What they say...

What I think there is no question about is that when there is a democratic Iraq, and that is our goal, an Iraq that preserves the territorial integrity of that country... that truly cares for the welfare of its own people. It won't be only the people of Iraq that benefit from that; it will be the whole world and very much this region.

—— Paul Wolfowitz, July 2002

And what they mean...

Decisions on the government’s composition appear to be entirely in US hands, particularly those of Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defence. This has annoyed Gen [Jay] Garner, who is officially in charge but who, according to sources close to the planning of the government, has had to accept the inclusion of a number of controversial Iraqis in advisory roles.

The most controversial of Mr Wolfowitz’s proposed appointees is Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the opposition Iraqi National Congress, together with his close associates, including his nephew.

During his years in exile, Mr Chalabi has cultivated links with Congress to raise funds, and has become the Pentagon’s darling among the Iraqi opposition. The defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is one of his strongest supporters. The state department and the CIA, on the other hand, regard him with deep suspicion.

He has not lived in Iraq since 1956, apart from a short period organising resistance in the Kurdish north in the 1990s, and is thought to have little support in the country.

—— The Guardian, April 2003