Alsammarae appears in Dubai, and mid level officals not making any waves

Rezko friend Ahim Alsammarae appeared in Dubai yesterday per this from CBS.

Also, two paragraphs from a redacted CPA memo Jason Vest used for this story on Iraqi Reconstruction. Here are two paragraphs from the memo with probable references to Alsammarae. He's one with a photo with Bush as described below.

I've always believed (and still do) we fight in Iraq to bring Democracy. I didn't realize we were bringing Democracy with a Chicago face though.

Read the whole memo.

Iraqis politicians, ordinary Iraqis, and U.S. contractors have the sense that Bremer’s goal is to leave Iraq with his reputation intact. He therefore hesitates to take tough but necessary decisions, instead hoping to foist them onto his successor or international organizations. Success should not be seen as the state of Iraqi on June 30, but rather the state of Iraq on July 31, September 30, or November 30. It is essential we transfer sovereignty to an Iraq built upon the strongest possible template. We need to use our prerogative as occupying power to signal that corruption will not be tolerated. We have the authority to remove ministers. To take action against men like [REDACTED] would win us applause on the street, even if their GC sponsors would go through the motions of complaint. The alleged kickbacks that [REDACTED] is accepting should be especially serious for us, since he was one of two ministers who met the President and has his picture taken with him. If such information gets buried on the desks of middle-level officials who do not want to make waves [Baar's emphasis], then short-term gain will be replaced by long-term ill.

We so share culpability in the eyes of ordinary Iraqis. After all, we appointed the Governing Council members. Their corruption is our corruption. When [REDACTED] work to exclude followers of other trends of Shi’a political thought from minister and deputy minister positions, Iraqis blame Bremer, especially because the Governance Group had assured Iraqis that their exclusion from the Governing Council did not mean an exclusion from the process. As it turned out, we lied. People from Kut, for example, see that they have no representation on the Governing Council, and many predict civil war since they doubt that the Governing Council will really allow elections.

Make no waves... Milt Rakove would know. I hope Fitzgerald gets Alsammarae talking.

update: from the end of the CBS story. Only from Chicago....

The flamboyant former minister peppered his remarks on Monday with colorful statements, saying he has ``lovers everywhere in the world'' and that his defense would be easier if Iraq adopted libel laws similar to those in the United States.

``We have to start suing those guys so they shut up,'' he said of Iraqi court officials who have declared him a fugitive from justice.