posted March 31, 2003 at 12:56 p.m. MDTWasn't this supposed to be about democracy for Iraq?
Iraqi opposition slams plan for military governor [observer.co.uk] - Kanan Makiya, a leading figure and adviser to Iraq's main opposition group, the Iraqi National Congress, rounded on American plans to install a US military governor in Baghdad to rule post-war Iraq, describing the plans as an 'unmitigated disaster', 'deeply stupid' and a 'mess'. The infrastructure of Saddam's ruling Baath party would remain largely intact, with the top two officials in each Iraqi ministry replaced by US military officers. 'The plan is bizarre. It is Baathism with an American face,' said Makiya, an Iraqi author and professor at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.
America Selects Colonial Governor for Iraq [warblogging.com] -
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that the United States has selected Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi to "lead a transitional coalition government in Iraq once Saddam has been deposed."
Mr. Chalabi is described as a "progressive liberal" who is "far from universally popular among Iraqi exiles" by the SMH. The BBC has described Chalabi as a "controversial opposition maverick".
The thing is that the 58-year-old Chalabi left Iraq at the age of eleven. Since he has spent almost all of his time in Britain and the United States, with the exception of a stay in Jordan just long enough to garner him a sentence of 22 years hard labor for the crime of bank fraud.
