Former Iraqi Judge Radhi al-Radhi, recently forced out as the top anticorruption official of Iraq, is scheduled to testify next Thursday before the House government oversight and reform committee chaired by Representative Henry Waxman. Radhi can be expected to repeat what he told me in an exclusive interview: that the Iraqi government of Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki is so riddled with corruption that it cannot function and ought to be abolished.

His appearance on Capitol Hill--quite a juxtaposition to the visit of General David Petraeus--could be quite a blow for the White House, given that George W. Bush has argued that the U.S. is fighting in Iraq to create a "breathing space" in which the Maliki government can achieve national reconciliation and provide security and services to the Iraqi people. Yet if the government is, as Radhi says, corrupt to the core, this strategy might be unworkable.

So it's no surprise that the State Department has not done much to help Radhi, who has been essentially stranded in the United States. He was forcibly retired while in Washington for a training session. And now that he has so maligned the Maliki government, he would be in danger were he to return to Baghdad.

I'll have more on this soon.

WORDS OF ADVICE. If you're in Washington, DC this weekend, you ought to check out an art project at the Kennedy Center being mounted by Jenny Holzer, one of the most prominent American artists. Here's how The Washington Post describes it

Holzer will use high-powered projectors to cast text from the River Terrace of the Kennedy Center across the Potomac River and onto the island. Quotations from the two memorials' namesakes -- Presidents John F. Kennedy and Theodore Roosevelt -- will scroll like movie credits from 7 to midnight each night through Sunday. The best viewing spot will be the terrace itself, which will be open to the public.

Holzer has compiled an hour's worth of quotes, which will run on a loop. Her design calls for the words to start on the river and then rise to the trees on the island. The white text will be so huge that only one line will fit on the trees at a time.

The project, called for FOR THE CAPITOL, has been organized by Street Scenes DC: Projects for Washington, an independent outfit that organizes temporary public art works. The quotes Holzer has selected are particularly relevant these days. Here's a sample:

"We cannot, as a free nation, compete with our adversaries in tactics of terror, assassination, false promises, counterfeit mobs and crises." -- John F. Kennedy

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."-- Roosevelt

Get it? Kinda subversive, isn't it? For more information and to see other quotes Holzer is casting across the Potomac, click here. Oh, by the way, Street Scenes is co-curated by Welmoed Laanstra, who happens to be my wife.

Posted by David Corn at September 14, 2007 11:42 AM