Both this story and this story are datelined for tomorrow. Lucky you - you read it here first! Dubya's posse has pissed off Lakhdar Brahimi again (they did it before, and Brahimi was --><-- this close to pulling out of the whole process). And now Hussain Shahristani (whose name BushCo leaked as Prime Minister-select) proves he's as smart as his resume would indicate, and pulls out.
I.swear.to.Christ.
These guys can't seem to get anything right. It's one fucking comedy of errors after another. What the hell must other leaders of the free world think? Especially after President Gore's speech?
From the Independent (UK): The Bush administration was accused yesterday of undermining the work of the UN envoy attempting to put together an interim Iraqi government, by suggesting that a respected nuclear scientist was tipped to be prime minister.
The spokesman for Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN envoy in Baghdad, reacted with fury after US officials were quoted as saying that Hussain Shahristani had emerged as the leading candidate. Mr Shahristani, a Shia, spent almost a decade in prison under Saddam Hussein after refusing to build a nuclear weapon, but he escaped into exile in 1991.
"There is no final list yet, we are still working on it," said the spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, who denied that Mr Shahristani was the leading contender for the post. "Now his life could be in danger," he added, now that Mr Shahristani's name had been leaked...
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - With only a few days left, the U.N.'s hunt for Iraqis to fill 30 posts in a new government heated up Wednesday. But a scientist who was said to be the front-runner for the prime minister's job took himself out of contention.
Hussain al-Shahristani, a Canadian-educated nuclear expert who says Saddam Hussein jailed him for refusing to help develop bombs, was mentioned in recent days as having the inside track for prime minister, the most important job in the transition government to take office June 30...
