The good buddy of the Holy Father, Tariq Aziz, a man who abetted the torture and murder of countless innocents, has finally been brought to justice. Meanwhile, Garner promises an interim authority by next week, which I take as a preliminary indication that the Pentagon is winning the battle for influence over State. At the same time, Garner has ruled Chalabi out as leader, which might indicate the opposite. But since Chalabi has never proposed being leader, this seems superfluous news. Impossible to read from this distance, but I see no real problem with various U.S. factions interplaying with various Iraqi factions to grope toward some kind of new leadership. That’s how these things emerge; too much control is as dangerous as too little. But one thing I can tell from this end is that the media has been waging an almost incessant campaign of character assassination against Chalabi, especially in Howell Raines’ newspaper. Hitch has caught on to this, although it certainly doesn’t require much brilliance to figure it out. Why such contempt? The more I see it, the more inclined I am to think that Chalabi, about whom I confess I know little, is obviously a good thing.
GALLOWAY ON THE GALLOWS: Maybe the American press will begin to cover this story properly now. The Christian Science Monitor has become the second news organization to find documents that indicate that Saddam authorized huge pay-offs to the major anti-war leader in Britain, George Galloway. This time the sums are even more staggering, totalling $10 million in almost three years:
The three most recent payment authorizations, beginning on April 4, 2000, and ending on January 14, 2003 are for $3 million each. All three authorizations include statements that show the Iraqi leadership’s strong political motivation in paying Galloway for his vociferous opposition to US and British plans to invade Iraq. The Jan. 14, 2003, document, written on Republican Guard stationary with its Iraqi eagle and “Trust in Allah,” calls for the “Manager of the security department, in the name of President Saddam Hussein, to order a gratuity to be issued to Mr. George Galloway of British nationality in the amount of three million dollars only.” The document states that the money is in return for “his courageous and daring stands against the enemies of Iraq, like Blair, the British Prime Minister, and for his opposition in the House of Commons and Lords against all outrageous lies against our patient people…” … An Iraqi general attached to Hussein’s Republican Guard discovered the documents in a house in the Baghdad suburbs used by Qusay, who is chief of Iraq’s elite Guard units.
If you want further evidence that Galloway is guilty, here’s a piece by Scott Ritter, defending him. I wonder if Galloway will decide to sue the Telegraph now, after all. And I wonder if the anti-war movement could be more damaged. (The news is also retroactively embarrassing for Diane Sawyer, who cited Galloway as emblematic of British anti-war sentiment earlier this year.) When I first mentioned the possibility of a fifth column, I presumed it would be fueled by ideological fervor. I didn’t contemplate it could be fueled by the mighty dollar. You’ve got to love these Marxists, don’t you?
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “In high school, I had to worry about nosy parents barging in if I was with a girl in my room. In college, I sometimes fear an overzealous roommate who forgets to knock when I am getting my game on. And now, according to Rick Santorum, when I graduate in May, I should have to worry about cops banging down my door if I am getting (or giving) head. Perhaps I’ll stay another year in school. And never, ever, vote Republican.” – just one email from over 1500 now edited on the Letters Page.
The Dish 