How can a Chicago politician appear clean? Invite someone even dirtier to a photo-op. Masud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, is in Washington, where he has talked about the merits of his own unique form of democracy in meetings with President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and cabinet officials. I doubt Obama, his cabinet, and Nancy Pelosi are that naïve about what’s going on now in Kurdistan. Most election fraud in Iraq nowadays involves Barzani’s party, and Reporters Sans Frontières has just released a new report on the harrassment, torture, and murder of journalists by Kurdish security forces led by Masud’s son, Masrour Barzani. Masrour, by the way, could soon be your neighbor, as word on the street and in Kurdish circles is that he has been hitting up lawyers around town and contacts in the Central Intelligence Agency seeking to expedite U.S. citizenship. This, of course, is not mentioned in his Wikipedia biography, which looks like it was written by Mu’ammar Qadhafi’s public-relations firm.
As Virgil Sollozzo said in The Godfather, “I need a man who has powerful friends. I need a million dollars in cash. I need, Don Corleone, all of those politicians that you carry around in your pocket, like so many nickels and dimes.” Alas, Barzani’s delegation confirms his mafioso status, and undercuts the high-priced image makeover Qubad Talabani, the president’s son, has sought by cultivating former U.S. officials like Gen. Jay Garner; Amb. Zalmay Khalilzad; Joe Reeder, former undersecretary of the army; and Peter Galbraith.
Family is everything. Rather than bring Prime Minister Barham Salih to his meetings, Barzani has left Barham back in Kurdistan, cooling his heels, and instead brought Nechervan Barzani who, on the downside, is an ex-prime minister but, on the upside, happens to be Masud’s nephew. As Don Corleone said, “A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.” Alas, a man who spends too much time with his family becomes something of a joke about town.