NCRI – U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill on Wednesday backed up General Odierno's comments that two prominent Iraqi poll officials have ties to Iranian regime.
Ambassador Hill not only backed up Odierno's comments, he went even further in criticizing Chalabi and his cohort, Ali Faisal al-Lami, the executive director of Iraq's Accountability and Justice Commission. That's the panel at the center of the scandal surrounding the disqualification of a number of candidates in Iraq's upcoming parliamentary elections. Chalabi is the panel's chairman.
Below are excerpts of Ambassador Hill's question and answer on the issue:
QUESTION: Yesterday, General Odierno accused two Iraqi officials – let me read the names – Ali Faisal al-Lami and Ahmed Chalabi, who were both key members of the Accountability and Justice Commission, of being clearly influenced by Iran. I’m wondering if you agree with General Odierno’s comments, and are you concerned with Iran’s influence over this process concerning the candidates and the election in general?
AMBASSADOR HILL: Yeah, I absolutely agree with General Odierno on this. And absolutely, these gentlemen are affected by – are certainly under the influence of Iran. These were people, or in the case of Chalabi, he was named by the CPA administrator, Ambassador Bremer, back in ’03 as the head of the de-Baathification Committee. It was a committee that went out of existence two years ago, replaced by the Accountability and Justice Committee. Everyone else understood that they – that that would – that their terms expired with the expiration of the committee, except for Mr. Chalabi, who assumed by himself the role of maintaining his – a position in a new committee to which he was never named….
So I absolutely agree with General Odierno on his specific comments with respect to those two individuals, and I also agree with his comments about the fact that we are – we remain concerned about Iran’s behavior in – toward its neighbors. Iran should have a good relationship with its neighbor, but it needs to do a much better job of respecting its neighbor’s sovereignty.
Source: U.S. Department of State
