Chalabi Quotes

#1. My meetings with [Ahmed Chalabi] were very brief. I mean, I think I met with him at the State of the Union and just kind of working through the rope line, and he might have come with a group of leaders. But I haven't had any extensive conversations with him.

George W. Bush

#2. Iraq will not allow any action on its soil that could harm the U.S. We don't want any action from our soil to target our neighbors.

Ahmed Chalabi

#3. Are Iraqis ready to carry the responsibility for their country? Is Iraq ready to be its own master? We want to be the masters of ourselves and to carry our responsibilities in this region.

Ahmed Chalabi

#4. American companies will have a big shot at Iraqi oil,

Ahmed Chalabi

#5. It will be a war of national liberation. We believe the people reject totalitarianism.

Ahmed Chalabi

#6. I started reading. I read everything I could get my hands on ... By the time I was thirteen I had read myself out of Harlem. I had read every book in two libraries and had a card for the Forty-Second Street branch.

James A. Baldwin

#7. I strongly believe that a federal structure based on administrative and geographic lines with strong powers for the federated states will be the best solution for Iraq.

Ahmed Chalabi

#8. Do not seek to find a reason why elections are not possible. Seek to make them possible, and they will be possible.

Ahmed Chalabi

#9. You know the most important thing the Americans did for Iraq apart from liberating the country from Saddam was helping Iraq reduce its debt. The United States worked very hard to reduce 80 percent of Iraqi debt.

Ahmed Chalabi

#10. Our nature gives us purpose, to reflect and act upon, responsibly by choice.

Xavier Rosseel

#11. I don't think that they have many of the scientists who were involved in the weapons program to talk to at this time, and there were thousands of people, engineers and scientists, they know where the weapons are.

Ahmed Chalabi

#12. And we are grateful to the American young men and women who are risking their lives to give the Iraqi people this chance, this dream of democracy in Iraq now.

Ahmed Chalabi

#13. The meeting is called by the U.S. to give their vision of the interim Iraqi authority. It will be a one-day meeting. And the U.S. will present its vision, and there will be a statement after the meeting.

Ahmed Chalabi

#14. Sectarian politics gets votes in Iraq. But sectarian government fails in Iraq.

Ahmed Chalabi

#15. The view that we hold in Iraq now is this - that democracy is associated with elections. I believe that elections are possible.

Ahmed Chalabi

#16. The sweetest pleasure arises from difficulties overcome.

Publilius Syrus

#17. The Americans stabbed in the back the forces that worked to bring about the collapse of Saddam's regime and wanted to keep Iraq a sovereign country.

Ahmed Chalabi

#18. It's customary when great events happen that the U.S. punishes its friends and rewards its enemies.

Ahmed Chalabi

#19. All Iraqis can unite to defeat terrorism and can unite to rebuild the country.

Ahmed Chalabi

#20. To handle the economy and services in a country like Iraq requires delegation of authority and the choice of competent people.

Ahmed Chalabi

#21. The Iraqi people are living a long-running tragedy because of the legacy of the old regime, the Americans and their actions that are unsuitable for Iraqi society, and the weakness of national resolve.

Ahmed Chalabi

#22. The battle against terrorism is not only a military fight but primarily a battle of information.

Ahmed Chalabi

#23. America betrays its friends. It sets them up and betrays them. I'd rather be America's enemy.

Ahmed Chalabi

#24. What was said before is not important.

Ahmed Chalabi

#25. I call on the international community to be fair to the Iraqi people. My position is that we respect international resolutions but in return demand justice and accountability for those who stole Iraq's money.

Ahmed Chalabi

#26. The issue of what my role in the - in persuading the Bush administration to go to war has been greatly exaggerated.

Ahmed Chalabi

#27. Only this shimmeriness is the real living. The shape is a dead crust. The shimmer is inside really.

D.H. Lawrence

#28. I did more than anyone else in persuading the U.S. to get rid of Saddam.

Ahmed Chalabi

#29. The fight against corruption is not bound to high-profile arrests and high-profile investigations. The fight against corruption is successful if you prevent corruption taking place in the first place.

Ahmed Chalabi

#30. The issue of terrorism must be dealt with firmly. We must work very hard to avoid loss of life. We must work very hard to avoid civilian casualties. And those terrorists and Baathists are holding the people of Fallujah hostage. We must release the hostages.

Ahmed Chalabi

#31. Give unto us this day the daily manna Without which, in this desert where we dwell, He must go backward who would most advance.

Dante Alighieri