I’ve been reading Kenneth Timmerman’s book, Shadow Warriors , which describes the resistence to Bush’s policies within the career bureaucracy of the administration. Reagan had a similar problem but was a better communicator than Bush and could go over the heads of the bureaucracy and Congress to the country. Bush has been less successful but has also had a friendly Congress for much of his presidency. Timmerman documents names and places. One of the early sections concerns Ahmed Chalabi, the secular Shiite Iraqi who headed the Iraqi National Congress during the Clinton years. Chalabi has been roundly condemned by the left. That book review from Rolling Stone, for example, describes a man that Timmerman says has since been proven right. There is a lot of talk about an agent named “Curveball” with many allegations that he was part of Chalabi’s organization. That is not true. He was a German source and has since been discredited.
The book has a section on General Jay Garner but I would like to know more. He had been very successful coordinating aid to the Kurdish enclave in Northern Iraq over a ten year period since the US decided to protect them from Saddam. He headed the interim mission right after the battle ended in Baghdad. He was only there a few months before he was replaced by Bremer and the “occupation” began, followed by the insurgency. Timmerman’s theory is that the Bush administration planned to turn the country over to the Iraqi National Council and quickly end the occupation. This is why the plan has been criticized as “no plan.” According to Timmerman, there was a 300 page plan but it did not call for an occupation. Chalabi had assembled a diverse group that was ready to assume responsibility for order. Bremer and the State Department changed all that. Those chapers are alarming when all the missed chances are spelled out. Bremer has since said that the IRC were “outsiders” and “exiles” but the anti-Saddam Iraqis who were not exiles are all dead. Anyway, the present Iraqi government, including President Talbani were members of that IRC group that Bremer refrred to as “exiles.”
He covers the Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame story and proposes a theory that Wilson is actually a French agent (page 111). His service as ambassador to Gabon was during a time when that oil-rich African country was being run by French intelligence. Wilson’s ex-wife was a registered agent for Gabon. The Niger “caper” was planed as false flag operation to humiliate the Bush administration with the alleged forged evidence. That would derail the whole plan to go to war, since France and Russia did not want their relationship with Saddam and Oil-For-Food interrupted.
He even names the man he credits with starting the “Bush Lied” campaign on bumper stickers. His name is C. Edward Bernier and he was a retired USIA officer with ties to Democratic operatives. He was called back for a short mission to Iraq and that experience gave him the credibility to begin his anti-Bush campaign.
Anyway, it is an interesting book and I am less skeptical about it than I was when I began. I will report more later.
Where is Chalabi now? I recall how he was uniformally discredited which surprised me as he was once so revered. It will be interesting to find out the truth about him. I still don’t know what to think about him now.
He is in Iraq as part of the government. You might be interested in what the LA Times has to say.