Iraq PM candidate quits race (now down to Chalabi vs. Jaafari)

[Cocoa]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=501510


BAGHDAD, Iraq Feb 15, 2005 — The contest to be Iraq's next prime minister narrowed Tuesday after the French-educated finance minister removed himself from consideration in the ranks of the Shiite alliance, making it a two-man race, party spokesmen said.

The United Iraqi Alliance, which has provisionally won more than half the seats in the new National Assembly, has been left with two main contenders, interim Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Ahmad Chalabi, the former(sic) Pentagon favorite.

Representatives for both men claimed their candidate was the front-runner.

More…

[MARALE]

1. Caferi Seems Most Possible Shiite Alliance Candidate for PM

http://www.zaman.com/?bl=hotnews&alt=&trh=20050215&hn=16600

A top-level Shiite source in a statement issued earlier today has said that the race for the prime ministry continues; however, since the Dawa Party insists on a candidate the United Iraq Alliance seems in favor of Caferi.

I am confused about this

[Igel]

8. Caferi = Jaafari

Turkish uses essentially the same alphabet as we do, but some of the letters represent different sounds. Since Arabic uses a different one, how you write the sound depends on what you think the Latin letters mean.

If you went to a Russian source if would be in Cyrillic, Äæààôàðè, and if you transliterated it into Latin letters it'd be "Dzhaafari".

[MARALE]

9. Thanks!

I wondered about that. I wonder if foriegn newspapers are even talking about Chalabi, I look at them once in a while, but haven't really seen anything about his being a viable canidate.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. I read a theory that the Bushites intentionally distanced themselves from

Chalabi so as to make him more likely to be able to get a spot in the Iraqi government.
They are so evil and devious, I would not put that past them.
It would be so disgusting to think that Chalabi would now end up in the Iraqi government after all the death and destruction that man has brought down on his own country.

[Cocoa]

4. I have ALWAYS been convinced of that

the story of the U.S. military's raid on Chalabi's office was fishy, and the whores were not nearly skeptical enough about it.

[arikara]

5. Me too, it stank of a set-up

when it was obvious that their man wouldn't be accepted by the Iraqis they deviously made him acceptable.

[papau]

3. So will Iran's boy - Ahmad Chalabi - be our man in Baghdad! LOL

This would be funny if it were not so sad.

[Disturbed]

6. He fits right in with Bush Junta

He is a con artist and a criminal. He considers himself a "hero in error". His statement regarding the bogus info his informants gave the OSP, a group C. Powell jokingly called the Gestapo. I suspect the raid on his house and office was to find any of the two tons of Saddam documents his team snatched up after the fall of Baghdad. None were found. Most Iraqis loath A. Chalabi. He better have great security.

[applegrove]

7. How'd he get out? n/t

[LynnTheDem]

10. HOW the F did CHALABI "Thanks, suckers!" become a "main contender"????!!

Jebus F*cking Cripes!!!

[Cocoa]

11. why is he not in prison?

the first thing he did when he arrived in Baghdad was to steal a house in the Mansour district.

Then he looted a bank (and got angry when U.S. troops accidentally shot at his men, for which the U.S. military apologized).

[cvoogt]

12. Chalabi may be a crook, but at least we own him ....

or so administration may think. He passed info from Iran to the US and helped jumpstart the Iraq War based on faulty intel-lie-gence, then we distance ourselves from him and say that a pro-Tehran gov't in Iraq is the last thing the US intended, and all the while Chalabi's trying to be PM of the Shi'ite faction, something I think the admin's trying to keep at arm's length with one arm while secretly embracing it with the other.

I say "we" because the rest of the world does view the actions of the US as sanctioned by most Americans now that Nov2 is behind us.

[acmavm]

13. Oh my, down to another guy and CHALABI??? Hells bells, if this just

ain't a roaring kick in the pants. The guy who lied and is responsible (along with his other lying buddies) for the deaths of thousands and thousands of innocent people is in line to end up running the joint (so to speak)???? I can't quite put into words how revolting that whole situation seems to me.

Wonder how the Iraqi people feel about it.

[Disturbed]

14. Jordan has criminal charges on him.

If he ever leaves Iraq will they snag him and put in prison?

Tenet was trying to get A. Chalabi deposed but the Bush Junta nixed that. I feel that is one of the reasons that he got fired. Then shrub pins a medal on him. Tenet went along with the phony WMD reports but had a vendetta on A. Chalabi. Tenet could have been prosecuted for lying to Congress and the following but was let off the hook. What did he promise in return?

Rumsfailed Admitted to Violating Geneva Convention

Rumsfailed admitted in public on TV that when CIA Director Tenet requested that an Iraqi prisoner be sent to a secret Afghan/US Prison that Rumsfailed did so. After four months a DOD Attorney stated that this was an illegal act. Rumsfailed then ordered that this prisoner be sent back to Abu Graihib but the prisoner was purposefully not listed at that location, also an illegal act. Rumsfeld also admitted to signing orders for tougher interogation methods which violated the Geneva Conventions.

[KamaAina]

15. Please fly commercial, Mr. Jaafari

How convenient it would be for Bush**co/PNAC if Jaafari were to meet with an untimely demise in the next few weeks... :scared: :tinfoilhat:

[54anickel]

16. Chalabi!!! So, how do the dots connect with this story?.....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1236988

US fights back against 'rule by clerics'

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GB15Ak02.html

Asia Times Online has learned that in a highly clandestine operation, the US has procured Pakistan-manufactured weapons, including rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, ammunition, rockets and other light weaponry. Consignments have been loaded in bulk onto US military cargo aircraft at Chaklala airbase in the past few weeks. The aircraft arrived from and departed for Iraq.

The US-armed and supported militias in the south will comprise former members of the Ba'ath Party, which has already split into three factions, only one of which is pro-Saddam Hussein. They would be expected to receive assistance from pro-US interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord.

A military analyst familiar with strategic and proxy operations commented that there is a specific reason behind procuring arms from Pakistan, rather than acquiring US-made ones.

"A similar strategy was adopted in Afghanistan during the initial few years of the anti-USSR resistance movement where guerrillas were supplied with Chinese-made AK-47 rifles , Egyptian and German-made G-3 rifles. Similarly, other arms, like anti-aircraft guns, short-range missiles and mortars, were also procured by the US from different countries and supplied to Pakistan, which handed them over to the guerrillas," the analyst maintained.

snip>

Notably, Ahmad Chalabi, a leading secular Shi'ite candidate in the Iraqi elections, has called for autonomy for the Shi'ite south, which contains some of the world's largest oil fields. Chalabi, a former US favorite who fell out with Washington after the 2003 invasion, said the move would ensure a fairer share of wealth for a region that provides the bulk of Iraqi revenue but receives only a fraction of state spending. The mainly Shi'ite southern provinces of Amara, Nasiriya and Basra are Iraq's poorest, Chalabi said.

[aikido15]

17. Chalabi? The criminal that's still wanted in Syria?

:wtf: