More Chickens Coming Home to Roost Why the USA DeservesAnother9.11 2129

slim

"If you think the United States helped me ... Well, some people in the United States helped me and some people in the United States did their best to try to prevent me even from going to Iraq. The United States did not take me to Iraq. I went to Iraq in the north in January through Iran, and I participated in the meeting of the opposition, where there was little United States support for me in that meeting. Nevertheless we got elected ... four people were elected to the leadership council and they were empowered to expand this council. Then the United States asked the INC to put together an Iraqi force which will be under the command of Centcom. They sent a liaison officer with us, Colonel Sear, and they asked us to put together this force. Some people in the United States government thought we would not be able to do it, but we did it very quickly. And we put together this force and the United States transported this force from northern Iraq to southern Iraq using the U.S. Air Force. Even as I was getting on the plane there was major resistance to me from the United States ... some people in the United States government ... who didn't want me to go to southern Iraq, but nevertheless we went to southern Iraq. I just went to the plane and nobody stopped me.

We got to southern Iraq. Our presence there was not immediately welcomed by U.S. forces, but we demonstrated our ability by dealing with the issues of de-Ba'athification in Nasiriyah very, very effectively, and I'm glad to say that Nasiriyah is one of the few places in Iraq where there was no looting and destruction. Then I wanted to go to Baghdad very quickly, but the military authorities were not happy about that. After a few days we went anyway. As we were getting into Baghdad we got a phone call from our liaison in Centcom, and he put me with an American officer. She told me, "What is your intention of going to Baghdad?" I said, "I'm going home." She said, "But you should have coordinated this with Centcom." I said, "Well, you know about it. Our liaison is here, and he's a full Colonel and we are going."

So we got to Baghdad. The second day we were in Baghdad the American forces broke into our compound. Zavu, who is our first officer, went to them and said, "Can I help you?" They told him, "We are here to secure the compound." He said, "From us or for us?" (Laughter). He said, "I can't tell you, sir." (Laughter). The point is that as soon as we got to Baghdad, I have been meeting hundreds of Iraqis who know very well who I am, who know very well who my father is, who know very well who my family is. And the support we got is overwhelming. In Nasiriyah, for example, the first political rally in post-Saddam Iraq that we held in Nasiriyah, thousands of people showed up. There was a remarkable degree of their knowledge of what...was doing, what role we played in the pbuttage of the Iraq's liberation and they knew all about it, and they also ... the most remarkable thing was that they demanded government with the rule of law. "(Iraqi phrase)" ... they kept saying that. In Baghdad at the same time when we got to Baghdad many, many of the communities ... tribal communities, academic communities ... a lot of people came to see me and they continue to come. I meet on average every day between 300 to 400 people ... sometimes 600 people. A person-to-person thing. They come...I sit with them, and they are very, very determined to have an Iraqi provisional government and a democratic government, and this was reported and observed by a lot of people. So the charge that the U.S. manufactured me as a leader in Iraq is false, and the trail of the record of attacks on me ... unnamed attacks by U.S. government officials who refuse to be quoted, sometimes they are quoted ... is lengthy. So I don't think that even now that the U.S. would necessarily support me in any way, but that is irrelevant at the time."