Iraqi exile con men fed lies to Bush Adm. & Media

I'm not shocked.

interesting ... thank you.

Chalabi is also wanted (convicted in absentia) in Jordan for bank fraud.

At first, I thought you were talking about Ken Lay.

Source of war data still paid
Posted on Sun, Feb. 22, 2004
Source of war data still paid

BY JONATHAN LANDAY, WARREN STROBEL AND JOHN WALCOTT
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON - The Department of Defense is continuing to pay millions of dollars for information from the former Iraqi opposition group that produced some of the exaggerated and fabricated intelligence President Bush used to argue his case for war.

The Pentagon has set aside between $3 million and $4 million this year for the Information Collection Program of the Iraqi National Congress, led by Ahmed Chalabi, said two senior U.S. officials and a U.S. defense official.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because intelligence programs are classified.

The continuing support for the INC comes amid seven investigations into pre-war intelligence that Iraq was hiding illicit weapons and had links to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. An investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee is examining the INC's role.

The decision not to shut off spending for the INC's information-gathering effort could become another liability for Bush as the presidential campaign heats up.

Chalabi, who built close ties to officials in Vice President Dick Cheney's office and among top Pentagon officials, is on the Iraqi Governing Council, a body of 25 Iraqis installed by the United States to help administer the country following the ouster of Saddam Hussein in April.

The former businessman, who lobbied for years for a U.S.-backed military effort to topple Saddam, is publicly committed to making peace with Israel and providing bases in the heart of the oil-rich Middle East for use by U.S. forces fighting terrorism.

The INC's Information Collection Program started in 2001 and was "designed to collect, analyze and disseminate information" from inside Iraq, according to a letter the group sent in June 2002 to the staff of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Some of the INC's information alleged that Saddam was rebuilding his nuclear weapons program, which was destroyed by U.N. inspectors after the 1991 Gulf War, and was stockpiling banned chemical and biological weapons, according to the letter.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by Knight Ridder, said the information went directly to "U.S. government recipients" who included William Luti, a senior official in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's office, and John Hannah, a top national security aide to Cheney. The letter appeared to contradict denials made last year by top Pentagon officials that they were receiving intelligence on Iraq that bypassed established channels and vetting procedures.


The INC also supplied information from its collection program to leading news organizations in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, according to the letter to the Senate committee staff.

The State Department and the CIA, which soured on Chalabi in the 1990s, saw the INC's information as highly unreliable because it was coming from a source with a strong self-interest in persuading the United States to topple Saddam.

The Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded since the invasion that defectors turned over by the INC provided little worthwhile information, and that at least one of them, the source of an allegation that Saddam had mobile biological warfare laboratories, was a fabricator. A defense official said the INC did provide valuable material on Saddam's military and security apparatus.

Even so, dubious INC-supplied information found its way into the Bush administration's arguments for war, which included charges that Saddam was concealing illicit arms stockpiles and was supporting al-Qaeda.

No illicit weapons have been found, and senior U.S. officials say there is no compelling evidence that Saddam cooperated with al-Qaeda to attack Americans.

A senior administration official questioned whether the United States should still be funding the program.

"A huge amount of what was collected hasn't panned out," he said. "Some of it has turned out to have been either wrong or fabricated."

BBB
Evidently, the con continues. Why does this man continue to receive US taxpayer funds?

BBB

Iraqi National Congress faces number of investigations
Posted on Fri, Feb. 27, 2004
Iraqi National Congress faces growing number of investigations
By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The Iraqi National Congress, long championed by officials at the White House, Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, is facing a growing number of investigations into its provision of bogus intelligence on Iraq and whether some of its members may have tried to cash in on the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Democrats in the House of Representatives have asked the Defense Intelligence Agency to turn over raw intelligence supplied by the Iraqi exile group. They plan to review it for its accuracy and reliability, according to officials in the Bush administration and on Capitol Hill.

The move follows a recent decision by the Senate Intelligence Committee to expand its probe of prewar intelligence on Saddam to include the INC and other groups that played important roles in President Bush's decision to invade Iraq last March.

Democrats on the House intelligence panel were angered by reports that the DIA is continuing to pay the Iraqi group $3 million to $4 million a year for information, despite findings that show most of the group's earlier information on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and ties to terrorism was false.

The continuing payments were first reported on Feb. 22 by Knight Ridder.

The INC's leader, Ahmad Chalabi, has had powerful patrons in the offices of Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, as well as on both sides of the aisle in the U.S. Senate.

But three senior administration officials said the mood in Washington toward Chalabi has turned sharply cooler as a result of the revelations about prewar intelligence supplied by Iraqi defectors made available by his group.

In addition, several contracts for rebuilding Iraq that were won by firms with business or family ties to Chalabi are under intense scrutiny.

No criminal wrongdoing has been charged as a result of any of the probes.

One controversial contract for $327 million to supply equipment to the Iraqi armed forces was suspended by the U.S. Army this week following protests from the losing bidder.

A defense official said the DIA, the military's principal intelligence arm which is paying the INC to collect information on Iraq, isn't conducting any review of the INC's use of U.S. taxpayers' funds.

The senior officials said the White House's mood toward the INC changed markedly after Chalabi told a British newspaper on Feb. 18 that it didn't matter whether the group's prewar information was correct because its goal of ousting Saddam has been achieved.

Chalabi was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying: "As far as we're concerned we've been entirely successful. That tyrant Saddam is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important."

In a Feb. 20 letter to the newspaper's editor, Chalabi claimed he was misquoted.

The article "implies that I admitted to disseminating false information, this is absolutely untrue," Chalabi wrote. "For the record, the INC never `coached' Iraqi defectors nor did we ever knowingly pass on false information."

Several officials said Bush was angered by Chalabi's comments and determined to find out whether the INC or anyone with ties to it is seeking personal gain from the war in Iraq.

"His (Chalabi's) time is rapidly coming," said one senior official.

He and others spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized to speak for the administration and because of the political sensitivities involved.

A copy of the letter was supplied by former assistant defense secretary Richard Perle, a long-time Chalabi friend and booster.

The INC's Washington spokesman, Francis Brooke, was in Baghdad and couldn't be reached for comment.

The $327 million contract to equip the Iraqi armed forces was awarded to Nour USA, a Virginia firm incorporated last May.

Among Nour's management is A. Huda Farouki, a businessman with close ties to Chalabi.

The contract was suspended following protests by a Polish arms-trading firm that bid unsuccessfully for the work. The firm charged Nour submitted an unrealistically low bid and had insufficient experience.

The New York newspaper Newsday reported this week that Nour also bankrolled another firm, Erinys, which won an $80 million contract to provide security for Iraq's oil sector.

A U.S. military official engaged in Iraq policy and deeply critical of the INC and its leader said, "Chalabi's run is about over, and it's about time.

"A lot of the information they provided was suspect from the start - some of it was almost laughably false - but it got into the bloodstream anyway, and the minute he and his people got to Baghdad, we started hearing horror stories about them taking over other peoples' property - houses, cars and so on," the official said.

"Now we're looking to see whether they've stuck their noses into the (postwar reconstruction) contracting process, too," he said.

Chalabi lost a key Washington ally this week in Perle, who resigned from the Defense Policy Board, an influential committee that advises Rumsfeld. In his resignation letter, Perle said he didn't want his views to be misconstrued for Bush administration policy during the election season.

At a Washington event Friday, and in a later telephone interview, Perle denied reports that the Bush administration had asked him to resign.

Re: NEWSWEEK: The Rise and Fall of Chalabi: Bush's Mr. Wrong


This is both interesting and dangerous. The US Army in Iraq is playing politics.

Chalabi papers may expose prominent people's ties to Saddam
Mr. Chalabi makes many prominent Americans, European and Arabs uneasy because they don't know what several tons of Mukhabarat documents seized by INC will reveal about their secret dealings with Saddam. Rumor has it they contain names of all foreigners rewarded by Saddam for services as "agents of influence." These reportedlyinclude the names of Qatar-based Al Jazeera reporters who worked for Iraqi intelligence.

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19374&highlight=&sid=70289ae17cfdf8f49587049e987bb1b2

Military Week comments re Chalabi & the neocons
Without Reservation
A biweekly column by Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.)
posted 21 May 04
Full Circle with Ahmad Chalabi

U.S. military just raided the spacious home of Ahmad Chalabi in Baghdad. They had a good morning, driving away with several members of the Iraqi National Congress under guard, boxes of documents, and Chalabi's own computer.

Chalabi is outraged. "I am America's best friend in Iraq!" he wails. Chalabi has indeed been close to guys like Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and former Defense Policy Board Chairman Richard Perle. Perhaps he confused these individuals with the rest of the country, or possibly he mistakenly assumed they represented widely shared American interests.

He has now gone from a "hero in error" with his lies and manipulation of America prior to the invasion of Iraq to being told this month's $335,000 U.S. government welfare check will be his last, and having his home ransacked by heavily armed American soldiers none too happy about the way Iraq has turned out.

Former Marine Middle East Specialist and Counterintelligence Officer Dale R. Davis is now working in the private sector in Dubai. Recently assigned as the Director of International Programs and Lecturer of Arabic and Middle East Security Studies at the Virginia Military Institute, Davis has been watching the Middle East closely for many years.

He often shares his timely and succinct analyses of Middle East issues via his e-mail list. This week he observes the American military raid, and I have his permission to share it with you in its entirety.

Recent events have been truly amazing. The civilian leadership of the Pentagon, comprised almost entirely of neo-conservatives is desperately clinging to the ropes. Paul Wolfowitz has finally admitted that a series of mistakes and misjudgments, most of which originated in his office, have greatly complicated US efforts to secure a strategic victory in Iraq - a truly astonishing occurrence since the norm for Wolfowitz and the rest of the Pentagon civilian leadership is to admit nothing, deny everything, and then make counter-accusations.

Now, the neo-con darling, Ahmed Chalabi, has had his house surrounded by the US military. What is the nexus of these events? Well, it was Chalabi who provided the intelligence that buoyed the ideological underpinnings of America's failed policies in Iraq. Despite warnings from experts on all sides, the Pentagon neo-cons clung relentlessly to Chalabi, even after he admitted to fabricating intelligence during the run-up to the war. Now with investigations likely to determine that prison abuses in Iraq had their roots in controversial policies originating from the civilian side of the Pentagon, and facing crisis after crisis in Iraq the neo-cons are attempting to cut their losses and are unable to counter maneuvers by an outraged senior military leadership aimed at limiting their meddling in the conduct of the war.

The uniformed military has wisely seized on this moment of neo-con "weakness" to wrest strategic control of the war away from the "suits" at OSD. Implementing their own strategy of pre-emption, Marines and Soldiers are applying practical, realistic solutions in places like Fallujah and soon in Najaf and Kerbala. This raid on Chalabi's house is aimed at further isolating or removing, if possible, the neo-con point man who has loudly opposed the rational decisions taken recently by US military leadership. It's unfortunate this particular pre-emptive attack wasn't launched much earlier. If it had, perhaps the situation in Iraq would still engender hope. Too many young American men and women have been killed or wounded for the sake of the egos of a few dilettantes and ideologues in Washington and their corrupt clients.

If Dale Davis is right, perhaps we may entertain the precious idea that sanity can ultimately prevail in our Middle Eastern policy. Instead of a bungling and wasteful set of forced occupations and collaboration through intimidation, this little house-cleaning operation may have kicked down a foreign policy door long locked by neoconservative groupthink and prejudices.

Ahmad Chalabi has come full circle, and will be likely to leave Iraq again as he did as many years ago. Few Iraqis have ever found him to be credible, reliable or trustworthy. On this the United States military and the people of Iraq agree. It is a good sign.

Alliance between Chalabi, U.S. conservatives now in ruins
Posted on Fri, May. 28, 2004
Alliance between Chalabi, U.S. conservatives now in ruins
By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - In June 2001, at an annual retreat in fashionable Beaver Creek, Colo., for current and former world leaders, Pentagon adviser Richard Perle introduced two men to each other who would help guide the United States to war in Iraq.

Iraqi exile leader Ahmad Chalabi and Vice President Dick Cheney then went for a two-hour afternoon walk, according to a former senior U.S. government official who was present.

That day marked a turning point in the budding alliance between Chalabi and prominent U.S. conservatives. Both sides were eager to see Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ousted from power, and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, although there was no evidence that Saddam was involved, they pushed that goal relentlessly.

The partnership involved overt and covert U.S. support for Chalabi's bid to be Iraq's next leader. His Iraqi National Congress in turn provided intelligence about Saddam's weapons programs and links to terrorism - most of which turned out to be bogus or unproved.

The alliance with Chalabi is now in ruins.

U.S. intelligence officials have accused his security chief of passing highly classified American secrets to Iran. Iraqi police, backed by U.S. personnel, raided Chalabi's home and his offices May 19, seeking to arrest associates on charges of financial corruption.

The FBI has opened a probe into who gave the compromised data - so sensitive that it put U.S. soldiers' lives at risk and was known to only a handful of government officials - to the INC.

Little has been made public about the investigation, but it's believed to be focusing on officials in the Pentagon and elsewhere in the U.S. government who were closest with Chalabi and were his strongest boosters.

Some current and former U.S. officials speculate that Iran not only received U.S. secrets but also used Chalabi's group to pass false threat information to the United States about Saddam, with whom Iran had fought an eight-year war. Iran's likely goal, they say, was to precipitate a U.S. invasion and take advantage of the ensuing chaos, or to keep pressure on for continuing U.N. sanctions that would keep Saddam contained.

Chalabi's longtime relationship with the theocratic regime in Iran was no secret.

He traveled frequently to Tehran and relied on the Iranian government's goodwill to establish a base of operations in northern Iraq, which was outside of Saddam's control for most of the 1990s.

The Bush administration allowed the INC, which received at least $40 million in U.S. funding over the years, to establish an office in Tehran, approving a special license required under U.S. sanctions on Iran.

CIA warnings that Chalabi had become too close to Iran's regime fell on deaf ears in Washington, current and former intelligence officials said.

"They ignored it," said Robert Baer, a retired CIA officer who dealt with Chalabi and other Iraqi opposition leaders in northern Iraq in the mid-1990s.

Baer said that the CIA suspected for years that Arras Habib, Chalabi's security chief, worked for Iranian intelligence. U.S. intelligence officials say Habib, now a fugitive, is an agent of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security.

"We always assumed that he was an Iranian agent," Baer said in an interview. Habib's family was in Iran, he depended on Tehran for survival, and "our conclusion was that he was working more for Tehran than for anybody."

Moreover, counterintelligence experts in the Defense Intelligence Agency circulated a warning in mid-2002 that the INC had been deeply penetrated, this time by Saddam's agents, said a senior administration official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Chalabi denies that he or anyone in the INC passed U.S. secrets to Iran.

A senior INC adviser said Habib passed a polygraph exam that the CIA administered in London in the fall of 2002, when he was asked specifically about ties to Iran.

But a senior U.S. intelligence official said he knew of no such CIA exam.

Habib's cousin, Ali Karim, was one of several hundred Iraqis working with the CIA in northern Iraq who were evacuated by the United States in 1996 after Saddam's forces invaded the semi-autonomous region.

Karim and a half-dozen others were jailed in the United States after the FBI accused them of being spies. Karim, who was represented pro bono by former CIA chief James Woolsey, was granted asylum in June 2000 after a federal immigration judge declared the case against him "weak at best."

It remains unclear why the warnings about Chalabi and his group were ignored.

Baer says it reflects the same naivete that President Reagan demonstrated in dealings with Iran in the arms-for-hostages scandal known as Iran-Contra.

What's clear is that Chalabi and his group got extraordinary aid from some sectors of the U.S. government, even as the CIA, State Department and many in the uniformed military fought to limit reliance on him.

From 2000 to 2003, the INC received $33 million from the State Department, which was never enthusiastic about supporting the group. The State Department gave control of the funding to the Pentagon in October 2003, and the DIA paid several million more for the INC's information. The payments were ended only this month.

Middle East experts at the State Department who criticized Chalabi and his plans frequently were transferred or frozen out of U.S. policy-making on Iraq.

The senior INC adviser, who requested anonymity, said ties between Chalabi and conservatives in Washington are exaggerated. For example, he said, Chalabi hasn't spoken to Cheney since before the war began in March 2003, and he hasn't spoken with U.S. government officials at all since the raid on his house.

"The idea that there's some kind of very close, interlinked relationship is not true," he said.

But, in the opening days of the war, on Cheney's orders, Chalabi and several hundred of his fighters were flown from northern Iraq to an airbase in south-central Iraq.

During and after the conflict, uniformed and civilian Pentagon officials accompanied him, providing him with communications gear and other critical support.

In January, Chalabi sat near first lady Laura Bush during the president's State of the Union address.

In Iraq, Chalabi allies and relatives were given key spots in the Finance Ministry, the committee charged with purging members of Saddam's Baath Party, and in the prosecution of Saddam. The INC took control of the files of Saddam's brutal secret service, the Mukhabarat.

Now, while many of Chalabi's former backers in and out of government have cooled on him, a few continue to defend him.

Perle told the New York-based weekly newspaper The Forward last week that he believes Chalabi was the victim of a campaign orchestrated by Iran and the CIA. The Iranians "very well may have induced the CIA to believe Chalabi gave them (sensitive intelligence). And the CIA was certainly very happy to hear that," Perle was quoted as saying.

Others see a simpler explanation. Said the former official who witnessed the Cheney-Chalabi introduction: "Was Chalabi using us and being used by us?"