Ahmad Chalabi?

Link

Eli Lake in the Wash-Times, here

"... Chalabi, who cultivated neoconservatives and the George W. Bush administration when he was an exile drumming up support against Saddam Hussein, told The Washington Times that he is a big fan of Mr. Obama.

"The few months of your administration have produced a sea-change in the perception of the United States of America in the world and specifically among Muslims," he wrote to Mr. Obama in a recent letter that he shared with The Times. "Your historic speech in Cairo has become a beacon of hope for the coming era."...

"We never hid our relationship with the Iranians," he said. He added that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was "very [angry] about us having this office in Tehran" before the war. But he said the State Department was paying for the office. "They knew they were funding it. We got an [Office of Foreign Assets Control] exemption; it was not a secret."....

Mr. Chalabi also has his eyes on the wider region. In his letter to Mr. Obama, he asked for support "to develop a concordat among the modern states of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran" - a region known in Islamic geography as "al Iqleem al Rabi'i" or "the fourth territory." Mr. Chalabi's letter to Mr. Obama said such an alliance "will be the rock on which extremism in the Muslim world will shatter."

Posted by G, Z, or B at 10:02 AM