Bush Opposes Jaafari as Iraq's Next Leader, Say Shiites

Hell yeah, democracy in action in Iraq

The U.S. ambassador has told Shiite officials that the president does not want Ibrahim al-Jaafari to remain in power, mocking the notion that U.S.-sponsored elections were intended to give Iraqis control over their government.

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Comment #6025 by Lynn on 3/29 at 4:03 am

It may be blatant this time that Khalilzad is leaning on the Iraqi officials to change their prime minister but for Khalilzad himself it is becoming more of a habit.

Zalmay Khalilzad: US power broker http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4736394.stm An interesting article on his career and background, including :

He has been accused of wielding too much power and, during his 18-month stay in Kabul, of frequently overshadowing President Hamid Karzai.

Some candidates in 2004’s presidential elections [in Aghanistan] also complained that he was manoeuvring behind the scenes to ensure victory for the US-friendly Mr Karzai.

Nor is Khalilzad the only one representing the occupying powers to impose a change of officials to suit their needs. In the new ‘democratic’ Afghanistan other occupiers also pick and choose officials according to their needs.

http://www.nu.nl/news.jsp?n=696458&c=24&rss

The article is in Dutch and translates as :

HILVERSUM - The Afghan province Uruzgan, where Dutch military will soon start working on the reconstruction, has a new governor. This was reported by the highest military person, commander of the armed forces general D. Berlijn on Sunday’s TV program Buitenhof.

It was a condition of the Dutch government for participation in the ISAF-operation in the south of Afghanistan that the old governor, Jan Mohammed Khan, would be replaced. Already at the end of last year President Karzai promised minister Bot (Foreign affairs) to do so.

Taliban

The new governor, Munib, is remarkably enough a former member of the ousted taliban-regime in Afghanistan. According to general Berlijn the Dutch ambassador in Afghanistan has in the meantime had a good conversation with Munib. He [Munib] would understand that in Uruzgan work needs to be done to have a good and reliable local government and judiciary power.

Berlijn said on Buitenhof that the outgoing governor Jan Mohammed has promised that his followers will cooperate with Munib and the Dutch military. “This sounds good”, according to Berlijn.

All in all, for a handful of US oil magnates (who will be out of the public eye in a couple of years) as well as Dutch ones (Shell and a pipeline through Afghanistan from the former USSR republics springs to mind) countless lives have been lost and billions of tax payers dollars have been spent and covered up as a war on terror and the bringing of democracy to repressed countries.

More on the Afghanistan pipeline and the Taliban can be found here : Taleban in Texas for talks on gas pipeline http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/west_asia/37021.stm

A spokesman for the company, Unocal, said the Taleban were expected to spend several days at the company’s headquarters in Sugarland, Texas.

And the link between Khalilzad and Unocal, here : http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=arti

Four years ago at a luxury Houston hotel, oil company adviser Zalmay Khalilzad was chatting pleasantly over dinner with leaders of Afghanistan’s Taliban regime about their shared enthusiasm for a proposed multibillion-dollar pipeline deal.

Link Here