The Wall Street Journal reports, "In his latest remarkable political reincarnation, onetime US favourite Ahmed Chalabi has secured a position inside the Iraqi government that could help determine whether the Bush administration's new push to secure Baghdad succeeds."

The vaguely defined position will allow Chalabi to serve "as an intermediary between Baghdad residents & the Iraqi & US security forces mounting an aggressive counterinsurgency campaign across the city."

Created by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the position "is meant to help Iraqis arrange reimbursement for damage to their cars & homes caused by the security sweeps in the hope of maintaining public support for the strategy."

Chalabi has had a sordid history with the US involvement in Iraq. He was paid by administration intelligence agencies to provide evidence for the Iraq war, nearly all of which turned out to be false. Among Chalabi's questionable activities, he provided dubious Iraqi sources to the administration in the run-up to the war, he helped plant fabricated news stories about Iraq's weapons & he was accused of passing U.S. secrets to Iran.

In the Dec. 2005 Iraqi elections, Chalabi's political party failed to win a single parliamentary seat. He has remained, however, "an active behind-the-scenes player in Iraq's chaotic political scene." A senior American official said, "The question is whether he is really doing this to help, or whether he's trying to build himself a new political base in Baghdad or carry water for the Shiites. And we simply don't know the answer to that yet."