The WaPo's Edward Cody interviews Ahmad Chalabi. His arch nemesis Paul Bremer and Bremer's spokesman Dan Senor are gone, Chalabi points out, while he remains, and is urging some changes in how the US left things, specifically to the Iraqi intelligence services and finances:

A good place to start, Chalabi suggested, would be with the new Iraqi National Intelligence Service set up by the CIA to replace Hussein's much-feared services. The new intelligence apparatus, hundreds strong, was organized in secret without a known budget or statute, he said.

The director, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani, was recruited by the CIA station in the Jordanian capital Amman after he fled Iraq in 1991, Chalabi said, and has been a favorite ever since. A member of Iraq's Turkmen minority, Shahwani reports directly to the prime minister but is closely supervised by CIA officers, Chalabi added. Under their guidance, the service has turned much of its focus toward neighboring Iran, he said.

According to a report prepared in April by knowledgeable officials for members of the now-disbanded Governing Council, the service roster is two-thirds Sunni Muslim and one-fourth Shiite in a country that is about 60 percent Shiite, giving rise to fears that the new service has incorporated many former members of Hussein's Sunni-dominated services.

"This won't fly here," Chalabi said.

Next, Chalabi said, the new government should grab control of the country's finances. Specifically, he said, it should demand a full accounting of how Bremer, who had check-signing authority, spent funds from the Development Fund for Iraq, a pool of cash from Iraqi oil sales designated to pay for reconstruction...

In addition, Chalabi said, the U.S. Embassy, which replaced the occupation authority on Monday, has sought power to disburse some of the funds even though political authority has been returned to the Iraqi government. Allawi's government should insist that the money flow exclusively through the Iraqi Finance Ministry, Chalabi said.

Isn't the Iraqi Finance Ministry still in INC hands? We have to turn to Iraq'd to find out.

UPDATE: Iraqd's Spencer Ackerman informs us that the Iraqi Finance Ministry is headed by the Supreme Council for the Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). He writes:

The Iraqi finance minister is SCIRI -- Adel Abdel Mehldi.

Yet he attended a Jesuit high school in Baghdad – who knew? – with Allawi & Chalabi.

Small world.

Posted by Laura at June 30, 2004 10:34 AM