Friday, September 02, 2005
Iraqi shenanigans
An intriguing report from "Al Dostoor" that the former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has met with figures from the Association of Muslim Scholars and the Iraqi Islamic Party, and done a deal whereby in exchange for the Sunni support in a new run for the premiership Allawi will work towards the American withdrawal, will stop de-Baathification, and will go easy on "the resistance."
Not that in Iraq you can trust official reports, much less anonymous sources. A few days ago, I mentioned that Ayatollah Sistani has released a statement against federalism. Our special correspondent Haider Aijina now informs me that Sistani has released another statement denying he has ever made the first statement (link in Arabic here).
I never much followed the covert war between the Defence Department on one side and the State Department and the CIA on the other, nor their proxy war in Iraq, but it's interesting to read the above story about Allawi (who was the realists' horse in the Iraqi race) in contrast to this profile of the original neo-con favorite Ahmed Chalabi, who seems to have pretty successfully bounced back into the spotlight recently.
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Not that in Iraq you can trust official reports, much less anonymous sources. A few days ago, I mentioned that Ayatollah Sistani has released a statement against federalism. Our special correspondent Haider Aijina now informs me that Sistani has released another statement denying he has ever made the first statement (link in Arabic here).
I never much followed the covert war between the Defence Department on one side and the State Department and the CIA on the other, nor their proxy war in Iraq, but it's interesting to read the above story about Allawi (who was the realists' horse in the Iraqi race) in contrast to this profile of the original neo-con favorite Ahmed Chalabi, who seems to have pretty successfully bounced back into the spotlight recently.
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