Pacific Views

Sometimes stuff is just handed to you on a silver platter.

So how do we know that there's any truth to the the secret Coaliton Provisional Authority memo that was leaked to the US alternative press today? Well, lets just look at this part:

Yet the memo is gloomy in most other respects, portraying a country mired in dysfunction and corruption, overseen by a CPA that "handle(s) an issue like six-year-olds play soccer: Someone kicks the ball and one hundred people chase after it hoping to be noticed, without a care as to what happens on the field." But it is particularly pointed on the subject of cronyism and corruption within the Governing Council, the provisional Iraqi government subordinate to the CPA whose responsibilities include restaffing Iraq’s government departments. "In retrospect," the memo asserts, "both for political and organizational reasons, the decision to allow the Governing Council to pick 25 ministers did the greatest damage. Not only did we endorse nepotism, with men choosing their sons and brothers-in-law; but we also failed to use our prerogative to shape a system that would work. . . . Our failure to promote accountability has hurt us." [empahsis added]

And now let's look at this BBC report on the Iraqi tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein:

"Lawyer Salem Chalabi was named president of the court," said Entifadh Qanbar, spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress (INC).

Mr Chalabi is a US-educated lawyer and nephew of the head of the INC, Ahmed Chalabi.

Your honor, we rest our case.

More: We'd been looking for a full copy of the memo all day. Wouldn't you know that Kos would find it first? It's here.

Posted by Magpie at April 21, 2004 01:25 AM | Iraq | Technorati links |