Ms Bonnie Goldstein doesn't know what she's writing about. The only conflict of interest Peter Galbraith can be justifiably accused of was when he contributed op-ed pieces to The New York Times without sufficient disclosure. In fairness to Mr Galbraith, he did disclose that he was "a principal at the Windham Resources Group, which has worked in Iraq." Perhaps the NYT editors saw no need to pursue that disclosure.

Other than that, no, Mr Galbraith did not hide his interests from Kurdish authorities when they hired him as an advisor (it wasn't an unpaid job) during Iraq's constitutional negotiations in 2005; he did not hide his interests from the UN when he was hired as the deputy head of the mission in Afghanistan; and he was never an advisor to either Joe Biden or John Kerry. He wrote a book though, called "The End of Iraq", which is an essential read for any Middle East commentator or policy-maker worth his or her salt.

Ms Goldstein has evidently not flicked through even the first few pages of "The End of Iraq", since she doesn't appear to be aware that Peter Galbraith took his first trip to Iraqi Kurdistan in September 1987, and that he has championed Kurdish self-determination ever since. Who else, but an altruist like Peter Galbraith, would dare to risk his career and credibility in Washington more than twenty years ago, documenting the crimes committed against Kurds by Saddam's regime during the genocidal Anfal campaign, and promoting the Kurdish cause which was extremely unpopular within the pro-Saddam US foreign policy establishment at the time?

I am a Kurd, and I am delighted that Peter Galbraith is finally rewarded financially for his more than twenty years of principled and dedicated loyalty to Kurdistan's self-determination. He became a Kurdish mountain (after the old Kurdish proverb of "we have no friends but mountains") when there was the smell of mustard and sarin gas in the air, not the whiff of oil. Over two decades, he trained Iraqi Kurdish leadership in the art of diplomacy, and thus contributing to the transformation of fiery peshmerga commanders into wily politicians. He is worth his weight in diamonds, Peter Galbraith. No amount of character assasination can devalue his worth before people struggling for freedom.

Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that the denunciation of Galbraith originated from Norway after he accused Norway's top diplomat, Kai Eide, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, of election fraud cover-up, a link that Ms Bonnie Goldstein fails to establish clearly for her readers.

As for "the nomadic Kurdish tribes dwelling in the northern Iraqi provinces", all I can say is that it is time Ms Goldstein throw away her old editions of Encyclopedia Britannica.

Who else, but an altruist like Peter Galbraith, would dare to risk his career and credibility in Washington more than twenty years ago, documenting the crimes committed against Kurds by Saddam's regime during the genocidal Anfal campaign, and promoting the Kurdish cause which was extremely unpopular within the pro-Saddam US foreign policy establishment at the time?


Of course his partner in the Twake field was a weapons smuggler to Saddam...but hey if it dont bother you then it dont bother me