Times Online Chalabi the challenger finds
Marie Colvin, Nasiriya
Iraq's leader in waiting
EVERY day last week at an airbase in central Iraq, local sheikhs came to pay court to the man many see as the country�s next leader. They sat cross-legged on bedouin carpet strewn on the dusty floor to talk with Ahmed Chalabi, the former exile and most prominent Iraqi opponent to Saddam Hussein.
This weekend his loyal exiled followers and the growing band of local supporters are urging him to found a political party: the Iraq Congress party. They want him to seize the moment and fill the power vacuum left by the violent collapse of Saddam�s regime.
>>
But now he and his putative party are beginning to take on a momentum of their own that some welcome and others fear.
>>
Last Friday his men moved into the town of Shatra, where coalition troops thought they would face a fight against fedayeen, Saddam�s diehard militia. Led by Colonel Ahmed Tiba, a platoon of Chalabi�s Free Iraqi Force adopted an approach that he hopes will win over doubting Iraqis peacefully and avoid the tragedies of conflict.
>>
�Saddam is gone,� Tiba said. �You do not have to be afraid any more. We are the Free Iraqi Force (FIF) with Dr Ahmed Chalabi and we are here to help you. And we need your help. We want to find anyone who is with Saddam. If they shoot, we will kill them. No one else need be afraid.�
By the time his platoon, accompanied by US special forces, had passed the open sewers that line the dirt roads and reached the centre of the town, a crowd thronged around the opposition soldiers. People cheered and whistled.
>>
By contrast, American soldiers in another operation had mistaken a welcome from Iraqis as a threat; they had shot seven and wounded 60, including supporters of FIF and a local anti-Saddam hero.
Chalabi and his men made no such error. As he left the hospital in Shatra with the platoon perching on two American Humvees, thousands followed and clung to the vehicles, cheering, chanting, rhythmically beating their chests, calling �Halabiq, Chalabi� which means �Welcome, Chalabi�. Tears poured down the face of one FIF soldier who had been away for 12 years.
>>
Chalabi himself has previously protested that he wants nothing more than the toppling of Saddam; high office is not his aim. But many see him as born to privilege with power in his veins.
CHALABI grew up in Baghdad in a wealthy political family that could trace its roots back 300 years to the days of the Ottoman sultanate. His grandfather, father and brother were leading political figures in the constitutional monarchy of the Hashemites.
>>
He attended Seaford College in Sussex, and then enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By his own account, he proved a brilliant maths student, coming top in one test with 100%. He went on to doctoral studies in algebra at the University of Chicago.
>>
Many here suspect that Chalabi�s opponents in Washington thought he did not have the men to follow him and were calling his bluff. When he showed up with a battalion of 700, and promised thousands more, they began to try to block him.
>>
Opponents have long claimed that he does not command wide popular support within Iraq. Last week that claim began to be put to the test and a rally in Nasiriya � the first overtly political gathering in Iraq since the toppling of Saddam�s regime � gave the beginning of the answer.
With only three hours� notice that Chalabi would be coming to the newly liberated town, thousands thronged the streets outside the trashed Ba�ath party headquarters.
>>
On the ground in Iraq people here are desperate for some kind of leadership � yet no other opposition leader appears willing to take the risk of coming to Iraq. Chalabi plans to move from the south to Baghdad within the next week, set up a headquarters in the capital, and send out his troops to regional cities. The idea is for them to act as a paramilitary force that can help restore order through local knowledge lacking in the American forces.
But they will also be an advance guard for his political programme. Everywhere they go, the Free Iraqi Force officers identify themselves as Chalabi�s men. From town to desperate town, they listen to pleas for water, food and electricity. They re-opened a hospital in Shatra on Friday. And they tell people not to be afraid, Saddam�s reign is indeed over. They preach a democratic Iraq in Chalabi�s name.
Chalabi is beginning to build a network of supporters around the country, sending returned exiles to their home towns to win over local leaders, pushing his programme of reconstruction first, then the rebuilding of Iraq on democratic principles.
Marie Colvin, Nasiriya
Iraq's leader in waiting
EVERY day last week at an airbase in central Iraq, local sheikhs came to pay court to the man many see as the country�s next leader. They sat cross-legged on bedouin carpet strewn on the dusty floor to talk with Ahmed Chalabi, the former exile and most prominent Iraqi opponent to Saddam Hussein.
This weekend his loyal exiled followers and the growing band of local supporters are urging him to found a political party: the Iraq Congress party. They want him to seize the moment and fill the power vacuum left by the violent collapse of Saddam�s regime.
>>
But now he and his putative party are beginning to take on a momentum of their own that some welcome and others fear.
>>
Last Friday his men moved into the town of Shatra, where coalition troops thought they would face a fight against fedayeen, Saddam�s diehard militia. Led by Colonel Ahmed Tiba, a platoon of Chalabi�s Free Iraqi Force adopted an approach that he hopes will win over doubting Iraqis peacefully and avoid the tragedies of conflict.
>>
�Saddam is gone,� Tiba said. �You do not have to be afraid any more. We are the Free Iraqi Force (FIF) with Dr Ahmed Chalabi and we are here to help you. And we need your help. We want to find anyone who is with Saddam. If they shoot, we will kill them. No one else need be afraid.�
By the time his platoon, accompanied by US special forces, had passed the open sewers that line the dirt roads and reached the centre of the town, a crowd thronged around the opposition soldiers. People cheered and whistled.
>>
By contrast, American soldiers in another operation had mistaken a welcome from Iraqis as a threat; they had shot seven and wounded 60, including supporters of FIF and a local anti-Saddam hero.
Chalabi and his men made no such error. As he left the hospital in Shatra with the platoon perching on two American Humvees, thousands followed and clung to the vehicles, cheering, chanting, rhythmically beating their chests, calling �Halabiq, Chalabi� which means �Welcome, Chalabi�. Tears poured down the face of one FIF soldier who had been away for 12 years.
>>
Chalabi himself has previously protested that he wants nothing more than the toppling of Saddam; high office is not his aim. But many see him as born to privilege with power in his veins.
CHALABI grew up in Baghdad in a wealthy political family that could trace its roots back 300 years to the days of the Ottoman sultanate. His grandfather, father and brother were leading political figures in the constitutional monarchy of the Hashemites.
>>
He attended Seaford College in Sussex, and then enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By his own account, he proved a brilliant maths student, coming top in one test with 100%. He went on to doctoral studies in algebra at the University of Chicago.
>>
Many here suspect that Chalabi�s opponents in Washington thought he did not have the men to follow him and were calling his bluff. When he showed up with a battalion of 700, and promised thousands more, they began to try to block him.
>>
Opponents have long claimed that he does not command wide popular support within Iraq. Last week that claim began to be put to the test and a rally in Nasiriya � the first overtly political gathering in Iraq since the toppling of Saddam�s regime � gave the beginning of the answer.
With only three hours� notice that Chalabi would be coming to the newly liberated town, thousands thronged the streets outside the trashed Ba�ath party headquarters.
>>
On the ground in Iraq people here are desperate for some kind of leadership � yet no other opposition leader appears willing to take the risk of coming to Iraq. Chalabi plans to move from the south to Baghdad within the next week, set up a headquarters in the capital, and send out his troops to regional cities. The idea is for them to act as a paramilitary force that can help restore order through local knowledge lacking in the American forces.
But they will also be an advance guard for his political programme. Everywhere they go, the Free Iraqi Force officers identify themselves as Chalabi�s men. From town to desperate town, they listen to pleas for water, food and electricity. They re-opened a hospital in Shatra on Friday. And they tell people not to be afraid, Saddam�s reign is indeed over. They preach a democratic Iraq in Chalabi�s name.
Chalabi is beginning to build a network of supporters around the country, sending returned exiles to their home towns to win over local leaders, pushing his programme of reconstruction first, then the rebuilding of Iraq on democratic principles.
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