A leaked memo from a member of Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) says the CPA "'handle(s) an issue like six-year-olds play soccer: Someone kicks the ball and one hundred people chase after it hoping to be noticed, without a care as to what happens on the field."

The memo has a lot more pessimism and criticism for the CPA, yet it praises Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi, so it is presumably from one of his cabal members. Chalabi's sordid past and much-raking opportunism were blindly overlooked by the Australian media two days ago when he was presented as a spokesperson for the Iraqi people, urging us to keep our troops in their country.

As Robert Dreyfuss wrote in November 2002, "Chalabi is scorned by most of America's national security establishment, including much of the State Department, the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is shunned by all Western powers save the UK, ostracised in the Arab world and disdained even by many of his erstwhile comrades in the Iraqi opposition.

"Among his few friends, however, are the men running the Bush Administration's willy-nilly war on Iraq. And with their backing, it's not inconceivable this hapless, exiled Iraqi aristocrat and London playboy might end up atop the smoking heap of what's left of Iraq ..."