Chalabi heads Bremer's failed de-Baathification policy

" 'This is a big mistake,' [Timothy M.] Carney thought in May 2003, when [L. Paul] Bremer told senior CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] officials that he would soon issue an edict prohibiting many former members of Hussein's Baath Party from holding government jobs.
. . . Bremer eventually concluded that the policy had been applied 'unevenly and unjustly.' . . . He announced that appeals would be handled by a de-Baathification commission headed by Ahmed Chalabi, a controversial former exile whose informants had helped the Bush administration make the case for war.
. . . Maliki told Bush recently that he supports a revised de-Baathification law -- but the issue isn't in the prime minister's hands. It's still with Chalabi.
Chalabi is the chairman of the Supreme National Commission for De-Baathification. . . . He has prepared draft legislation that calls for easing some elements of Bremer's policy, but he said parliament has been unable to act on it because a majority of the members of the legislature's de-Baathification committee belong to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's political party, which walked out in November to protest a meeting between Maliki and Bush."

source
The Washington Post. On Iraq, U.S. Turns to Onetime Dissenters. January 14, 2007.

posted: wednesday, january 17, 2007, 1:04 AM ET

tags: iraq de-baathification chalabi