Back to the Neoconservatives (4)
Jihad el Khazen Al-Hayat - 29/12/05//
I hope that Paul Wolfowitz is put on trial some day with the rest of the neoconservative mafia, on charges of killing 100,000 Iraqis and more than 2,000 American soldiers. I think that in the end, he will go on trial, instead of being rewarded for his role in the war against Iraq by being appointed head of the World Bank.
I'm not alone in calling for him to be put on trial, for the same reasons. Many people have begun feeling the same way as I do. I read an article on the internet by Rick Sterling, who proposes assassinating Wolfowitz, just like the reverend Pat Robertson suggested that Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, should be assassinated. Sterling remembered that he opposes the death penalty, so he proposes kneecapping Wolfowitz, mafia-style, and then ends by advocating that Wolfowitz be pelted with eggs and tomatoes.
I don't want anything of this sort. I insist that he be tried along with Douglas Feith, David Wurmser, Richard Perle and the other pillars of the Likudist mafia.
Wolfowitz is the one who brought Lewis Libby to the government. Wolfowitz brought Libby to the Pentagon and the State Department in the 1980s; Libby is done with both institutions now. Libby might implicate his former boss Dick Cheney and others. But the most dangerous thing that Wolfowitz did was to plot, along with Feith, the establishment of the Office of Special Plans at the Pentagon, to provide false intelligence information justifying a war against Iraq.
Wurmser helped Feith in setting up what Mother Jones magazine called "the lie factory," which was run by Deputy Secretary William Luti, and his boss was Abram Shulsky. Everyone believed the information provided by the charlatan-informant Ahmad Chalabi and the rest of the Iraqi National Congress; Chalabi received a $340,000 monthly salary from Iraqi intelligence, even after the war.
As I mentioned in an earlier installment of this series, an investigation has begun with Feith into the falsifying of information about Iraq's alleged WMD and ties to al-Qaida. I believe that the investigation is a serious one, and it should reach Wolfowitz.
Ahmad Chalabi should go on trial in Iraq one day. I call for a fair trial. Today, he continues to insist that he didn't deliberately lie, because he is no longer ready to insist that the information about WMD was correct. The same goes for the other myths spread by enemies of Arabs and Muslims in the Likudnik mafia that Chalabi enthusiastically joined. It's no secret that he promised the "Israelis" at the American Enterprise Institute and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (the security of Israel, not the US) that he would see an exchange of diplomatic relations with Israel when he rules Iraq, and reopen the pipeline from Iraq to Haifa (after destroying Syria along the way).
Whenever I hear Ahmad Chalabi's name, it's always in connection with some scandal or another, beginning with the financial scandals in the Gulf, Lebanon and Jordan. However, his conviction on fraud in the collapse of Petra Bank in Amman and his 20-year prison sentence is easy, compared to what he did to Iraq afterward.
The FBI is now investigating if Chalabi presented deliberately false information about Iraq to American intelligence agencies. However, once again I prefer to see him go on trial in Iraq. Chalabi visited the US in November and denied that he mislead the US government on purpose. I can accuse Ahmad Chalabi of many things, but not stupidity. So I refuse to believe that he believed the information that wasn't believed by the Americans, because they chose to believe information that suited them. They aren't stupid either. It was a case of warmongers who were fellow travelers, each having his own reason.
Ahmad Chalabi ran away the truth at every stop on his recent visit to the US. Arianna Huffington, who went to hear him at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote about the contradiction between the truth in Iraq and Chalabi's comments.
He discussed the armed resistance, which personally I call terror, arguing that there is no sectarian fighting in Iraq, merely acts of violence by individuals. Iraq is on the brink of a civil war, if it hasn't already started, and Chalabi talks about individuals. He described his relationship with Iran as "totally transparent" even though the FBI is investigating whether Chalabi leaked secret information to the Islamic Republic. Chalabi said that Ayatollay Ali Sistani "is not concerned by politics; it's the last thing on his mind." Chalabi didn't need to lie about this, but his nature got the better of him. The worst thing that Chalabi said involved his opinion on the corruption spreading in Iraq. "Ninety five percent of corruption . . . has been eliminated," he said.
The greatest corruption in the history of the world is taking place in Iraq today. There's no way that it can end as long as those benefiting from it are the ones who promoted the war, and conspired to kill Iraqis and destroy their country. An extremist who is not deterred from killing has no fear of engaging in theft.
Frankly, I don't understand this kind of lying. It involves contempt for the listeners, since the truth is as clear as the light of day. Ahmad Chalabi is the one who brought Iraqi dissidents to the Pentagon; these dissidents provided completely false information about chemical and biological weapons, mobile laboratories, and a nuclear program. Chalabi himself confessed, on the PBS program Front Line, that his people had provided the names of people who built the relationship between al-Qaida and the Saddam Hussein regime. Since this relationship did not exist, I don't know how Chalabi can now deny his role in fabricating facts, despite his picture and voice appearing on television.
I don't want to close today's column by engaging in incitement myself, even though it's legal incitement. Ahmad Chalabi told Time magazine that the Military Tribunal in Jordan found him guilty of fraud, and that the Iraqi people trust him because "they know the record of Jordan being the hub of corruption on the basis of Saddam's illicit dealings."
Ahmad Chalabi talks about corruption and accuses the judges who tried him and Jordan with them. This is despite the fact that he was part of a system of rule that was based on foreign arms and was corrupt to the bone. Whatever happens to Iraqis, there's no way that an agent of foreign intelligences services can enjoy their trust; his presence in the Iraqi government is an insult to Iraq.
Thus, I say to King Abdullah of Jordan that any pardon of Chalabi or deal is unacceptable to Jordan and the rule of law in that country. I can't imagine that the King will accept such a thing; national dignity is above any interest. We'll just have to see.
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