The House of Chalabi: The Future of Iraq?

by William O. Beeman

Released: 20 May 2004

On May 20, U.S. forces raided the offices of Ahmad Chalabi, seizing documents and computers. Conventional wisdom is that Mr. Chalabi has now been discredited as a future Iraqi leader. Appearances are deceptive, however. In a few months Ahmad Chalabi will be the next ruler of Iraq, starting what looks to be a hereditary regime.

He is establishing himself in all of the key structures of government from his position on the Iraqi Governing Council including the Council's economic and finance committee, which he heads. He also heads the De-Baathification Commission and has been able to appoint the minister of oil, the central bank governor, the minister of finance, the trade minister, the head of the trade bank and the designated managing director of the largest commercial bank in Iraq.

These officials are all beholden to him, but to make sure that his support in the future government will be solid, Chalabi has created extra insurance by installing his relatives everywhere in the post June 30th governmental structure, in true Middle Eastern fashion. They are the most loyal employees of all, and his potential successors. First and foremost among them are his nephews.

The term “nepotism” comes from the Italian nepote “nephew.” Mr. Chalabi has nephews galore. If anyone tries to prevent him from his ruthless ascendancy to power, his nephews are there to provide the tools to destroy his enemies. He has them well positioned in the judiciary, in the military and in finance to anchor all of his other appointees. After June 30, when there is little or no competing administrative organization in Iraq, such as the Coalition Provisional Authority, it will be hard to prevent Chalabi from assuming power with such strong family backing.

Ahmad Chalabi's nephew, Salem Chalabi, covers the legal branch of the family’s future empire. He has been put in charge of the trial of Saddam Hussein. Salem is an important link to U.S. officials. He is a member of the New York Bar and owns the Baghdad-based Iraqi International Law Group, with partner Marc Zell, an Israeli citizen and West Bank settler who, along with Douglas Feith, the American undersecretary of Defense for Planning, and prominent neoconservative, formed Zell and Feith, a Jerusalem-based law firm. Salem Chalabi wrote the first drafts of the Iraqi transitional administrative law.

Ahmad Chalabi obtained access to 25 tons of Saddam’s documents as part of his role as head of the De-Baathification Commission. Salem’s role as Saddam Hussein’s prosecutor has given him access to these documents and more. Hidden in the records are countless bits of information that will allow Salem and his uncle to blackmail anyone and everyone who proves to be an obstacle to Ahmad Chalabi’s assumption of power. Lest one think that Ahmad Chalabi is incapable of this, he has already done so.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan al-Muasher in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press on April 27, 2003, condemned Chalabi as divisive figure, saying “Ahmad Chalabi does not have credibility, either inside Iraq or in the region.” Muasher’s words are no surprise, since Chalabi is still under indictment in Jordan for embezzlement. Ahmad Chalabi’s response was to threaten to expose the Jordanian Royal Family by pointing out their connections to Saddam Hussein. The Jordanians immediately stopped their public criticism.

Military affairs are taken care of by another Ahmad Chalabi nephew, his sister’s son, Ali Allawi, named by American viceroy Paul Bremer as new defense minister for the post-June 30 government. Earlier, he was interim trade minister. Ali’s cousin Iyad Allawi also sits on the Interim Governing Council with Ahmad Chalabi.

Mohamed Chalabi, son of Ahmad Chalabi’s oldest brother Rushdi (a cabinet minister before the revolution that toppled the British-backed monarchy in 1958), was manager of the Petra International Bank from 1984 until 1990. Petra Bank is the same bank from which Ahmad Chalabi was convicted by Jordan of having embezzled $288 million during the time his nephew was manager. When Petra Bank collapsed, investigators determined that Mohamed was not directly involved, and he now works in New York City, once again in banking and international finance.

The stories of Petra Bank's centrality to financial machinations by Ahmad Chalabi and his friends and associates could fill a book. Just as one expample, Petra bankrolled the partners of an American based company that provided both oil-field equipment and security at a combined charge of more than $400 million.

Chalabi nepotism of a more distant sort also pervades the post-June 30 government. The Minister of Interior, Nouri Badran is married to the sister of Iyad Allawi, defense minister Ali Allawi’s cousin. Badran joined the Ba’th Party after a 1968 July political coup; an act that helped him get transferred from the Ministry of Social Affairs to the Foreign Ministry, where he worked as a diplomat until the 1990s, when he joined the opposition.

Fadhil Chalabi, Ahmad Chalabi’s cousin, and former Oil Minister, now is Executive Director of the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London. Before the American Invasion of Iraq in 2003, Fadhil Chalabi arranged meetings with major oil companies to determine the post-invasion Iraqi oil policy. These meetings included Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, Iraq’s post June 30th Oil Minister, whose choice was overseen by Ahmad Chalabi.

Chalabi’s younger nephews have had interim tasks involving disrupting meetings, harassing Chalabi’s enemies, and generally inveigling themselves into the nooks and crannies of the provisional government.

Now the actual composition of the post-June 30 government is in the hands of United Nations Ambassador, Lakhdar Brahimi. Mr. Brahimi, an Algerian, serves as Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General, a post he assumed on 1 January 2004. Ambassador Brahimi dislikes and distrusts Ahmad Chalabi, and is trying to exclude him from the post June 30 government. First he declared that the provisional government would consist largely of “technocrats.” Then to be more explicit, he announced that no potential office-seeker would be appointed.

Ahmad Chalabi, sensing danger, publicly attacked Ambassador Brahimi’s credentials, and then, on the CNN television program, Late Edition, on Sunday, May 9, announced to journalist Wolf Blitzer that he had no intention of seeking electoral office, one assumes, to remove any overt impediments to his being appointed. The U.S. military raid on his offices were tantamount to a political gift. As Iraqis become more disaffected with the American Occupation, Mr. Chalabi's opposition to the United States may actually win him some supporters in the long run.

He has laid such a complete foundation for his rise to power that such insincere dissimulation clearly won’t be necessary. With all of those relatives and other Chalabi appointments already guaranteed prominent positions in the post June 30 government, even if Ambassador Brahimi succeeds in excluding Mr. Chalabi in the short term, he is excellently positioned to take over in January 2005. Then, the banking, legal and military connections of those supportive relatives will guarantee U.S. support.

The fly in the ointment is that Mr. Chalabi cannot really rule, even if he gains office. Unfortunately for Chalabi, the Jordanian foreign minister was deadly accurate--despite his newfound opposition to the United States the Iraqi public will not accept him. However, the United States seems to know what to do. Its Army will likely remain in Iraq to guarantee his continued rule and prevent a civil war. Mr. Chalabi and the U.S. Army will find that the same problems of national disunity that plagued Saddam Hussein are still present in Iraq, and can only be contained with heavy-handed controls.

Having Mr. Chalabi in power will demonstrate once and for all that the United States never intended that Iraqis attain “freedom.” What America will have done is to first destroy the nation and then establish another dictatorial familial dynasty.

William O. Beeman teaches anthropology and is Director of Middle East Studies at Brown University. He is author of the forthcoming Iraq: State in Search of a Nation.

Copyright © 2004 William Beeman

Released: 20 May 2004
Updated: 16 August 2004
Word Count: 1,245 words
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