Whatever happened to that lying SOB Achmed Chalabi?

[matmar]

Remember him? One of the original snake oil salesmen that got the US in Iraq?

Is he in Iran helping with the groundwork for the next contrived war?

[gratuitous]

1. I don't remember him at all

And I don't remember him sitting behind the First Lady during one of George W. Bush's State of the Whatever addresses. And I don't remember Judith Miller, and her breathless reportage about an anonymous man in a baseball cap several yards away, pointing at the ground in Iraq where weapons of mass destruction were allegedly kept by the Hussein regime. And I don't remember Secretary of State Colin Powell going before the UN General Assembly and holding up vials and presenting Powerpoint slides.

And neither do you, because that's just lookin' backwards to the past, and we shouldn't criminalize political differences. Let's all look forward to the future!

[sad sally]

5. The fear of terror has made US citizens stupid

As long as our government continues to keep the fear factor front and center, they have the power, and there will no investigations into anything past or present that might dispel those fear myths.

A bit of what Dan Rather said on November 22, when he received the Committee to Protect Journalists' Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for 2011:

"The late, great Molly Ivins used to tell a story about what happens when fear grips a country. Molly liked to tell the story about her late friend, the celebrated Texas civil libertarian John Henry Faulk, who, as a boy of six, went with his seven-year-old friend, Boots Cooper, to rid the family henhouse of a harmless chicken snake. From its high perch, the boys found themselves eyeball to eyeball with the snake.

Growing up in Texas, it's not uncommon to see a chicken snake ... but being close enough to spit in the snake's eye must have been quite disconcerting.

As Molly would tell the story, the two boys ran out of the henhouse so fast they nearly tore off the henhouse door ... not to mention doing damage to themselves in the process. When Faulk's mother reminded the boys that chicken snakes are not dangerous, Boots Cooper responded, "Yes, ma'am, but some things will scare you so bad, you'll hurt yourself."

That is what we have been subject to as a country. We have been so afraid; so hell bent on destroying enemies ... both foreign and domestic ... we have hurt ourselves and our democracy."

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/276-74/8633-and-we-have-gotten-used-to-it?du

[Journeyman]

2. Here's the latest: "In Bahrain, Worries Grow of Violent Shiite-Sunni Confrontation". . .

The New York Times, January 25, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/world/middleeast/26iht-m26-bahrain-conflict.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all

In Bahrain, Worries Grow of Violent Shiite-Sunni Confrontation

<snip>
(From the middle of the article):

“I understand that the opposition doesn’t trust the government after all the years of promises,” Mr. Steinberg said. “But I think it is making a mistake by not starting a dialogue, because they are losing more and more young people to radical Shiite movements.”

Western intelligence officials said they were also concerned that parts of the opposition were building links to questionable groups in Iraq, Lebanon and Europe. “When we hear that some members of the opposition are in touch with Hezbollah or with shady figures like the Iraqi Ahmed Chalabi, of whom we think he is acting on behalf of Iran, then this worries us,” said a French intelligence official.

Jawad Fairooz, secretary general of Wefaq and a former member of Parliament in Bahrain, acknowledged that there had been contacts with Mr. Chalabi. “Mr Chalabi has helped us with contacts in Washington like other people have done and we thank them,” Mr. Fairooz said. “But we are not allowing any person or party from outside to dictate us what to do in Bahrain.”

<snip>

[RZM]

3. He supports Iran, so he'd be unlikely to encourage a conflict there

He apparently still works in the government in Iraq.

[patrice]

4. !!!

~