Posted on 05/21/2004 12:28:38 AM PDT by InShanghai
Chalabi quits after US raid
From correspondents in Baghdad
May 21, 2004
A LEADING member of the Iraqi Governing Council, Ahmed Chalabi, cut ties with the US-led coalition after a police and military raid on his house, as President George W. Bush sought to ease Republican fears over Iraq's future.
But new photos of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, a report of abuses at another secret facility, and accusations - strongly denied by the US military - that 41 people celebrating a wedding were killed in a US air raid cast fresh shadows over the US occupation.
US forces were also involved in fierce clashes with militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
Chalabi, once the darling of the Pentagon, said his relations with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) were "non-existent" after Iraqi police and US troops stormed his house and office, confiscating files and computers.
Chalabi said after the overnight attack on his complex in Baghdad that the governing council would hold emergency talks today to discuss a response.
"I am America's best friend in Iraq; if the CPA finds it necessary to direct an armed attack against my home you can see the state of relations between the CPA and the Iraqi people," he said.
Coalition spokesman Dan Senor dodged questions about the raids, saying they had been "Iraqi-led" and that "Chalabi has worked closely with us over a number of months" to rebuild the country.
Washington has sought to distance itself from Chalabi, a secular Shiite Muslim, in recent months amid claims his Iraqi National Congress (INC) fed false information to the US government before the March 2003 US-led invasion.
In Washington, the Pentagon said Wednesday it had halted its monthly payments of $US340,000 to the INC and would seek other intelligence sources on Iraq.
A report commissioned by the US Congress said the INC had received about $US33 million from the US between March 2000 and September 2003, in part to set up regular television broadcasts beamed at the Iraqi interior.
But because of distrust between the INC and the State Department, the money was disbursed in short-term and irregular increments, short-circuiting efforts to realise the goal of the money, the General Accounting Office said.
Meanwhile, Bush made a rare visit to Congress to rally fellow Republicans rattled by the Iraq unrest and polls showing him in trouble ahead of the November 2 elections.
Lawmakers emerging from the closed-door session described Bush as optimistic about his re-election bid and determined to return Iraq to self-rule June 30.
"The President was upbeat," said Senator Rick Santorum. "He talked about Iraq, about getting the budget passed, and assured the June 30 handover to the Iraqis."
Recent opinion polls show Bush's job approval ratings at the lowest levels of his presidency.
Bush has apologised for the Abu Ghraib scandal but it resurged with the release of two new photographs of US troops with a dead Iraqi.
In the images, US soldiers identified as Specialist Charles Graner and Specialist Sabrina Harman are seen grinning with their thumbs up as they stand over the corpse of an Iraqi detainee lying on a black bag.
The two are among the seven US guards at Abu Ghraib already charged with prisoner abuse. One, Jeremy Sivits, was sentenced to a year in jail on Wednesday in the first court-martial over the affair.
The Defence Department is also investigating claims that US troops violated the Geneva Conventions interrogating Iraqis at a top-secret jail near Baghdad's airport, US television NBC News reported, citing two senior government officials.
Coalition military leaders also scoffed at another potential scandal, saying US troops attacked a suspected safe house used by foreign fighters, killing 41 people.
Residents of the western desert town of Qaim, near the Syrian border, said US helicopters targeted a district early Wednesday where a wedding was being held.
The US military has agreed to investigate the incident, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the coalition's military spokesman, said, stressing the attack was based on intelligence that insurgents were gathering in the remote desert region.
"How many people go to the desert 16km from the Syrian border and hold a wedding many miles from the nearest city?" Marine Major General James Mattis asked.
The strike however prompted swift concern from the International Committee of the Red Cross about the use of force by the US military.
"We are concerned about the excessive use of force which violates international human rights," Nada Dumani, the ICRC spokeswoman in Baghdad, said. "Even if (you come under) fire, there are rules of proportion in retaliation and the absolute need to prevent civilian casualties."
This story is blowing up pretty fast.
"There are also indications that Chalabi has provided details of U.S. security operations. According to one U.S. government source, some of the information Chalabi turned over to Iran could "get people killed."
I am hearing this on numerous print and TV sources. This is a far more explosive allegation than corruption which is pretty systemic over there.
I wonder if he contribute in any way to the brutal killing of 4 civilian contractors in Fallujah? Even though people in Fallujah were Saddamites, Iran could have fed information to them in order to undermine the common enemy of Saddamites and Iran, the Americans.
By the way, if this is true, this could be used to attack Wolfowitz by his opponents.
They need to get this guy in custody and out of Iraq ASAP.
I think the contractors were killed as targets of opportunity and a mob witnessed this and mutilated the bodies.
If Chalabi loses US protection the issue of what happens to him may take care of itself.
The Fallujah insurgency started because of this:
"Many in Iraq trace the start of the year-old insurgency in Sunni areas to an incident that had a clear cultural dimension — a rumor last year that U.S. paratroopers were using special glasses to see through the clothes of women in Fallujah, an ultraconservative city west of Baghdad."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040521/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_traditions&cid=540&ncid=1473
Fallujah was always a Saddam stronghold and the people there had benefited from his regime. The place was hostile from the beginning. If there was a catalyst for the insurgency it was their underlying support of Saddam and the bathists and the grinding humiliation of all the occupation for them.
These were the people used to being on top and they found themselves out of power and with an uncertain future. They would be fertile ground for any agitators local or foreign.
I agree, although I would also add that Fallujah is a wahabbist stronghold. The city of a thousand mosques or somethinh like that.
I just posted the "X-ray goggles" story for fun.
Don't worry, he has plenty of your hard earned money in the Cayman Islands.
Only works if you life to spend it...
I find it strange the Coalition goes after one of America's friends and desists from going after its enemies. We can see what the Bush Administration policy into Iraq is morphing into and it isn't in support of those who want to see the country become a democratic state.
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You can't talk to Iowa Granny in that tone, can you?
Many yrs in the ME taught me a few things of the people..first never ever believe what they say, next dont ever trust them with important info..learn to play their silly mind games and better them!...Chalabi is not nor has he ever been a friend of the US. What may seem totally whacko to you and I may very well work there...Id have to say bringing back SOME of Saddams people makes great sense.
And after we stopped paying him $350,000 per month.
He quits ? This is like quiting after your employer escorts your off his premises.
Wow. And this fellow used to work for us? Whose bright idea was it to allow this snake access to sensitive intelligence information?
People fault Rumsfeld Cheney and President Bush for all the problems in Iraq. But frankly, it seems like folks lower down the command chain are the ones screwing things up. This being a prime example.
I'm with Mansoor Ijaz, who said on FNC this morning that if Chalabi gave info to the Iranians, Chalabi ought to be put on a plane to the US then arrested when he gets here.
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