-gritty."

Nabulsi thinks this view is generous. "Listen, it's not my problem anymore," he says. "I think he won't be able to walk in the Iraqi street," says the former Central Bank chief. "Iraqis know about him. They know everything."

Al-Fanak agrees. "Responsible people know about him, but I think the Americans deserve him. It's good for everyone to see the thief representing American foreign policy."


http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0315/fahim.php

[Doomy]

Da's alvast geen goede start voor het Irak na Saddam.

[d00msd8y]

Saddam komt terug

Hoe kan je anders al die verschillende volkeren in vrede laten samenleven.
Door de Amerikanen?
Die vernielen eerst alles, ze bieden geen bescherming aan de burgers zodat iedereen met wapens zit rond te lopen en te schieten, en nu willen ze ook al Amerikaanse politie-agenten naar Iraq sturen.
Dit zal een soort 2de Amerika worden, je bent verplicht om een wapen te dragen en als je je niet goed voeld dan mag je iedereen neerknallen. 8)

[Patriot!]

Sahaf

En waarom geen Monarchie? Daar was eerst toch sprake van, zou misschien ideaal zijn om al die bevolkingsgroepen te verenigen...

[Pat]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Patriot

Sahaf

En waarom geen Monarchie? Daar was eerst toch sprake van, zou misschien ideaal zijn om al die bevolkingsgroepen te verenigen...

Da's zeker ideaal zoals de Sjah vroeger in buurland Perzië (nu Irak). Die elimineerde of martelde ook zijn tegenstanders. Vrije meningsuiting was onmogelijk toen. Uiteraard is de toestand nog 10 maal erger sinds de komst van de Mullahs.

Ondertussen leeft zijn zoon in ballingschap in Italië. Van zodra er een revolutie in Iran uitbreekt zal hij zijn plaats als troonopvolger opeisen. Het is ook zijn wens om de bevolkingsgroepen te 'herenigen'. Welke garanties heeft het volk van Iran? Misschien wordt ook hij een despoot net zoals zijn vader?

[Darwin]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Patriot

Sahaf

Die draagt voor 100% mijn goedkeuring weg.

Hij is een voorbeeld van hoe humor als universele waarde boven alle menselijke verdeeldheid en overtuigingen uitstijgt.

[Darwin]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Pat

Da's zeker ideaal zoals de Sjah vroeger in buurland Perzië (nu Irak). Die elimineerde of martelde ook zijn tegenstanders. Vrije meningsuiting was onmogelijk toen. Uiteraard is de toestand nog 10 maal erger sinds de komst van de Mullahs.

Ondertussen leeft zijn zoon in ballingschap in Italië. Van zodra er een revolutie in Iran uitbreekt zal hij zijn plaats als troonopvolger opeisen. Het is ook zijn wens om de bevolkingsgroepen te 'herenigen'. Welke garanties heeft het volk van Iran? Misschien wordt ook hij een despoot net zoals zijn vader?

Ik heb enkele weken op VRT nog een documentaire gezien over de Sjah.

Die was helemaal niet de tiran zoals jij die afschildert.

Hij was eerder een revolutionair die zijn land zo snel mogelijk de 21st eeuw wilde binnenleiden.

Door zijn onhandigheid en ondoortastendheid gaf hij echter vrij spel aan zijn tegenstanders. Zo leverde hij al zijn trouwe medestanders aan de Ajatollahs uit. In plaats van de Khomeini's met krachtige hand uit te roeien gaf hij hen Perzië cadeau.

[kiezel]

Ik heb geen idee wie er president van Irak zal worden maar ik gok erop dat hij een snor zal hebben...

[Paulus de Boskabouter]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door kiezel

Ik heb geen idee wie er president van Irak zal worden maar ik gok erop dat hij een snor zal hebben...

PAULUS! 8)

[Jan van den Berghe]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Patriot

En waarom geen Monarchie? Daar was eerst toch sprake van, zou misschien ideaal zijn om al die bevolkingsgroepen te verenigen...

Waarom moeten die bevolkingsgroepen in een kunstmatige staat verenigd blijven? Heel het Middenoosten is op een arbitraire manier in staten verdeeld: nergens valt een staatsgrens samen met een volkerengrens.

[Pelgrim]

Zoals met Europa gebeurt is, Jan.

[Jan van den Berghe]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Darwin

Die was helemaal niet de tiran zoals jij die afschildert.

Hij was eerder een revolutionair die zijn land zo snel mogelijk de 21st eeuw wilde binnenleiden.

Door zijn onhandigheid en ondoortastendheid gaf hij echter vrij spel aan zijn tegenstanders. Zo leverde hij al zijn trouwe medestanders aan de Ajatollahs uit. In plaats van de Khomeini's met krachtige hand uit te roeien gaf hij hen Perzië cadeau.

Maar ook het Westen gaat hierbij niet vrijuit: Frankrijk bijvoorbeeld nam Khomeini op en van daaruit kon die man heel de strijd tegen de sjah organiseren.

Het klopt inderdaad dat de sjah zijn land wou moderniseren en in die richting al goed op weg was: vrouwen hadden stemrecht gekregen en konden voortaan een beroep uitoefenen, tevens wou hij Iran uitbouwen tot een seculiere staat. Met tegenstanders ging hij echter niet zacht om en door een te doorgetrokken beleid haalde hij de haat van de conservatieve islamitische bevolking over zich.

http://www.rezapahlavi.org/

[Jan van den Berghe]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Pelgrim

Zoals met Europa gebeurt is, Jan.

Dat is inderdaad maar al te waar. Frankrijk is in dat opzicht een volkomen kunstmatig land, een samenraapsel van volkeren.

[Dimitri]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Jan van den Berghe

Waarom moeten die bevolkingsgroepen in een kunstmatige staat verenigd blijven? Heel het Middenoosten is op een arbitraire manier in staten verdeeld: nergens valt een staatsgrens samen met een volkerengrens.

Maar dat kaartje geeft al aan waarom Irak voorlopig nog wel zal moeten blijven: er zijn grote overgangsgebieden tussen de bevolkingsgroepen.

[Darwin]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Dimitri

Maar dat kaartje geeft al aan waarom Irak voorlopig nog wel zal moeten blijven: er zijn grote overgangsgebieden tussen de bevolkingsgroepen.

Dat zijn nu eenmaal de zegeningen van de "multiculturele samenleving": ellende verzekerd tot in der eeuwigheid.

[Dimitri]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Darwin

Dat zijn nu eenmaal de zegeningen van de "multiculturele samenleving": ellende verzekerd tot in der eeuwigheid.

Mwa, niet zo somber, dat kan best nog goedkomen denk ik. Als er maar duidelijke grenzen worden getrokken tussen verschillende ethnische gebieden. Dat zal even tijd nodig hebben, maar de eeuwigheid is wel weer erg lang, hè.

[TomB]

UR, Iraq (AP) - A U.S.-sponsored forum that brought Iraqi opposition leaders together to shape the country's postwar government began Tuesday with a U.S. promise not to rule Iraq and concluded with an agreement to meet again in 10 days.

Meeting in the biblical birthplace of the prophet Abraham, delegates from Iraq's many factions discussed the role of religion in the future government and ways to rebuild the country. But some Shiite Muslim groups boycotted the meeting and thousands protested nearby.

Retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, who will head the U.S.-led interim administration in Iraq, opened the conference under a golden-colored tent at Tallil air base, close to the 4,000-year-old ziggurat at Ur, a terraced-pyramid temple of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.

"What better birthday can a man have than to begin it not only where civilization began but where a free Iraq and a democratic Iraq will begin today?" said Garner, who turned 65 Tuesday and wore a twin American and Iraqi flag pin on his blue shirt.


White House envoy Zalmay Khalilzad told delegates that the United States has "no interest, absolutely no interest, in ruling Iraq."

"We want you to establish your own democratic system based on Iraqi traditions and values," Khalilzad said. "I urge you to take this opportunity to cooperate with each other."

Participants included Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites from inside the country and others who spent years in exile. U.S. officials invited the groups, which picked their own representatives.

Many Iraqis boycotted the meeting in opposition to U.S. plans to install Garner atop an interim administration. Thousands of Shiites - who constitute Iraq's most populous religious group but were repressed under Saddam Hussein - demonstrated in nearby Nasiriyah, chanting "No to America and no to Saddam!"

"Iraq needs an Iraqi interim government. Anything other than this tramples the rights of the Iraqi people and will be a return to the era of colonization," said Abdul Aziz Hakim, a leader of the largest Iraqi Shiite group, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

U.S. officials hope more Iraqis join the process and stressed that this was just the first of many such meetings in Iraq. The meeting concluded with the delegates voting by show of hands to meet again in 10 days.

A national conference is planned to select the interim administration, perhaps within weeks, a senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.

The interim administration could begin handing power back to Iraqi officials within three to six months, but forming a government will take longer, said Maj. Gen. Tim Cross, the top British member of Garner's team.

"One has to go through the process of building from the bottom up, allowing the leadership to establish itself, and then the election process to go through and so forth," Cross said. "That full electoral process may well take longer."

Garner's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance is charged with coordinating humanitarian assistance, rebuilding infrastructure shattered by years of war and U.N. sanctions, and gradually handing back power to Iraqis leading a democratically elected government.

Tuesday's meeting was the first step toward that goal after the ouster of Saddam.

Sheik Ayad Jamal Al Din, a Shiite religious leader from Nasiriyah, urged the delegates to craft a secular government, according to a pool report. But Nassar Hussein Musawi, a schoolteacher, disagreed: "Those who would like to separate religion from the state are simply dreaming," he said.

Iraqi exile Hatem Mukhliss quoted President John F. Kennedy's exhortation, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," and called on Iraqis to write a constitution, establish a legal system and consider what role the army should play.

He asked coalition representatives to address problems of security, electricity and water in Iraq and help rebuild destroyed and looted hospitals.

"Saddam reduced the country to such a state that it was necessary for people to sell off personal possessions," Mukhliss said. "Now it's time to take our country back."

There are already tensions between the United States and some Iraqi factions.

Kurdish groups appear unwilling to compromise on their demand to expand the border of their autonomous area to include the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and Kurdish parts of the city of Mosul.

That could pose a problem for the United States, because Turkey worries that Kurdish control of Kirkuk could lead to aspirations for independence and in turn encourage separatist Kurds in Turkey.

Iraqi opposition leaders fear the United States is trying to force Ahmed Chalabi, head of the London-based umbrella Iraqi National Congress, on them as leader of a new Iraqi administration.

Chalabi was the first top Iraqi opposition leader to be airlifted by the U.S. military into southern Iraq as the fighting wound down, and he and other top members of his group plan to meet soon in Baghdad. U.S. officials said Chalabi was brought in because he offered forces to the coalition.

Neither Chalabi nor many other leaders of anti-Saddam groups attended Tuesday's meeting, but they sent delegates.

Iraqis protesting the conference said it did not represent their interests. The protesters held banners written in English and Arabic saying the "Hawza," or the Shiite religious seminary in Najaf, represents them.

Even some of those at the meeting said they did not want Garner leading the interim administration.

"We will press for any Iraqi civilian administration regardless of what the Americans say. An administration by Garner is not acceptable," said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, an Iraqi physician and opposition activist.

He said American officials have outlined what Garner's administration would look like: Each ministry would be headed by an American, either military or civilian. Each minister would have two American deputies and eight American advisers, plus four Iraqi advisers from inside the country and four Iraqi exiles.

Ze zijn er nog lang niet uit, en hoe goed de intenties ook mogen zijn, als ze daar een top gaan installeren van Amerikanen met 'advisors', is het gedoemd om te mislukken. Me dunkt dat daar een groot aantal mensen op voorhand een positie voor zichzelf hebben gecreeerd. uppydog:

[Darwin]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Dimitri

Mwa, niet zo somber, dat kan best nog goedkomen denk ik. Als er maar duidelijke grenzen worden getrokken tussen verschillende ethnische gebieden. Dat zal even tijd nodig hebben, maar de eeuwigheid is wel weer erg lang, hè.

Dat is het juist. Er zijn daar geen duidelijke grenzen.

Anders was het een heel simpele zaak geweest. Het zijn op de kaart niet de donkergeel en donkergroen gekleurde, grotendeels monoculturele gebieden, maar wel de lichtgroen en lichtgeel gekleurde multiculturele gebieden die voor de ellende zorgen.

Anders was het simpel geweest: Irak opdelen in drie nieuwe landen en klaar is kees. Maar dat is het dus helaas niet.

[George]

De president van Irak is er al, de vraag moet zijn, wie word de gouverneur van deze staat?

[Pelgrim]

Geniaal!