Where's Jim Woolsey? Is he now Iraq's Ministry of Information or not?

October 7, 2004 3:27 PM

Where's Woolsey ? - Last year, I read that Jim Woolsey was going to be the Minister of Information for Iraq's Interim Government. But I can't seem to determine whether he's there now or not. can anybody find Woolsey ? He's a tricky one.
posted by troutfishing to Law & Government (3 answers total)

this Woolsey? I think he is around here.
posted by MzB at 4:35 PM on October 7, 2004

Woolsey: just such a cool name to have. I love saying it!
posted by ParisParamus at 10:10 PM on October 7, 2004

Woolsey was mooted by the Pentagon for the occupation government. As things happened, the Pentagon lost the war-within-the-administration and you will recall that Lt. Gen. Jay Garner was replaced by Paul Bremer, which sidelined a lot of things, good and bad, which had been pushed from across the Potomac.

You will also note that Woolsey was an associate -- probably even an advocate -- of some fellow named Ahmed Chalabi. One can draw some pretty obvious conclusions from that.

In any case, the strategy chosen by Bremer and the Coalition Provision Authority differed greatly from the ideas some had of Uncle-Duke-like Occupation Viziers. The CPA had Iraqis heading up ministries, who were closely advised nudge-nudge-wink-wink by American experts, who were largely anonymous bureaucrats. There was, however, no Ministry of Information; that position and Minister of Defense were dissolved.

Last month, the Woolster was in Tulsa.
posted by dhartung at 2:29 AM on October 8, 2004