Iraqi-American Woman to Become Ambassador

[Khephra]

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Governing Council on Sunday named Rend Rahim Francke -- an Iraqi-American woman and veteran lobbyist who has criticized Washington as being shortsighted in Iraq -- as its ambassador to the United States.

The appointment will renew diplomatic ties between Washington and Baghdad 13 years after they were severed in 1990 when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

Francke, who became a U.S. citizen in 1987, was born in Baghdad but has not lived there full-time in more than 30 years. She led the Iraq Foundation, a Washington-based pro-democracy group, and has helped in post-Saddam Hussein planning.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Francke will represent the face of a new Iraq, and her appointment will allow the Governing Council to communicate more effectively with the Bush administration.

more...................

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-iraq-new-ambassador,0,6644971.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

[LittleApple81]

1. Is she as popular in Iraq as Chalabi? Just a question, I know nothing

about her.

[janx]

4. Chalabi, from what I have read, was one of the largest mistakes

(convenient mistakes?)that Chimpy's administration ever made.

Many months back, there was an article in *Harper's* written by a guy who was "embedded" with Chalabi--or rather, who was chasing him around. My oh my.

Why must this administration keep company with crooks? (Rhetorical/sarcastic question.)

Chalabi was so very convenient.

[IndianaGreen]

2. She is a traitor to both countries!

Perfect example of what is wrong with people holding dual-citizenship!

Remember Jesus's exhoneration about serving two masters?

[dArKeR]

3. Do you have any idea the tax dollars we are paying to protect this woman?

Not only the millions of dollars in our cash tax dollars but our human resources that could be used in other parts of the world or in our own country!

[janx]

5. Are you as very sick and tired of Texas and various deserts

as I am?

I'm sick of Texas. I'm sick of Arabs. I'm sick of the military, and I'm sick of deserts.

This shit just goes on and on...

[dArKeR]

7. I'm only sick of immoral, dirty, lying, killing people. While traveling

I've never met any bad people. Go out and try it for yourself. You'll find the poorest people in the world would give you the shirt off their back if you asked them. And I dare you to go find this out for yourself.

[Tinoire]

6. Haha! Read this: NEO-CON HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST- Oh lol!

Iraq appoints US citizen as its American envoy
By David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 24/11/2003)

The Iraqi Governing Council has appointed an Iraqi-American woman and human rights lobbyist its first ambassador to the United States.

Rend Rahim Francke is little known in Iraq. As a young girl she was sent for an education at boarding school in England, followed by Cambridge and the Sorbonne. She left Iraq for good in the 1970s and has been a US citizen since 1987.

<snip>

A former banker and currency trader, Ms Francke is better known in the think-tanks and political salons of Washington DC, where she has been a prominent and passionate advocate for Iraqi regime change.

She worked with neo-conservative hawks in pushing for more US support for exile and opposition groups.

Advising on post-war planning, she shared the faith of neo-conservatives that building a democratic Iraq, and holding Saddam Hussein to account for human rights abuses, could transform the Middle East.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/24/wirq24.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/11/24/ixnewstop.html

==============

Once Carlyle buys this paper, we won't be seeing all these details :(

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=237256

Pentagon bankers may bail out Black

'Ex-Presidents Club' ready to throw lifeline to embattled Telegraph owner

Jamie Doward and Jessica Hodgson
Sunday November 23, 2003
The Observer


A powerful banking group with close links to the Pentagon, which has also invested money on behalf of the Bin Laden family, is in talks to bail out beleaguered Daily Telegraph owner Conrad Black.
The revelation suggests that Britain's bestselling broadsheet - coveted by rival newspaper barons because of its political influence - may not go under the hammer after all, as Lord Black tries to quell a shareholder rebellion in the face of allegations that he and several acolytes pocketed millions of dollars that was not theirs to take.

<snip>

Carlyle, - which employs former Prime Minister John Major as a director, boasts George Bush Snr and his Secretary of State, James Baker, as advisers, and is headed by Frank Carlucci, Ronald Reagan's Defence Secretary - has invested in media firms previously. The group once owned 40 per cent of France's Le Figaro, and more recently acquired part of French conglomerate Vivendi's publishing assets.

It also part-owns Qinetiq, the Government's privatised defence research laboratories, and CSX Lines, a logistics firm that specialises in shipping heavy equipment for the military. In the past, Carlyle has owned Vinnell, a company that trained the Saudi army.

If Carlyle - which, despite being only 15 years old, manages more than $14 billion in funds on behalf of investors such as George Soros and the Bin Laden family (who are estranged from their son Osama) - does take a stake in Hollinger, questions are bound to be asked over the links between the two firms, both of which have powerful links to the military.

Leading foreign policy hawks Richard Perle and Henry Kissinger sit on the Hollinger board. Black himself is a member of the secretive Bilderberg group, an organisation comprising the world's leading businessmen and politicians, which some have accused of being an alternative world government.

<snip>

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1091483,00.html

[IndianaGreen]

8. Our #2 man in Iraq is a graduate of Hebrew University in Israel

We are speaking of Dan Senor, the bookish looking civilian that we usually see standing next to the idiot BG Mark Kimmitt, the one who refers to our losses as "insignificant."

Dan Senor rap sheet:



Dan Senor is a Senior Advisor to Presidential Envoy L. Paul Bremer III, Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Senor traveled to Baghdad in mid-April in one of the first civilian convoys to enter Iraq following the fall of the former regime. He has been serving in Iraq since, advising Amb. Bremer on a variety of policy and communications issues. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Senor was based at Centcom Headquarters in Qatar, where he was Director of the Coalition Information Center. Senor has also served as a Legislative Aide, Press Secretary, and Communications Director for then-Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI). Senor completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Western Ontario and Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/senor-bio.html