Also lending a diplomatic hand: nonprofit organization, Independent Diplomat, which has corralled former ambassadors and foreign service types to work with the nascient government as it seeks to work with other governments.

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In his later career as a diplomat for newly independent Norway and for the League of Nations, Nansen employed the infamous Vidkun Quisling.

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Chalabi was joined by fellow council members Adnan Pachachi, a former Iraqi foreign minister who now represents the Iraqi Independent Democrats, and Aquila al-Hashemi, who had been a mid-level diplomat in Saddam's Foreign Ministry.

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