What a coincidence!

The Chalabi-Moqtada connection: not looking good for Chalabi’s American sponsors.

Last week, we leared that Ahmed Chalabi, darling of the neocons, beneficiary of tens of millions of dollars in your tax money, source of the misinformation that got us into the Iraq war with what now is known to have been unnecessary haste, and probable agent of the Iranian mullahs (to whom he betrayed a major U.S. intelligence secret) had started playing footsie with Moqtada al-Sadr.

This week Moqtada al-Sadr is making another bloody power play. Do you think his new ally might have something to do with that?

Right now, it looks as if we’re going after him hard, but Allawi is still trying to make a deal. If Chalabi has come out against his new ally’s attempt to stir up civil war, Google doesn’t know about it.

To my eyes, there’s now overwhelming reason to believe that the guy some people in Washington thought was Our Man in Baghdad has just sold us out. And what’s more astonishing is that, as far as I can tell, none of the Americans who backed him then have denounced him now.

I’d really like to know what happened to all that money. Wouldn’t you?

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com