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Amed Chalabi: Conning the Neocons |
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Chalabi gets the most credit for selling us the Iraq war. He sold fabricated WMD stories to CBS 60 Minutes, The New York Times, the Associated Press, all the neocons, the White House, and many in Congress. But the pinnacle of his success was getting his fake bio-weapons stories [Winnebagoes of Death] into the CIA’s National Intelligence Estimate used by Congress to vote on the war, and into Powell’s speech to the UN. Later after, we installed him in the new Iraq government he was found passing top secret information to the Iranians.
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Amad Chalabi has been with the neocons since 1985. He contributed the most spectacular misinformation to Bush's 2002 State of the Union message, and Powell's speech to the U.N., and the media. Eventually the U.S. stopped paying him when they discovered him spying for Iran.
• 1985. Introduced by Perle to Wolfowitz in 1985.
• 1992. First chairman of INC, an Iraqi opposition umbrella group.
• 1995. Organized an attempted coup against Saddam. Found out by Saddam before it was launched, the CIA refused military backing, but Chalabi went ahead, losing 100s of INC soldiers. ( Washington Post)
• 1998. Helped push the Iraq Liberation Act through Congress. It earmarked $97 million to support Iraqi opposition groups, virtually all of which was funneled through the INC.
• 1999. Wurmser says: Chalabi is one of "two mentors who guided my understanding of the Middle East."
• 2001. PNAC's "Director of the Middle East Initiative" writes: "Chalabi may be ideal for the task [leading oposition and Iraq]. ... Chalabi also established his own intelligence service, which dwarfed the reach and understanding of the CIA's clandestine service."
• 2002, Jan. Kristol and Kagan write: "The United States should support Ahmad Chalabi."
• 2002, Mar. 3. Chalabi's defector, an Iraqi "major," tells Leslie Stahl of CBS's 60 Minutes about mobile biological-weapons labs in seven trucks that he personally purchased.
• 2002, Oct. 1. National Intelligence Estimate delivered to Congress (in preparation for the vote on the Iraq War Resolution, Oct. 11) includes fabricated information on bio-weapons from Chalabi's "major."
Chalabi, a secular Iraqi Shiite from a wealthy banking family, left Iraq in 1956 at age 12. Founded a Jordanian bank in 1978; fled country in '89; received 22 year sentence for embezzlement. Now Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq with authority over Oil.
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WMD Report to President, March 31, 2005
Despite the fabrication notice, reporting from the INC source regarding Iraqi mobile BW facilities started to be used again several months later in finished intelligence—eventually ending up in the October 2002 NIE and in Secretary Powell’s February 2003 speech to the United Nations Security Council. (p.109)
Shortly after Defense HUMINT’s initial debriefing of the INC source in February 2002, however, a foreign liaison service and the CIA’s Directorate of Operations (DO) judged him to be a fabricator. (p.85) |
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• 2003, April 9. USA Today reports: "To U.S. supporters, including Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, Chalabi is a selfless patriot who has devoted most of his adult life to freeing Iraq from Saddam's repression. ... Other early Chalabi backers include Richard Perle, former chairman of a Pentagon advisory board, and Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of Defense."
• 2004, February. Poll of Iraqis finds that Chalabi comes in 12th with 0.6% backing, and when asked if there were any they did not trust at all, Chalabi came in first with 45%, Saddam second with 14%.
• 2004, Early May. The U.S. intercepts an Iranian message from an agent in Baghdad to Tehran saying Chalabi had told him the U.S. can read Iran's secret cables. With White House approval, the Pentagon cut off Chalabi's funds .
• 2004, May 20. Iraqi police backed by U.S. troops raid Chalabi's Baghdad house, find counterfeit money and classified information. Chalabi said he collected the fake currency in his role as chairman of the Governing Council's finance committee.
• 2004, June. FBI conducts probe of Pentagon to find who leaked information to Chalabi.
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The End
PopNotes below can by seen by clicking icons above.
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Tyranny's Ally: America's Failure to Defeat Saddam Hussein
by David Wurmser, March 1999.
"First are the two mentors who guided my understanding of the Middle East: Professor Abbas Kelidar and Ahmad Chalabi. (from the Acknowledgements)"
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Liberate Iraq, by Reuel Gerecht, May 14, 2001
Reuel Gerecht is Director of the Middle East Initiative at PNAC.
Foreign Affairs published a high-profile attack on the INC ... It left the impression that Ahmad Chalabi is definitely not the man to lead the opposition, let alone the nation. ... Yet Chalabi may be ideal for the task, for the very reasons that often cause critics to trash him. He is rich, upper class (in the old-world sense), well educated, highly Westernized, an expatriate, and, last but not least, a Shi'ite Arab.
but the critical factor for his leadership would be America's support. Once Chalabi was chosen by us, everyone else -- the Kurds, the Sunni and Shi'ite Arabs, the Turks, Iranians, Kuwaitis, and Saudis -- would view him in an entirely new light.
Chalabi also established his own intelligence service, which dwarfed the reach and understanding of the CIA's clandestine service.
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Kagan, William Kristol
Weekly Standard, January 21, 2002
"The United States should support Ahmad Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress--they are essential parts of any solution in Iraq."
Kristol and Kagan founded PNAC.
Kristol founded and edits The Weekly Standard.
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Chalabi Supported by Noecons
Chalabi stirs post-war politics
By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY, 4/9/2003
Of outside figures likely to be in attendance, Chalabi (pronounced CHA-la-bee) is the most controversial. To U.S. supporters, including Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Chalabi is a selfless patriot who has devoted most of his adult life to freeing Iraq from Saddam's repression. ... Other early Chalabi backers include Richard Perle, former chairman of a Pentagon advisory board, and Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of Defense.
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National Survey of Iraq: Chalabi's Popularity
Oxford Research International Poll, February 2004
Which national leader in Iraq, if any, do you trust the most?
Talabani, 3rd with 14.4% (the current President)
Chalabi, 12th with 0.6%
And, if any, which one do you not trust at all? (Out of a list of 28)
Chalabi, 1st with 44.7%
Hussein, 2nd with 13.6% (Saddam)
Talabani, 7th with 4.0%
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Chalabi Not Arrested on Counterfeiting Charges for Political Reasons
USA Today, 8/12/04
Iraq police say they won't arrest Chalabi
news/world/iraq/2004-08-12-iraq-chalabi_x.htm
Kadhim said security forces were busy concentrating on putting down the violence wracking the country. "We want to look after the interests of the country. These are only subsidiary things between a citizen and a legal body," he added.
Iraqi police backed by U.S. troops found counterfeit money along with old dinars when they raided Chalabi's Baghdad house in May, al-Maliky said previously. He apparently was mixing counterfeit money with real money and changing it into new dinars on the street, the judge said.
Ahmad Chalabi said he collected the fake currency in his role as chairman of the Governing Council's finance committee.
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http://zfacts.com/p/151.html | 01/18/12 07:17 GMT
Modified: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 21:58:27 GMT
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