If things had worked out differently, it might have been Ahmad Chalabi who was installed as prime minister by the American occupation authorities and Chalabi who made a poor showing in Iraq’s historic election.
But the former Pentagon favorite took a different path. He fell out with his American sponsors, cozied up to the Shiites in the south and hitched his wagon to the powerful slate of candidates backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani that won the largest share of the vote.
And now he’s a candidate to become prime minister in Iraq’s democratically elected government.
Meanwhile, the U.S.-appointed interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, who replaced Chalabi as the Bush administration’s favorite, failed to win broad support during his brief tenure and secured only 13.7 percent of the popular vote.
Chalabi is coy about his chances to become prime minister, and most other Iraqi politicians don’t rate them high. There’s a crowded field, and at least two other candidates appear more likely to win the post.
But as one of the top-ranked leaders of the winning slate in Iraq’s election, Chalabi almost certainly is in the running for some job in the new government, signifying quite a comeback for the man whose political career was written off after his relationship with the Bush administration soured.
“I will serve in any position that is required,” he said at his fortified home in Baghdad as a steady flow of visitors trooped around the concrete barricades.
Chalabi says he bears no ill will against the U.S., despite the humiliating raid on his house last year by U.S. and Iraqi forces and the allegations of spying for Iran that signaled his fall from grace. As prime minister he would seek “friendly” relations with Washington, he said.
“It’s not a matter of personal issues. I’m not surprised by what happened,” he said, comparing his treatment to that of French Gen. Charles de Gaulle during World War II. “This is a recurrent theme when America intervenes in other countries. Look at what happened to Gen. de Gaulle. They didn’t treat him very well.”
It would be the ultimate irony if America’s project to democratize Iraq resulted in a government headed by the disgraced Chalabi, who has become, in the eyes of many Iraqis and Americans, a symbol of everything that went wrong with the U.S.-led invasion.
Supplied bad intelligence
His intelligence about weapons of mass destruction turned out to be wrong, and his recommendation that the U.S. administrator Paul Bremer dissolve the Iraqi security forces and “de-Baathify” the government has been blamed for swelling the ranks of the insurgency.
Chalabi’s revived fortunes are in many ways emblematic of the broader upheaval brought by the Iraqi election.
The winning United Iraqi Alliance is a coalition of mostly religious Shiite political parties that enjoy warm relations with Iran.
Several of its leaders have made clear they would like an Islamic form of government in Iraq, though the alliance’s failure to secure an outright majority of votes may temper the ability of hard-liners to claim a mandate for that.
Alliance seeks premiership
As negotiations intensify for the top government jobs, a broad consensus is emerging that as the group with the most votes, the alliance should get to name the prime minister.
So far, however, the group has been unable to agree on a nominee for the job, and at least five of its members have put their names forward, including Chalabi, a secular Shiite who does not advocate Islamicizing the government.
The current favorite is Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the interim finance minister and the nominee of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the coalition’s largest party, followed by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, interim vice president and a leader of the Islamic Dawa Party.
If selected, Chalabi proposes ejecting American officials from the Republican Palace and ending the right of U.S. forces to detain Iraqis.
But he would want U.S. forces to remain as long as necessary.
“We are allies of the U.S.,” he said. “We are the strongest allies in the fight against terrorism, because we in Iraq have been the major victims of terrorism. We want to have the best possible relations with the United States.”
