Late for Tea at the Deer Palace: The Lost Dreams of My Iraqi Family. Tamara Chalabi

coup d’etat takes place, leaving the Ba’athists in charge. Ni’mati dies. 1969 Hassan is the last family member to leave for Beirut. Ahmad returns from the U.S. with a Phd in Mathematics, then travels with Hassan to Iran to meet with Mulla Mustafa Barzani, a Kurdish leader fighting the Ba’athists for Kurdish autonomy. Ahmad takes teaching post at the American University of Beirut. 1975 The Persian Gulf Treaty is signed in Algiers, resolving a dispute between Iran and Iraq over the Persian Gulf and reneging on a promise to allow Kurds autonomy in Iraq. Civil war breaks out in Lebanon. 1978 Ahmad establishes the Petra Bank in Jordan. 1979 The Iranian revolution overthrows the Shah. An Islamic government led by Ayatollah Khomeini emerges. Saddam Hussein takes over as president of Iraq. Saddam accuses several Baghdadi Jews of espionage and executes them. He then executes leading religious scholar Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Bint al-Huda. He liquidates many members of the Ba’ath Party disloyal to him. 1980 The Iran–Iraq war is provoked by Saddam Hussein. Entire communities, predominantly Shi’a, are forcibly deported from Iraq. 1982 Israel invades Lebanon. 1988 Hadi dies and is buried in Damascus. Saddam Hussein launches the genocidal al-Anfal campaign against the Kurds. Civilians in Halabja are gassed with chemical weapons. As many as 182,000 people are killed. The Iran–Iraq war ends in stalemate, with over one million dead. 1989 Bibi dies and is buried next to Hadi, despite her wish to be in interred in Najaf. Ahmad is in Jordan when martial law is declared. Under threat of handover to Saddam, Ahmad flees Jordan and enters fully into opposition politics. Ahmad and his family move to London. 1990 Saddam invades Kuwait. The First Gulf War, led by U.S.-coalition forces, forces Saddam to withdraw. 1991 United Nations sanctions are imposed on Iraq. 1992 The Iraqi National Congress, an umbrella group for all forces opposed to Saddam’s regime, holds its founding conference. Ahmad plays a leading role. He later moves to Iraqi Kurdistan, to a U.N. no-fly zone, where the INC holds its first conference on Iraqi soil. 1994 Tamara first visits Iraq. 1996 Saddam Hussein’s forces attack Arbil, a town in the no-fly zone, kill INC members and demolish their set up. Many flee to the Turkish border. 1998 Rushdi dies and is buried in London. Ahmad plays leading role in lobby for Iraq Liberation Act that is passed by U.S. Congress. 2001 Najla dies and is buried next to Hadi and Bibi are now in Damascus. Al-Qaeda attack of the World Trade Centre in New York City. The U.S. declares war on the Taliban in Afghanistan. 2003 In January, the INC crosses on foot into Iraqi Kurdistan. In March, U.S. coalition forces attack Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime. The Iraqi Museum and National Archives are looted. Ahmad, Tamara and the INC group arrive in Baghdad on April 15. In May, U.N, Security Council Resolution 1483 declares a U.S.-coalition occupation of Iraq. The Iraqi Governing Council is appointed in July. Ahmad is one of 9 rotating members. A Coalition Provisional Authority is formed. The Iraqi Governing Council is appointed during this period. Saddam Hussein is captured in a hole in the ground by U.S. forces. A Special Tribunal is established to try Saddam and senior Ba’ath government members for crimes against humanity. 2004 Transitional Iraqi government is established. Bibi’s remains are transferred to Najaf. 2005 First nationwide elections are held in Iraq. Ahmad Chalabi becomes Deputy Prime Minister. 2006 Saddam Hussein is executed. 2007 Hassan visits Baghdad for the first time since 1969.

      Prologue

      THE KITCHEN WAS bare, an abandoned room. The sole trace of its former occupants was a squat, white bone-china teapot. I reached for it, turning it over in my hands. On its underside were stamped the words ‘State of India’. Alone in this silent space, the teapot spoke to me of a bygone era that had come to an abrupt end.

      It was 19 April 2003, ten days after the fall of Baghdad to the US-led coalition forces, and the city, depleted and derelict, was grappling with a new reality. The heat of the day was intolerable, and I could feel my very eyeballs become coated in perspiration, a strange and unwelcome sensation. This was my first ever visit to Baghdad, my father’s home, his parents’ and grandparents’ before him, and theoretically mine as well. I had arrived in the capital after a long car journey from the south in the company of my father – Ahmad Chalabi, a leading opposition figure to Saddam Hussein’s fallen regime.

      Everybody asks me about my father. He has been labelled a maverick, a charlatan, a genius. He has been named as the source of supposedly faulty intelligence that led America into the war in Iraq. He has been called a triple agent for the US, Iran and Israel. But this is my story. He has his own tale to tell, although I acknowledge that my father has played a pivotal role in shaping my relationship to his country, Iraq. As with everything in the Middle East, nothing makes sense until you understand the past, and the past is never straightforward.

      During this, my first visit to Baghdad, whole convoys and fresh hordes were descending on the capital: the streets were busy with an assortment of opposition leaders, formerly exiled professionals, gold diggers and prospectors, sceptical foreign journalists – and ordinary Iraqis: doctors, lawyers, carpenters and shopkeepers who were returning home. For many, their homecoming was clearly a source of mixed emotions. For my part, as I entered the city with a large group of Iraqis