Sources: Chalabi told Iran its code was broken
Wednesday, June 2, 2004 Posted: 1635 GMT (0035 HKT)
Before his fall from favor, Ahmed Chalabi, seen standing behind Laura Bush, was a "special guest" at January's State of the Union address.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One-time U.S. ally Ahmed Chalabi told an Iranian official that the United States had broken the secret communications code of Iran's intelligence service, knowledgeable sources confirmed to CNN Wednesday.
U.S. officials asked some news organizations not to report the information about 10 days ago because it appeared the Iranians were continuing to use the codes anyway.
"Apparently the Iranians didn't believe Chalabi," one source said.
The information about the cracked communications code was reported Tuesday by CBS News and in The New York Times and The Washington Post on Wednesday.
The code was invaluable to Washington for intercepting intelligence from Iran's sophisticated secret service, according to The New York Times.
Chalabi reportedly told the Iranian he had gotten the code information from an American who had been drunk, The Associated Press reported.
FBI agents were reported to be questioning Defense Department officials in an effort to find out who gave such information to Chalabi.
Chalabi has acknowledged having met with senior Iranian officials, saying his organization has worked with many leaders in the region. But he has insisted he shared no classified information with them.
U.S. intelligence officials two weeks ago had told CNN that Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, gave intelligence secrets to Iran so closely held in the U.S. government that only "a handful" of senior officials knew them.
Formerly a key U.S. ally and a source of intelligence on alleged weapons of mass destruction when Washington geared up for war with Iraq, Chalabi has been the beneficiary of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars for his Iraqi National Congress, with easy access to top officials in Washington.
He was a "special guest" at President Bush's State of the Union address in January, sitting behind first lady Laura Bush. Bush had dinner with Chalabi and other Iraqi leaders during the president's surprise trip to visit the troops in Iraq last Thanksgiving.
After Saddam Hussein's regime fell, Chalabi was appointed to the Iraqi Governing Council and put in charge of its finances.
As the post-war situation deteriorated, and the pre-war intelligence Chalabi supplied about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction did not pan out, the relationship soured.
Chalabi's long-standing contacts with Iran left some in the U.S. government suspicious about his intentions. Chalabi has denied allegations he handed over sensitive information to Iran about the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Last month, the Pentagon shut off the monthly stipend of $340,000 to his Iraqi National Congress and U.S. officials accused Chalabi of passing information about its operations in Iraq to Iran, which he hotly denied.
The information he has passed on, as one U.S. official put it, "could get Americans killed."
Ahmed Chalabi
Iraqi police, accompanied by American troops, raided Chalabi's compound last month -- a raid that Chalabi claimed was engineered by elements of the deposed Baathist regime, under protection of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.
Chalabi has claimed the raid was politically motivated, but coalition officials say it was part of a suspected fraud investigation, authorized by an Iraqi judge and led by the Iraqis.
Iran acknowledged Sunday it had an ongoing dialogue with Chalabi, but rejected accusations that he passed classified intelligence to Iran.
"We had continuous and permanent dialogue with Chalabi and other members of the Iraqi Governing Council," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said at a press conference. "But spying charges are unfounded and baseless. It's not true at all."
CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor contributed to this report.
The neocon fanatics driving this US foreign policy crazy train turn out to have been as naive as midwestern tourists convinced they can win at three-card monte.
They were taken for a ride by a con man who was passing classified information to the Iranians at the same time he was taking $355,000 dollars a month from the Defense Intelligece Agency.
In short, we went to war on the word of a double agent.
And that's the best possible face that can be put on this.
No wonder George Bush suddenly can't remember meeting Mr. Chalabi.
Citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq have been locked up for years and even beaten to death on the flimsiest pretexts and this fellow is still free?!
Remind me, directly aiding and abetting one of the 'Axis of Terror' by passing on secret communications and information would make one liable to some sort of punitive action by the Coalition in Iraq or imprisonment in the US?
The FBI is looking for Chalabi's drunken, loose-lipped pal in the Pentagon:
Quote:Federal investigators have begun administering polygraph examinations to civilian employees at the Pentagon to determine who may have disclosed highly classified intelligence to Ahmad Chalabi...
The polygraph examinations, which are being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are focused initially on a small number of Pentagon employees who had access to the information that was compromised.
NYT online
Do you suppose they'll find this person faster than they will find the one who leaked Valerie Plame's name to Bob Novak?
Not if it was Dick Cheney (again).
I don't understand
Maybe someone can explain something about this whole thing that I don't understand.
Chalabi is accused of revealing info to Iran that the US had broken Iran's communications secret code. The evidence for this apparently was discovered by the CIA via intercepted transmitted info between Chalabi and Iran.
If this is true, would Chalabi be so stupid to discuss his providing info to Iran using a method he knew the CIA would see? This doesn't make any sense to me.
Something doesn't smell right about this whole thing.
BBB
Adnan Patschatschi says in a iraqi newspaper, that Chalabi plans attacks against the new Iraq interims govt. interesting... and really wow.
my source: the renowned german newsmagazine "der Spiegel"
Thok
Thok, thanks for the info. It seems Chalabi will not let anything get in the way of his march to power in Iraq. Is there an english version of the German newspaper article that you post a link to?
I found der Spiegel's english translation version but I can't find the article about Chalabi you mentioned.
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/english/
BBB
Der Spiegel english version is short.
the link, but in german
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,305052,00.html
"Tschalabi"
Much better than "Chalabi"
That is the german articulation ;-)
May you update the thread subject again.
FORMER U.S. ALLY IN IRAQ
Warrant for Chalabi's arrest
Quote:Iraq has issued arrest warrants for Ahmad Chalabi, a former Governing Council member with strong U.S. ties, on counterfeiting charges, and for his nephew Salem Chalabi - head of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein - on murder charges, Iraq's chief investigating judge said yesterday.
The warrant was the latest strike against Ahmad Chalabi in his removal from the centers of power. A longtime Iraqi exile opposition leader, he had been a favorite in the Pentagon but fell out with the Americans this spring over allegations that his political faction gave flawed intelligence to U.S. agents and leaked U.S. secrets to Iran.
Judge Zuhair al-Maliky said of the Chalabis, "They should be arrested and then questioned and ... if there is enough evidence, they will be sent to trial."
Both men denied the charges, dismissing them as part of a political conspiracy.
In London, Salem Chalabi said it was "ridiculous" that he was a suspect in the murder of Haithem Fadhil, a Finance Ministry official who was investigating the Chalabi family.
"The warrant for me has to do with the fact that apparently I threatened somebody," he told CNN. "I have no recollection of ever meeting that person."
Fadhil had been preparing a report on reclaiming government-owned real estate. According to a source who spoke with the Los Angeles Times, the report found that the Chalabi family and its Iraqi National Congress had illegally seized hundreds of pieces of property after last year's U.S.-led invasion.
Salem Chalabi, though, said the allegations were aimed at removing him as director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, which will try top officials of Hussein's government.
His uncle said his own charges were "outrageous" and "manufactured lies."
The warrants, issued Saturday, accused Ahmad Chalabi of counterfeiting old Iraqi dinars, which were removed from circulation last year. Iraqi police backed by U.S. troops found counterfeit money along with old dinars during a raid on Chalabi's house in Baghdad in May, al-Maliky said. Chalabi apparently was changing them into new dinars on the street, he said.
But Ahmad Chalabi told CNN he was working as head of the Governing Council's finance committee to try to stop the circulation of false currency.
"All this was done under the auspices of the finance committee to stop the forgeries and to put a stop to the theft," Chalabi said from Tehran, Iran.
"Without a doubt, I'm being set up. They think they can hurt me by doing this, politically," Chalabi said.
The new allegations are not Chalabi's first brush with legal problems. He is wanted in Jordan for a 1991 conviction in absentia for fraud in a banking scandal. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison but has denied all allegations.
Despite that conviction, Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress received millions from the U.S. government before falling out of favor.
In Washington, the Bush administration had no comment on the charges. "This is a matter for the Iraqi authorities to resolve, and they are taking steps to do so," White House spokeswoman Suzy DeFrancis said.
If convicted, Salem Chalabi, 41, could face the death penalty. Judges would determine the penalty for his uncle.
Ahmad Chalabi's star has steadily declined since before the war, when he had significant influence on America's Iraq policy. His Iraqi National Congress provided the Bush administration with reports on Hussein's purported weapons of mass destruction. When no significant stocks were found, Chalabi became a liability.
Chalabi also was accused recently of informing Iran that the United States had broken its secret intelligence codes.
As relations with his U.S. backers have soured, he has used the fallout to enhance his stature among Iraqis, many of whom saw him as a U.S. puppet. "I'm now much better positioned politically in the country, because I'm in sympathy with my people," Chalabi said yesterday.
Uniform Resource Identifier
Thok
Thok, thanks for the update on this continuing story while I've been off A2K. It is such an important story for everyone to follow, especially the families of those killed in Iraq.
BBB
No sweat. And of course that's important.
How the U.S support ( again) a criminal.
May you update the thread subject in general ?
Chalabis respond: Charges 'ridiculous'
Anyone want to make a bet that Ahmed Chalabi will not return to Iraq to face charges, but will remain in Iran under its protection and will not extradite him to Iraq? ---BBB
Chalabis: Charges 'ridiculous'
Baathists may be behind charges says tribunal head
Monday, August 9, 2004 Posted: 9:15 AM EDT (1315 GMT)
Former Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi faces counterfeiting charges.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Former Iraqi exile leader Ahmed Chalabi and his nephew, the head of the war crimes tribunal, say they will return to Iraq to face what they have called "ridiculous" criminal charges.
Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and a member of the now-dissolved Iraqi Governing Council, has been charged with counterfeiting, Chief Investigative Judge Zuhayr al-Maliky told the U.S.-backed broadcaster Radio Sawa.
Salem Chalabi faces an arrest warrant in connection with a murder charge.
"An arrest warrant has been issued by the Central Criminal Court ... based upon a complaint filed by an Iraqi citizen. The investigation is ongoing and the subject is the crime of murder," Maliky said.
Both men were out of the country Sunday evening. But in interviews with CNN, they professed their innocence and said they plan to return to Iraq to contest the charges.
"I'm going back to confront those lies," Ahmed Chalabi, in Tehran, told CNN.[/u]
In London, Salem Chalabi called the charge against him "ridiculous."
"I have no recollection of ever meeting that person," he said. "Apparently I threatened somebody who subsequently was killed."
He said the charge almost certainly had "something to do with trying to discredit" the war crimes tribunal.
But Salem Chalabi stopped short of attributing that motive to Chief Investigative Judge Zuhayr al-Maliky.
"I don't know if he wants to do that ... but Baathists are currently unhappy about the existence of the tribunal and want to try to discredit the whole procedure," Chalabi said from London, where he was when the warrant was issued.
"There are a lot of people in Iraq who want to destabilize the tribunal, and I suspect that some of them are linked somehow to the government," he said.
"There are many Baathists in government now."
Ahmed Chalabi was a Pentagon favorite before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the INC received more than $27 million in U.S. funds.
But in May, Iraqi police and U.S. troops raided his home and office, and U.S. officials accused him of passing closely-held American secrets to Iran -- allegations the former exile leader denies.
In a written statement, he said he collected samples of counterfeit money while chairman of the Iraqi Governing Council's finance committee, which also oversaw the country's central bank.
"It is these samples that Iraqi police found when they illegally raided our offices last May," he said.
"The idea that I was involved in counterfeiting is ridiculous and the charges are being made for political purposes."
'Set up'
Both Chalabis said Maliky is a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party who hope to derail the Iraqi special tribunal set up to try the former leader.
"Without a doubt, I'm being set up," Ahmed Chalabi said. Salem Chalabi said the charges were brought "to discredit the family and discredit the tribunal."
"I intend to return and address the charges in due course," he said.
"I also feel that the court in question has an ulterior motive, and so I'm going to request an investigation into several things about this charge itself."
One of Chalabi's remaining American supporters, Richard Perle, called Maliky a "rogue, out-of-control judge."
"He's systematically issued warrants against the INC and other members of the INC, and finally he's done it with respect to Ahmed Chalabi," said Perle, a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board and a former Reagan administration official.
"It's Saddam Hussein's style of justice, and it's appalling."
Salem Chalabi said minutes of a meeting he attended on the day of the death support his case that he could not have been responsible.
As Saddam's government fell in April 2003, the U.S. military flew Ahmed Chalabi into Iraq at the head of a militia dubbed the "Free Iraqi Forces."
Soon afterward, he was named to the Iraqi Governing Council under the U.S.-led occupation.
But when the Americans began to search for Saddam's feared arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, much of the intelligence the INC supplied about the suspected stockpiles failed to pan out.
An exile who lived abroad for more than four decades, Chalabi was convicted in absentia of bank fraud in 1992 by a military court in Jordan, where he had founded a bank that failed. He says the charges were politically motivated.
After the raid on his office, Chalabi broke ties with the U.S.-backed occupation authority. But his years in exile and close ties to the United States have left him struggling to gain a political foothold in his home country.
The White House declined comment Sunday. A spokesperson told CNN the charges are "a matter in the hands of the Iraqi authorities and they will resolve it."
Re: Chalabis respond: Charges 'ridiculous'
BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:Anyone want to make a bet that Ahmed Chalabi will not return to Iraq to face charges, but will remain in Iran under its protection and will not extradite him to Iraq? ---BBB
Yes, because that's in all probability.
well, how about a new thread subject ? Case Chalabi, perhaps?
