The Counter-deception Blog

Meanwhile, Iraqi oil officials quoted by Dow Jones said yesterday that the deputy prime minister Ahmed Chalabi would take over the oil ministry, replacing Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum, who has taken a month's leave.

Sunni lead mass Iraq poll protests
By Steve Negus, Iraq Correspondent, and Jan Cienski in Warsaw
Published: December 28 2005 02:00 Last updated: December 28 2005 02:00

and the Kurdish parties have maintained their iron grip on the south and north respectively, but with 89 per cent of votes counted in the Baghdad melting pot, both Dr Allawi and his arch rival and one-time Pentagon darling, Ahmed Chalabi, face marginalisation….Dr Allawi's secular coalition, the Iraqi List, scored 14 per cent and way behind was Dr Chalabi, whose paltry vote in the capital, less than 0.5 per cent, could deny him a slot in the first round of seat allocation in the new assembly.

US hopes of secular Iraqi state fade away
Posted: 12/22 From: Source By Paul McGeough Chief Herald Correspondent in Baghdad
December 21, 2005

Former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and Ahmed Chalabi are being backed by the US. …Allawi, a secular Shiite, former Baathist and a well known CIA asset who assisted in the planning and preparation of the US invasion of Iraq, was installed by the Bush administration as the interim Prime Minister in June 2004. …Among many Iraqis, Allawi's reputation for brutality is such that he is referred to as "Saddam without the moustache". …The Iraqi National Congress (INC) of Ahmed Chalabi is also being promoted as an alternative to the Shiite fundamentalists. Chalabi is one of the main Iraqi exiles who collaborated in the US invasion. In early 2004, Chalabi fell from favour with Washington. He resurrected his political fortunes by negotiating a ceasefire between the Sadrists and the occupation forces. He was named as the transitional Government's Deputy Prime Ministers. The Washington Post, citing unnamed White House officials, referred to him as Vice President Dick Cheney's preferred candidate for Prime Minister. Although the election results will not be formally announced till perhaps the New Year, one can imagine the end already.

POST EDITORIAL The Independent Dhaka, Bangladesh Issue 1708 December 23 2005 Gulf oil, Iraq war and Cheney By NASRINE R. KARIM

"Iran wins big in Iraq's election," reads an Asia Times headline, speaking a truth that American policy makers and much of the media is bent on ignoring: "The Shiite religious coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), not only held together, but also can be expected to dominate the new 275-member National Assembly for the next four years," the paper predicts based on the returns to date. "Former premier Ayad Allawi's prospects of leading the new government seem virtually nil. And Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Accord suffered a shattering defeat." Allawi and Chalabi are the Iraqi exiles and US intelligence "assets" who played such a huge role in getting the United States into this war. Chalabi, in particular, will go down in history as one of the great con artists of all time, managing to feed phony intelligence to the White House, the New York Times and countless other power players who found his lies convenient for one reason or another. Now, despite--or, more likely, because of--their long stints on the US payroll, both of these wannabe George Washingtons have been overwhelmingly rejected by their countrymen. Chalabi, long the darling of the Pentagon, seems headed to obtaining less than 1 percent of the vote nationwide and will fail to win his own seat. Allawi's slate, favored more by the CIA, will end up in the low teens.

Pyrrhic Victory TruthDig posted December 21, 2005 (web only) by Robert ScheeR