By Kelly McEvers, NPR, April 11, 2011

....Reaching Out To Bahrainis

Chalabi and his colleagues in the Iraqi National Congress are working on all kinds of issues these days. His pet cause is Bahrain, a country where mass protests that started in February have been met with a brutal crackdown.

Chalabi's group is organizing conferences featuring Bahraini opposition figures from London, like Qasim al-Hashmi. Speaking to a handful of Iraqi journalists, Hashmi breaks down over the plight of Bahraini protesters. They went into the streets carrying flowers, he says, and they were met with tanks and rifles.

When asked why he's raising these concerns in Iraq, Hashmi says, "This is the first time we found a brother — a big brother — who is ... leading us, who's giving us guidance, who's giving us advice, who is helping us, who is putting their hand into our hand and [saying], 'Come, I'll take your case to the world together.' "

That hand is coming from Chalabi. And it's not just the Bahrainis he's helping.....