More money thrown at Iraqi opposition groups

[T Roosevelt]

Presidential Determination No. 2003–06 of December 7, 2002
Presidential Determination on Authorization to Furnish Drawdown Assistance to the Iraqi Opposition Under the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998

Memorandum for the Secretary of State {and} the Secretary of Defense
Pursuant to the authority vested in me as President of the United States, including under sections 4(a)(2) and 5(a) of the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–338) (the ‘‘Act’’), and consistent with Presidential Determination 99–13, I hereby direct the furnishing of up to $92 million in defense articles from the Department of Defense, defense services from the Department of Defense, and military education and training in order to provide assistance to the following organizations:

Iraqi National Accord;
Iraqi National Congress;
Kurdistan Democratic Party;
Movement for Constitutional Monarchy;
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan;
Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq;

and to such other Iraqi opposition groups designated by me under the Act before or after this determination. The assistance will be allocated in accordance with plans being developed by the Department of Defense and the Department of State.

Title 3—The President
The Secretary of State is authorized and directed to report this determination to the Congress and to arrange for its publication in the Federal Register.

GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, December 7, 2002.

[Mel]

1. did you see this?

This whole article is worth the read I just sniped a taste.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x590221
THE MANIPULATOR
by JANE MAYER
Ahmad Chalabi pushed a tainted case for war. Can he survive the occupation?

<snip>
The genesis of Brooke’s assignment was the decision not to unseat Saddam Hussein at the end of the first Gulf War. In May, 1991, President George H. W. Bush signed a covert “lethal finding” that authorized the C.I.A. to spend a hundred million dollars to “create the conditions for removal of Saddam Hussein from power.” Robert Baer, a former C.I.A. officer who was assigned to Iraq at the time, said that the policy was all show, “like an ape beating its chest. No one had any expectation of marching into Baghdad and killing Saddam. It was an impossibility.” Nonetheless, the C.I.A. had received an influx of cash, and it decided to create an external opposition movement to Saddam. </snip>

[maddezmom]

2. Free Iraqi Fighters are Chalibi's Army more:

~snip~
CORRUPTION IN BAGHDAD


Soon after Chalabi returned to his homeland, in January, 2003, allegations of corruption and criminal behavior began to emerge. A former member of the I.N.C. said that some of Chalabi’s militia, the Free Iraqi Fighters, had been accused of looting and robbing their way into Baghdad. He also said that some members of the militia had stolen a fleet of S.U.V.s that belonged to Saddam’s regime, then sold them abroad. According to police officers in Baghdad, several of Chalabi’s men were taken to the Al Baya station and arrested for stealing cars and having false I.D.s. A C.P.A. official confirmed the incident, and said that more charges might be added. Chalabi didn’t deny that his troops had engaged in some misconduct, but he asked, “What war doesn’t have this? Can you guarantee that no Coalition soldiers looted anything?”

Similar allegations have been made about Chalabi’s “de-Baathification” program, a policy he says he devised to bring justice to those in the Sunni ruling class who had been complicit in Saddam’s crimes. The Defense Intelligence Agency credits Chalabi’s forces with rounding up more than half of the fifty-five Baathists placed on a Most Wanted list by the Pentagon. However, two reliable sources—a former American diplomat and a former member of Chalabi’s militia—said that de-Baathification had devolved into the confiscation of Sunni assets, including houses that were expropriated by Chalabi’s aides. Newsweek reported that an Iraqi official claimed that half a million dollars allocated for de-Baathification had disappeared. Chalabi denied there was any corruption in the program.

Chalabi told me that he had no business interests in Iraq. “I am in politics now,” he said. But several American businessmen involved in ventures in Iraq said that Chalabi had gained a substantial foothold in the country’s financial sector, by insuring that relatives and longtime loyalists held key positions. Chalabi heads the finance committee of the Iraqi Governing Council, a U.S.-appointed group of twenty-five people representing Iraq’s religious and ethnic factions; as a result, he was able to install the oil, finance, and trade ministers, as well as the governor of Iraq’s Central Bank. Ali Allawi, the Minister of Trade and Defense, is Chalabi’s nephew. Nabeel Musawi, a former I.N.C. spokesman, is a deputy on the Governing Council. The Central Bank is run by Sinan Shabibi, another close ally. Chalabi had wanted to nominate Mudar Shawkat, his deputy at the I.N.C., as Minister of Finance, but a former associate of Chalabi’s told me that the Iraqi Governing Council had objected. Subsequently, the Los Angeles Times reported, Shawkat was awarded a large stake in a mobile-phone contract.

Several of Chalabi’s friends have been awarded lucrative contracts. Abdul Huda Farouki, a Jordanian-American businessman who lives outside Washington, D.C., has obtained big stakes in two companies, Nour USA and Erinys Iraq, that will be paid millions of dollars to supply the Iraqi Army and to secure the country’s oil infrastructure. Farouki became a friend of Chalabi’s when he took out twelve million dollars in loans from Petra Bank.
~snip~