[Media-watch] {SPAM?} New Iraqi government - nepotism in action?

[Mark and Andrea]

 http://agenceglobal.com/Article.asp?Id=128
The House of Chalabi: The Future of Iraq?
      by William Beeman Released: 20 May 2004

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
On May 20, U.S. forces raided the offices of Ahmad Chalabi, seizing
documents and computers. Conventional wisdom is that Mr. Chalabi has now
been discredited as a future Iraqi leader. Appearances are deceptive,
however. In a few months Ahmad Chalabi will be the next ruler of Iraq,
starting what looks to be a hereditary regime.

He is establishing himself in all of the key structures of government from
his position on the Iraqi Governing Council including the Council's economic
and finance committee, which he heads. He also heads the De-Baathification
Commission and has been able to appoint the minister of oil, the central
bank governor, the minister of finance, the trade minister, the head of the
trade bank and the designated managing director of the largest commercial
bank in Iraq.

These officials are all beholden to him, but to make sure that his support
in the future government will be solid, Chalabi has created extra insurance
by installing his relatives everywhere in the post June 30th governmental
structure, in true Middle Eastern fashion. They are the most loyal employees
of all, and his potential successors. First and foremost among them are his
nephews.

The term “nepotism” comes from the Italian nepote “nephew.” Mr. Chalabi has
nephews galore. If anyone tries to prevent him from his ruthless ascendancy
to power, his nephews are there to provide the tools to destroy his enemies.
He has them well positioned in the judiciary, in the military and in finance
to anchor all of his other appointees. After June 30, when there is little
or no competing administrative organization in Iraq, such as the Coalition
Provisional Authority, it will be hard to prevent Chalabi from assuming
power with such strong family backing.

Ahmad Chalabi's nephew, Salem Chalabi, covers the legal branch of the family
’s future empire. He has been put in charge of the trial of Saddam Hussein.
Salem is an important link to U.S. officials. He is a member of the New York
Bar and owns the Baghdad-based Iraqi International Law Group, with partner
Marc Zell, an Israeli citizen and West Bank settler who, along with Douglas
Feith, the American undersecretary of Defense for Planning, and prominent
neoconservative, formed Zell and Feith, a Jerusalem-based law firm. Salem
Chalabi wrote the first drafts of the Iraqi transitional administrative law.

Ahmad Chalabi obtained access to 25 tons of Saddam’s documents as part of
his role as head of the De-Baathification Commission. Salem’s role as Saddam
Hussein’s prosecutor has given him access to these documents and more.
Hidden in the records are countless bits of information that will allow
Salem and his uncle to blackmail anyone and everyone who proves to be an
obstacle to Ahmad Chalabi’s assumption of power. Lest one think that Ahmad
Chalabi is incapable of this, he has already done so.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan al-Muasher in an interview on NBC's Meet
the Press on April 27, 2003, condemned Chalabi as divisive figure, saying
“Ahmad Chalabi does not have credibility, either inside Iraq or in the
region.” Muasher’s words are no surprise, since Chalabi is still under
indictment in Jordan for embezzlement. Ahmad Chalabi’s response was to
threaten to expose the Jordanian Royal Family by pointing out their
connections to Saddam Hussein. The Jordanians immediately stopped their
public criticism.

Military affairs are taken care of by another Ahmad Chalabi nephew, his
sister’s son, Ali Allawi, named by American viceroy Paul Bremer as new
defense minister for the post-June 30 government. Earlier, he was interim
trade minister. Ali’s cousin Iyad Allawi also sits on the Interim Governing
Council with Ahmad Chalabi.

Financial affairs are handled by Mohamed Chalabi, son of Ahmad Chalabi’s
oldest brother Rushdi. Rushdi Chalabi was a cabinet minister before the
revolution that toppled the British-backed monarchy in 1958. Mohamed Chalabi
arranges his uncle’s assets in Washington, where he is manger of the Petra
International Banking Corporation, which may have been started with funds
from Petra Bank in Amman, from which Ahmad Chalabi is suspected to have
embezzled $70-80 million. Petra International bankrolled the partners of an
American based company that provided both oil-field equipment and security
at a combined charge of more than $400 million.

Chalabi nepotism of a more distant sort also pervades the post-June 30
government. The Minister of Interior, Nouri Badran is married to the sister
of Iyad Allawi, defense minister Ali Allawi’s cousin. Badran joined the Ba’
th Party after a 1968 July political coup; an act that helped him get
transferred from the Ministry of Social Affairs to the Foreign Ministry,
where he worked as a diplomat until the 1990s, when he joined the
opposition.

Fadhil Chalabi, Ahmad Chalabi’s cousin, and former Oil Minister, now is
Executive Director of the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London. Before
the American Invasion of Iraq in 2003, Fadhil Chalabi arranged meetings with
major oil companies to determine the post-invasion Iraqi oil policy. These
meetings included Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, Iraq’s post June 30th Oil Minister,
whose choice was overseen by Ahmad Chalabi.

Chalabi’s younger nephews have had interim tasks involving disrupting
meetings, harassing Chalabi’s enemies, and generally inveigling themselves
into the nooks and crannies of the provisional government.

Now the actual composition of the post-June 30 government is in the hands of
United Nations Ambassador, Lakhdar Brahimi. Mr. Brahimi, an Algerian, serves
as Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General, a post he
assumed on 1 January 2004. Ambassador Brahimi dislikes and distrusts Ahmad
Chalabi, and is trying to exclude him from the post June 30 government.
First he declared that the provisional government would consist largely of
“technocrats.” Then to be more explicit, he announced that no potential
office-seeker would be appointed.

Ahmad Chalabi, sensing danger, publicly attacked Ambassador Brahimi’s
credentials, and then, on the CNN television program, Late Edition, on
Sunday, May 9, announced to journalist Wolf Blitzer that he had no intention
of seeking electoral office, one assumes, to remove any overt impediments to
his being appointed. The U.S. military raid on his offices were tantamount
to a political gift. As Iraqis become more disaffected with the American
Occupation, Mr. Chalabi's opposition to the United States may actually win
him some supporters in the long run.

He has laid such a complete foundation for his rise to power that such
insincere dissimulation clearly won’t be necessary. With all of those
relatives and other Chalabi appointments already guaranteed prominent
positions in the post June 30 government, even if Ambassador Brahimi
succeeds in excluding Mr. Chalabi in the short term, he is excellently
positioned to take over in January 2005. Then, the banking, legal and
military connections of those supportive relatives will guarantee U.S.
support.

The fly in the ointment is that Mr. Chalabi cannot really rule, even if he
gains office. Unfortunately for Chalabi, the Jordanian foreign minister was
deadly accurate--despite his newfound opposition to the United States the
Iraqi public will not accept him. However, the United States seems to know
what to do. Its Army will likely remain in Iraq to guarantee his continued
rule and prevent a civil war. Mr. Chalabi and the U.S. Army will find that
the same problems of national disunity that plagued Saddam Hussein are still
present in Iraq, and can only be contained with heavy-handed controls.

Having Mr. Chalabi in power will demonstrate once and for all that the
United States never intended that Iraqis attain “freedom.” What America will
have done is to first destroy the nation and then establish another
dictatorial familial dynasty.


William O. Beeman teaches anthropology and is Director of Middle East
Studies at Brown University. He is author of the forthcoming Iraq: State in
Search of a Nation.

----

Mark and Andrea


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.stir.ac.uk/pipermail/media-watch/attachments/20040530/c0fb4b6b/attachment.htm