New Ambassador’s Role in Iraq

THE new U.S. ambassador to the U.S., Thomas C. Foley, figured prominently in a Washington Post article on Sunday about alleged incompetence at the highest level among the Bush administration overseers in Iraq after the occupation.

According to the article Foley, who was sent to Iraq by Bush to oversee the privatization program there, placed a 24-year old Yale alumnus, Jay Hallen, in charge of the Iraq Stock Exchange even though Hallen had no financial background and was working in a junior position for a real estate firm in the U.S. when he applied for a job in Iraq.

According to the article, a litmus test was applied by senior Bush people to ensure that everyone in senior positions was a Bush loyalist even if they had no experience of the job.

Foley, a Harvard Business School classmate of Bush and a major contributor to his campaigns, was one of Bush’s most trusted aides in the country after the invasion.

By the Washington Post account Hallen made a mess of the job and infuriated the Iraqi traders who in the Saddam era had managed to run a fairly competent exchange by Arab world standards.

Hallen tried to upgrade the exchange overnight, seeking to put the latest financial structures and trading machines in place even though the old exchange consisted mainly of chalk and blackboard and handwritten orders.

Eventually, Hallen was eased aside and the exchange went back to its old ways.

Foley doesn’t figure anywhere else in the report, which outlines an astonishing level of incompetency especially among key figures sent in to run the police and health care systems.

Foley Briefed on North

FOLEY received his first briefing on where Irish American opinion is on Irish issues when he was guest of William Flynn and the National Committee on American Foreign Policy at a breakfast on Tuesday morning.

Those in attendance included Mitchell Reiss, senior envoy to Northern Ireland for the Bush administration, Rita O’Hare of Friends of Sinn Fein in the U.S. and British and Irish government representatives.

By all accounts Foley acquitted himself well, listening quietly as a debate raged on the issue of whether or not Sinn Fein should join the North’s police and making clear that he is on a learning curve.

He impressed those there, however, with his quick grasp of the situation in the North, one no doubt he will be reading and hearing a lot about in the next few weeks.

Foley is set to take up his position in November, in or around the time that the Irish and British governments have set a deadline for the return of agreed government between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party. It should make for an interesting breaking-in period.

Bush’s Numbers in the Tank

WHEN Foley arrives in Ireland he will have a tough job convincing his Irish hosts that President Bush is a man of great stature.

This week’s Sunday Tribune newspaper reported that Bush is disliked by 80% of the Irish electorate, an incredible figure for an American president.

The war in Iraq, of course, was the turning point in Ireland, as elsewhere in the world, but the number is still quite shocking. Bush’s all-out support of Israel in the recent war with Lebanon has also resulted in even more slippage for Bush, according to the Tribune. Ireland is one of the most pro-Palestinian countries in Europe.

It is hard to think of a president who is less popular abroad than Bush, even in historical context. It is extraordinary when you think that right after September 11 he was probably one of the most popular American presidents ever abroad.

Are Irish Anti-American?

SO are the Irish people anti-American or just anti-Bush? Consider this — former President Bill Clinton will be in Dublin next weekend, and thousands are lining up to pay $1,000 for the privilege to hear him.

Clinton, because of his work on the Irish peace process and his historic visits to Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, has always been a hugely popular figure in Ireland.

Even after impeachment Clinton went from strength to strength, a fact which surprised many who considered that Holy Catholic Ireland would look askance at his hijinks with Monica Lewinsky.

The truth, of course, is that the Irish view of America depends to a very large degree on whether they like the president or not. No doubt Bush would draw hundreds of thousands of protestors tomorrow if he visited in the same way Clinton drew equally numbers supporting him.

Being anti-Bush, it should be pointed out, is not the same as being anti-American.

Thompson In Ireland

AS we write, New York City Comptroller William Thompson, a potential candidate for mayor in 2009, is in Ireland for meetings with politicians and business leaders in Dublin and Belfast.

Thompson will deliver the keynote address at the Equality Forum organized by the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) and UNISON on Thursday, September 21. Also on the itinerary are meetings with Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern and Finance Minister Brian Cowen, and Northern Secretary Peter Hain. Thompson is due to return to New York on Friday.

“The Irish have helped make New York City what it is today, by the sweat of their brow, the power of their ideas, and the strength of their leadership,” Thompson said. “I look forward to meeting with representatives of the major political parties, as well as business and civic leaders to discuss the struggle for full equality in Northern Ireland and its implications for foreign investment.”

Sounds like the words of a future mayoral contender for sure.