Up
Athens News
WPost Outlook
Unpublished
Letters, etc
Resignation Letter
Greek Press
Other Articles
|
|
Chalabi's fall shows that the US cannot match Mideast in the art of devious diplomacy
By John Brady Kiesling
Published: Financial Times, June 10 2004 5:00 |
Sir, Regarding Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, the US seems indebted to the government of Iran for an elegant bit of diplomacy. Iran's Baghdad intelligence chief incriminated Mr Chalabi as an Iranian informant, transmitting Mr Chalabi's alleged revelations via the very communications link Mr Chalabi had just told him the US could intercept.
It is safest to assume that this gaffe was deliberate: the Iranians exploited the US's allergy to Iran to neutralise a shared problem. The leak ended a disastrous 18-month stalemate during which Paul Bremer, the US administrator, had been unable to impose a coherent Iraqi reconstruction policy, because Mr Chalabi had the Washington connections to thwart most concessions to Iraqi reality.
The Chalabi fiasco underscores, paradoxically, that Iran is the US's necessary partner in Iraq. Iranians see a defanged, stable, unified Iraq as a national interest worth considerable toil and treasure - preferably the US's rather than their own - to achieve. Iranians enjoyed America's floundering in Iraq, but only up to a point. Mr Chalabi may have promised the Iranians the moon, but the Iranians knew he was no more trustworthy as their partner than as the US's.
Perhaps, as Mr Chalabi insists, he is innocent of any intelligence leaks, and Iran burned him to protect the real source. If the coalition is wise, it should not ask too many questions about Mr Chalabi's fall from grace. If the Iranians are wise, they will find a new way for America to read their intelligence traffic.
President George W. Bush's lack of curiosity about Saddam Hussein's Iraq proved catastrophic to all concerned. Prudent states spoon-feed Washington a healthy amount of reliable information as the corrective to any lingering imperial fantasies.
Iranian mischief in Iraq has been mercifully limited so far. We should reflect on Iran's 3,000-year history as a balancing imperial power. Mr Chalabi's fall is a reminder that America is no match for the Middle East in the art of devious diplomacy.
Credulous ourselves, we should confine ourselves to that style of high-minded diplomacy in which US inability to lie plausibly is an asset rather than a handicap.
John Brady Kiesling, Athens, Greece (Former US Embassy Political Counsellor)
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: US terrorism analyst had a partisan approach
to Iraq
By John Brady Kiesling
Financial Times; Apr 07, 2004
Sir, To allow your readers to assess the validity of former CIA
director R. James Woolsey's criticism of Richard Clarke, you should
have carried a footnote of Mr Woolsey's years as Washington advocate
for Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress.
In 2000 Mr Woolsey discredited himself as a terrorism analyst by
endorsing a fanciful connection between the Greek terrorist group,
November 17, and Pasok, the governing party in Athens.
The damage from that gaffe was minor but now the whole world is
paying for the alacrity with which Mr Woolsey and his ideological
mates helped Chalabi manipulate the US government into supplanting
Saddam Hussein.
John Brady Kiesling, Former US Foreign Service officer, Visiting
Lecturer, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
08544, US
The Meaning of Terror in Riyadh
New York Times
May 15, 2003, ; Section A, Page 34, Column 4, 214 words
(published in slightly different form)
The Editor
President Bush should not refer to "American justice"
when promising retribution against the Riyadh bombers.
The world welcomes relentless investigations, aggressive
prosecution, and tough punishment for terrorist murderers.
"American justice," however, would imply falsely that we
have given up on the ordinary kind of justice.
Partly because of Guantanamo, partly because of the death penalty
in Texas, partly because of his smirk, many foreigners conclude that the
President endorses lynch law. This
misrepresentation of America raises the price we and our allies pay for
the impressive counter-terrorism cooperation in place since September 11.
Perhaps the President wants the terrorists to be tried in U.S.
courts, difficult since primary jurisdiction lies with the Saudis.
Rather than fight over beheading versus lethal injection, we should
undertake the diplomacy required to assure an effective joint U.S.-Saudi
investigation focused on penetrating and disrupting terror networks.
|
