CHALABI UPDATE….Looks like W is pissed at Ahmad Chalabi:
National security advisor Condoleezza Rice confronted Chalabi in a meeting last week in New York with him and two other members of the Iraqi Governing Council, and again Tuesday in Washington, on recent statements calling for greater Iraqi control over both political power and the economic reconstruction, the sources said.
….The White House was particularly angered by Chalabi’s position on Iraq’s future because it in effect supported France’s call to hand over power to a provisional Iraqi government within weeks and hold national elections as soon as December ? a timetable that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has repeatedly called “unrealistic.”
….Some U.S. officials have suggested Chalabi’s call for greater immediate control by the Governing Council is a bid to ensure that he gains the top leadership position, since he has emerged as the dominant figure on the council but so far has not rallied enough national support to gain position through elections.
In other words, they’ve finally decided that Chalabi is a opportunistic, backstabbing hustler who will say and do anything as long as it helps him gain power. That sounds about right.
How long before they figure out that that’s what he’s been all along? Leopards don’t change their spots overnight, after all.
