A Florida-based investigative journalist and author said Saturday that the United States is pushing to dictate a “problematic” Iraqi politician as a new prime minister of Iraq.
As the Iraqi government is fighting hundreds of Takfiri militants who have captured several key Iraqi cities in recent days, Washington is pushing for a substantial change in Iraq’s political structure, offering Ahmed Chalabi, the former head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), as an alternative to replace Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said Wayne Madsen.
In recent days, the US has been pressing Maliki to form a new government or resign.
On Thursday, The New York Times revealed US ambassador in Iraq Robert Beecroft and US State Department’s top official in Iraq Brett McGurk recently met with the controversial Iraqi politician.
Chalabi was the person who provided the US with false intelligence before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Madson said, referring to the claims by the INC that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
Madson said Chalabi is not backed by “anybody in Iraq – Sunni, Shia, or Kurd.”
The US is sending nearly 300 troops to Iraq as “advisers” for the Iraqi military, but the troops are holding off getting involved in the conflict with the militants until Baghdad agrees to give them legal protection.
Madson said the US needs the legal protection for its troops in case they kill civilians during their raids and operations in the country.
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