General Says 2 Iraq Politicians Have Ties to Iran
THOM SHANKER
NY Times
February 19, 2010
WASHINGTON — Gen. Ray Odierno, the senior American commander in Iraq, said Tuesday that two influential Iraqi politicians now involved in blocking candidates in the parliamentary election next month had close links to Iran, which the general said was trying to undermine the vote.
General Odierno was unusually blunt in publicly expressing concerns about the actions of the two Iraqis: Ahmed Chalabi, who was a confidant of Bush administration officials in the prelude to the 2003 invasion but now is perceived as having supplied false intelligence to the United States; and Ali Faisal al-Lami, suspected of involvement in murderous activities of Shiite militants, including a bombing in Baghdad, accusations that he denies.
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The Secret War In Iraq: Is Ahmad Chalabi an agent for Tehran?
Melik Kaylan
Forbes
February 19, 2010
I see that Ahmad Chalabi, my frequent host in past visits to Baghdad, stands accused of colluding with Iran again. General Odierno, the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, recently said Dr.Chalabi and his colleague Faisal Al Lami were “clearly influenced by Iran.” The general said that Al Lami “has been involved in very nefarious activities in Iraq for some time. It is disappointing that someone like him is put in charge of the de-Baathification commission.”
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
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I know nothing of Mr. Al Lami and have never met him, but apparently he works closely with Ahmad Chalabi. General Odierno accused both of being in close contact with the leader of Iran’s paramilitary brigades, the Quds forces, who train and supply hostile Shiite militias in Iraq.
To give the reader context, the issue here concerns Shiite politicians working via government committees to exclude Sunni candidates from running in the upcoming Iraqi elections. The process looks suspiciously like the one oft used by Iranian mullahs to vet out “moderates” before their own elections. I would bet, though, that most of the Sunni names blocked by Chalabi’s committee have no kinship to moderates. Two weeks ago I wrote in a column here that it was easy to see why Ahmad Chalabi and other Shiites oppose the candidacy of anyone formerly associated with Saddam–that it was a matter of life and death as former Baathists are constantly trying to kill their rivals in government.
Nevertheless, you cannot have a serious election with the Sunnis not represented. Nor is there any excuse for colluding with Iran to destabilize Iraq, if that is indeed what Dr. Chalabi did. His Washington adviser, Francis Brooke, was quoted in the Washington Times as saying that “General Odierno showed a profound lack of understanding of Iraqi politics.” Mr. Brooke went on to say that “every senior Iraqi politician, particularly the Kurdish and Shi’ite parties, has diplomatic relations with Iran, and concerning Ali Faisal al-Lami, General Odierno acknowledges that he had no evidence to demonstrate this charge.”
Ahmed Chalabi, among other telling associations, attended the Bilderberg meetings in 2006 in Ottawa Canada:
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