Banker, Crook, Broker, Spy
by Mary
Ahmed Chalabi, the guy who almost single-handedly created the Iraq war so he could have his own little fiefdom is in big trouble. Yesterday, Steve had a question about whether the spooks finally been able to make the case against Chalabi and, indeed, who in the government was passing information on to him so he could pass it on to Iran.
The Bush administration is finally agreeing that Chalabi had passed bad information to them and even the neocons in the government are stepping back from him to the confusion of his good neocon pals, Richard Perle and Michael Ledeen. They are loudly decrying how the administration is listening to the CIA and doing a disservice to Chalabi who has done wonderful things for the US.
Nevertheless, someone was finally able to convince Bush that Chalabi was no pal of the US and that someone was probably King Abdullah of Jordan. Jordan had never been happy with Chalabi after he defrauded the Jordanian people and they have a jail cell waiting for him. Now they might have to wait in line.
The LA Times is reporting that the information Chalabi was passing was very sensitive.
Officials said other evidence indicated that Chalabi's intelligence chief had furnished Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security with highly classified information on U.S. troop movements, top-secret communications, plans of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority and other closely guarded material on U.S. operations in Iraq.
The U.S. investigation into the suspected spy operation was a key reason behind Thursday's raids on Chalabi's Baghdad house and the offices of his Iraqi National Congress. Several INC members were accused of kidnapping, robbery and corruption.
Are we sinking into Iraq because of a huge con-game played out by Ahmed Chalabi? And then once we were good and stuck in the mire, did he provide intelligence to a hostile country that jeopardizes US interests? And as Steve asked, who is still tipping off Chalabi? Kevin Drum suggests keeping up with the latest on this story by following Laura Rozen's site. She does have a wealth of information and a lot of contacts feeding her tips and questions to ask. Maybe now we will finally get to know why our troops are dying in a land that was no threat to the US?
