Baghdad Skull and Bones

It is said that good things come to those who wait. With yet another Iraqi election not far off, it appears that Ayad Allawi and his former school mate Ahmad Chalabi are primed for some good things, things they have been waiting for most of their lives. Although, in the cases of these two, "waiting" fails to describe accurately, the various activities which have occupied their adult lives. Despite the decades long rule of the ruthless Saddam Hussein, each has been positioning himself for this moment in Iraqi history, for they now find themselves vying for the leadership of their homeland. That this is the case is not the product of uncoerced happenstance.

I am not entirely certain just what is the purpose of the NYT puff-piece about the Boys of Baghdad College. If I were to guess, I'd say it was designed to show the softer side of two political sharks, thereby making their US-backed rise to the new Iraqi "democratic" leadership appear as not such a bad thing for the people of the war-torn country. I see no other purpose in this story's chummy feel and utter ignorance of the true nature of Allawi's and Chalabi's unseemly histories and attachments to the CIA and the Pentagon.

Whether the author intended it or not, what you will take away from a reading of the piece is that Baghdad College, a Jesuit school started by order of Pope Pius XI in 1932, quickly became the school of the elite classes of Iraq. Think of it is a kind of Hashemite Skull and Bones society. Chalabi and Allawi went to school there at the same time as did another front runner in the upcoming elections, Adel Abdul Mahdi. Chumminess was thick in those halycon days of rigourous study, basketball and plans for future domination of the Hashemite hierarchy. Paths to national leadership had been set before them, until that blasted Hussein screwed up the works. Best laid plans ....

Allawi has had long term ties to the CIA, having been recruited in 1992 to, interestingly enough, counter the CIA's other asset Ahmed Chalabi. And while both men were humping information about weapons of mass destruction and Iraq connections to Al-Qaeda, it was Chalabi who was the real chunnel for the bogus intel pouring into the Pentagon, via Feith's Office of Special Plans, and onto the front pages of the New York Times, via Judith Miller. Both Chalabi and Allawi appear to have qualities, none of which you will see in the NYT fluff, that would probably present themselves favourably to the Bush administration: Chalabi having been convicted of bank fraud and Allawi's penchant for swift justice, with eye witnesses having reported that the interim prime minister executed six prisoners by his own hand. It's fairly easy to imagine Dick Cheney pumping his fist at that news, yelling "Yes!"

It is ironic that both Chalabi and Allawi would work toward unseating Hussein with the backing of US agencies after Hussein had been aided in his coup by US agents, which had thereby derailed the imminent leadership plans of the two Baghdad College boys. Ahh, US support: it giveth and it taketh away.

I also wonder if Iraqis question how on earth they now find themselves facing a national election ballot that contains the names of two ruthless politicos who both have been backed by US agency. Having been on the receiving end of the previous US-backed tinpot, I can't imagine they are at all thrilled by it. Unlike us though, they are likely far more attuned to the true nature of America's plans for Iraq's "democracy" and the supposedly subsequent "freedom." But in America, the NY Times can be counted to smooth over the rough histories of these two CIA hacks, men who have waited and worked all their lives for this US-furnished moment in history.