Adelman) and that Iraqis would throng the streets to welcome allied Western troops in something akin to a replay of the liberation of Paris? A large part of the answer boils down to one name: Ahmad Chalabi, the well-to-do émigré Iraqi who fronted the grandly-named Iraqi National Congress spearheading opposition to Saddam Hussein.

Chalabi had the ear of influential members of the US Congress; his group received generous funding from the US administration, and Chalabi himself was ubiquitous in the run-up to the Iraq war, when he was seen by the US and the UK as the person to lead post-Saddam Iraq. The informer known as “Curveball”, who supplied the crucial last-minute (and wrong) intelligence on Iraq’s biological weapons was related to a Chalabi aide.

How come, it might befor military action in August 2013 – and this had a knock-on effect in Paris and Washington. But they carried on their lobbying undeterred, and they were hardly left empty-handed.

The dangerous influence of expats By Michael Burleigh

The UK might not have launched air raids or deploy regular troops, but it did send special forces and it did supply funds, including to the White Helmets rescue service. The opposition exiles also dominated the media space with the help of an initially tiny operation with an authoritative name – the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – which also received taxpayers’ money. Until very recently, theirs was the view of the Syria conflict that prevailed in the UK and the US.

UK-Russia relations are another area where opposition exiles have made an