BASRA, Iraq, 24 January 2005 — Controversial Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi hit back yesterday at the country’s defense minister Hazem Shaalan over threats to arrest him. Chalabi, a dark horse candidate for prime minister, denied he had fled to the southern city of Basra after Shaalan threatened to jail the one-time Pentagon favorite for slandering his ministry.
“My answer to Shaalan is that he knows nothing about law or how a state is to be administered and he cannot overcome Iraqi authority and thus he cannot arrest anybody,” a defiant Chalabi told reporters in the southern port of Basra. Chalabi reiterated his accusations that Shaalan and other government officials had engaged in suspicious activities, transferring large sums of money out of the country to buy weapons for the Iraqi army.
“Hazem Shaalan illegally leaked out millions of dollars through opaque channels. This is the first time such a thing happens in that way.” Chalabi arrived at a Basra hotel under heavy security with bodyguards and 16 four-wheel drive vehicles, accompanied by Shiite political leader Abdul Kareem Al-Mohammadawi, head of the fundamentalist Hezbollah Party.
On Friday, Shaalan said the Baghdad government would shortly arrest Chalabi for staining his ministry’s reputation. “We will arrest him and hand him to Interpol... He sought to tarnish (the image) of the Defense Ministry and ... the reputation of the defense minister,” Shaalan told Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television.
Chalabi’s comments put an unwanted spotlight on the financial dealings of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s government, raising questions about its conduct. Fanning the controversy, the New York Times reported that Allawi, Shaalan and a small circle of council members sent $300 million to a bank in Lebanon last week.
Iraqi officials told the Times the money had been sent out to buy tanks and other weapons from arms dealers for the Iraqi army, but the covert nature of the deal had raised eyebrows.
Chalabi, who fell out of favor in Washington over US accusations that he had been passing top-secret US intelligence assessments to neighboring Iran, has himself long been dogged by allegations of corruption and was convicted by a Jordan court for embezzling funds from the collapsed Petra bank.
Iraq’s election campaign is proving to be as dirty as it is dangerous, plagued not only by assassinations but also by the sort of mudslinging that characterizes politics around the world. Several candidates have been killed. Most political parties have been too afraid to campaign openly. But candidates have not been spared the rough-and-tumble also of public disputes, and clerics have joined the fray.
The most bitter row has involved Shaalan and Chalabi, who is on a Shiite list that was drawn up with the tacit blessing of top cleric Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani and is expected to do well in the Jan. 30 polls. Shaalan, a Shiite on a rival secular list, has threatened Chalabi with extradition to Jordan, where he is wanted in connection with the collapse of Petra Bank.
An aide to Shaalan told Reuters the minister had moved the cash in question to Jordan and Lebanon according to legal procurement procedures. Chalabi says the matter needs to be probed. “All we are asking for is an investigation,” his spokesman, Haidar Al-Moussawi, said.
Interior Minister Faleh Al-Naqib said on Saturday he was unaware of any legal proceedings in Iraq against Chalabi. Chalabi has basked in the controversy — the more US and Iraqi officials attack him, the more he appears to gain popularity. Shaalan, opposed to the role of Shiite clerics from his own community in the campaign, has spared few on the Sistani list from criticism. He accused Hussein Al-Shahristani, an eminent scientist, of being an Iranian agent and said clerics should keep out of politics. Shahristani has denied the allegation.
The clerics have hit back. Al-Hawza, the newspaper of anti-US cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr, has published documents alleging Shaalan was a double agent while in the opposition to Saddam.
The minister’s aide denied ties to Saddam, saying Shaalan was a fierce opponent of the Baathist government. Ties to the Baath Party, which ruled Iraq for 35 brutal years, have been a major election issue.
Leading Kurdish newspaper Hawlati has published a list of Baathists who allegedly took part in putting down Kurds before the war and who are now candidates on a main Kurdish election bloc running in the north. The government has blamed Baathists and Sunni militants for most pre-election violence, but officials say personal feuds and rivalries could also be behind some killings.
