Eoghan Harris

Eoghan Harris is an Irish journalist for the Sunday Independent. He is the former media adviser to John Bruton and has trained Iraqi con-man Ahmad Chalabi in "television techniques". Among other things he claimed to be "impressed by [Chalabi's] vision of a Gulf settlement where Israel would be treated as a good neighbour". He was a staunch supporter of the invasion of Iraq. A vocal opponent of Sinn Féin and the IRA, he worked for former head of Fine Gael, John Bruton, and advised Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble.

INC-Neocon Nexus

Harris met Ahmad Chalabi in Washington in March 2001. He said that Chalabi "reminded me of the Fenian John Devoy, plotting the removal what he saw as a repressive regime in his native land."In another account of this meeting he wrote:

I first met Chalabi in Washington in March 2001, in the company of Richard Perle, a few months after George W Bush had been elected, and met later in London where I gave him some media training. We bonded from the start, and the basis of the bond was his instinctive feel for Ireland.

Chalabi is a constitutional revolutionary in the mould of Michael Collins (he was most interested in my account of Collins's activities), but his link to Ireland is even more practical. Back in 1998, Chalabi selected Drogheda as a "safe house" for a critical series of meetings with leaders of the Iraqi opposition in exile.

In an April 2003 letter to the Daily Telegraph, Harris warned Tony Blair against marginalising Chalabi.

If Mr Blair betrays Mr Chalabi to the CIA and the State Department, he will be betraying himself, because if Mr Blair met Mr Chalabi, face to face, for a long frank talk, I am certain that the State Department scales would fall from his eyes and he would see that Mr Chalabi shares most of his views and all of his vision.

In August 2003, Harris argued that the US invasion of Iraq was benign, but "flawed because it failed to take the advice of Ahmad Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress to accompany the American forces with an armed Iraqi militia which could have created the momentum for a transfer of power to local authorities as happened in Germany and Japan.

In November 2003, Harris wrote that Bush's approach to the occupation of Iraq was moving closer to that of Chalabi and the neocons. "Like David Trimble, Ahmed Chalabi is one of the good guys. They may not win, but they deserve the support of democrats to the last ditch.

In April 2004, Harris wrote:

Iraq is no Vietnam. Neither the BBC nor RTE reported that the 36th Militia Brigade, attached to Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, cleared Saddamite insurgents out of Nasirya with a robust energy that earned the admiration of the American marines.

In May 2004, Harris wrote:

AS I climbed the hill to Bantry Hospital, the car radio announced that the American occupation forces had raided the offices of Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress in Baghdad. This is the man whom the Trotty media, from the Irish Times to Phoenix, tried to tell us was an American stooge.

Harris defended Chalabi against allegations that he was in 'secret cahoots with Iran', claiming that the State Department and CIA opposed him because they could not manipulate him.

"Secret? When I met Chalabi in Washington in March 2001, he openly spoke to all around him of his admiration for Iran which has helping him to subvert Saddam Hussein."

While praising Chalabi's patriotism, Harris suggested that:

Iraq was never a natural nation, more a series of straight lines drawn by Britain on a map.Chalabi first tried to make Iraq work, but if it fails, he will fall back on the Realpolitik of Iran's involvement in a new Shia state.

In October 2005, Harris paid tribute to the role of Ahmad Chalabi in securing the release of Irish journalist Rory O'Carroll from captivity in Iraq:

Most commentators on Iraq know that Chalabi had connections with Iran. But what interests me is that this clout is strong enough for Chalabi to contact Tehran and get the Iranian government to intervene on behalf of an Irish journalist. Given Chalabi's central position in Shia politics,this tells us that Shia Iraqis increasingly a snug partner of Iran.

In 2006, Harris said he was not paid for his work as a spin-doctor:

The five politicians to whom I pledged my pen and brain - Proinsias De Rossa, Mary Robinson, John Bruton, David Trimble, and Ahmed Chalabi (currently in charge of Iraq's de-Ba'athification programme, who sent me his regards when he was in London a few weeks ago to speak at the Policy Exchange) - have no complaints about the work I did for them.