What does Chalabi want from Obama? (Updated)

Yesterday, RBO pointed out the obvious irony that one of the three Iraqi officials with whom Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) met while “making the rounds in Baghdad” was Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who had served on the Iraqi Governing Council, appointed July 13, 2003, by Coalition Provisional Authority Administrator L. Paul Bremer, with Sen. Obama’s fellow Chicagoan, former Iraqi Minister of Electricity, Aiham Alsammarae, who was convicted in an Iraqi court in October 2006 in the theft of at least $650 million in Iraqi reconstruction dollars (i.e. U.S. tax dollars); who had contributed to Sen. Obama’s presidential campaign fund; and who put up three of his properties as surety for Obama political patron and convicted political fixer—and Obama’s personal real estate fairy—Antoin “Tony” Rezko’s bond this past spring.

The media, it appears, chooses either to be, or pretend to be, unaware of the irony.

Well, there is another member from Alsammarae’s days with the first Iraqi Governing Council in 2003 who has played a role in Sen. Obama’s “visit” to Iraq—Ahmad Chalabi, who served as Deputy Prime Minister until his fall from grace in May 2004.

Eli Lake wrote in today’s New York Sun:

The matter [of endorsing Barack Obama's withdrawal timeline] was taken up at a meeting of Iraq’s National Security Council on Thursday [July 17] on the recommendation of Mr. Maliki, who had been advised by the Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi to express public support for the Obama withdrawal plan. Asked for a comment yesterday, Mr. Chalabi, an old hand at working the American political process to the advantage of Iraq, conveyed a statement via his Washington representative, Francis Brooke: “This is an honor I will not claim and a rumor I will not deny.”

But Alsammarae is not the only one in the Obama political circle with a link to Chalabi.

Lake continues:

The role of Mr. Chalabi, whose party failed to gain any seats in the 2005 federal parliamentary elections, should be of interest to close watchers of the Bush administration. While Mr. Chalabi has clashed with both the American embassy and at times with Mr. Maliki, he nonetheless is still regarded among the Shiite political class as knowledgeable of American politics from his days lobbying for the [1998] Iraq Liberation Act in Washington. At the time, in the late 1990s, Senator McCain was one of Mr. Chalabi’s biggest supporters.

In 2003, Sen. Evan Bayh, reported to be on Sen. Obama’s vice presidential short list, “was an honorary co-chair of the neocon pro-war Committee for the Liberation of Iraq—a group he joined along with none other than John McCain and Joe Lieberman, according to a press release from during the run-up to the invasion,” Greg Sargent wrote July 16, 2008, for TPM Election Central.

Where does Chalabi come in? Sargent continues:

The Committee is a neo-con group that was formed to propagandize the country into war. It boasted such illustrious neocon members as Bill Kristol, former CIA director James Woolsey, and even McCain senior foreign policy adviser and Chalabi-bamboozler Randy Scheunemann.

You can be sure that Chalabi’s agenda does not prevent him from working both presidential candidates to his own advantage. As Chris Davis wrote July 16, 2008, in the Memphis Flyer:

For years, Scheunemann has worked alongside Ahmad Chalabi, the international confidence man who provided the Bush Administration with most of the bogus information used to build a case for invading Iraq. Chalabi, you may recall, repaid the administration for its patronage by giving top secret US intelligence to Iran. … He’s also the man who introduced Chalabi and his ilk to McCain.

Be sure to give Mr. Chalabi’s history a thorough read before asking yourself if anything he advocates for Iraq—or Sen. Obama—can come to any good, especially where a possible U.S. military intervention in Iran is concerned. Chalabi and his cohorts would like nothing better.

Update: Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic wrote July 22, 2008:

Two sources, one in Iraq, the other in Washington, told me that Ahmed Chalabi was key in Maliki’s decision to rather ostentatiously endorse Barack Obama’s Iraq withdrawal time-line. Chalabi, of course, has been in and out — mostly out — of favor with the Bush Administration, but it’s not merely revenge that motivated his advice to Maliki. “Chalabi knows American politics better than nearly every other Iraqi politician, and he knows it’s time to line up with the candidate who has the better-than-even shot of becoming President,” one source told me.

I can’t imagine that Obama will be adding Chalabi anytime soon to his roster of 300 foreign policy advisers, despite the favor Chalabi has apparently done on his behalf.