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<H1>The House of Chalabi: The Future of Iraq?</H1>
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<TD class=authors>by William Beeman</TD>
<TD class=authors align=right>Released: 20 May 2004</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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<SPAN class=norm>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. <BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>The term “nepotism” comes from the
Italian <I>nepote</I> “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. <BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.
<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>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.
<BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>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.
<BR><BR><BR><I>William O. Beeman teaches anthropology and is Director of Middle
East Studies at Brown University. He is author of the forthcoming </I>Iraq:
State in Search of a Nation.<BR></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<P><FONT face="Arial Black" color=#800080 size=2>----</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=2><FONT face="Arial Black" color=#800080>Mark and
Andrea<BR></FONT></FONT></P>
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