Posted on 08/10/2004 4:19:53 AM PDT by propertius
AHMAD Chalabi, the politician once groomed by Washington to lead Iraq, and his nephew Salem were holding talks with the Baghdad government yesterday to try to arrange their safe return after a judge ordered their arrest.
The two men, at present out of Iraq, have dismissed the arrest warrants issued at the weekend as part of a political smear campaign. "I can easily prove that these charges are untrue and I intend to defend myself and clear my name," Ahmad Chalabi told reporters in Teheran.
There are fears that the pair could be killed if they are jailed with former Ba'athists. Friends said Iyad Allawi, Iraq's interim premier, and other senior leaders in Baghdad were trying to broker a face-saving deal.
Ahmad Chalabi is accused of counterfeiting money - a charge that represents the latest step in the fall from grace of the Pentagon's once-favoured Iraqi exile. Earlier this year, he was accused of passing American intelligence to an Iranian agent.
However, he has remained, in the eyes of some, a potential rival to Mr Allawi, who has tried to reintroduce former Ba'ath Party members to the political fold. Mr Chalabi has argued against this.
The more ominous charge concerns his nephew, Salem Chalabi, a lawyer who heads the special tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein and other senior Ba'athists. The arrest warrant against him says he is one of three people suspected of ordering the murder of a finance ministry official.
The controversy threatens to undermine the credibility of the special tribunal as it takes its first steps towards examining the atrocities committed under Saddam's rule. In London, a Foreign Office spokesman said the arrest warrants were "an Iraqi judicial matter" that did not involve Britain. British officials said Iraq had not requested the extradition of Salem Chalabi, who is in London, and signalled that they were unlikely to hand him over.
The two cases are ostensibly unrelated. But the fact that the warrants were issued on the same day reinforces the conviction of the Chalabis' supporters that the charges are a political attempt to "neutralise" them. Friends at first pointed the finger of blame at Mr Allawi, a long-time rival of Ahmad Chalabi.
But they said later the prime minister had been in contact with them and promised to help resolve the crisis. President Ghazi al-Yawer had also become involved. The arrest warrants were issued by Zuhair al-Maliki, the chief investigative judge of Iraq's central criminal court, who has now filed 14 warrants against members of Mr Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress.
Richard Perle, a leading US neo-conservative, denounced the judge in June as a stooge of Paul Bremer, the American administrator of Iraq until the handover of sovereignty.
"He's a man of no consequence except he sits in Baghdad issuing arrest warrants for people who have for many years been fighting to liberate Iraq from Saddam Hussein," he told a Washington forum.
"He has been issuing arrest warrants without anything that could be called probable cause. His notion of due process includes threats to the counsel representing some of the accused."
Judge Maliki's relationship with Mr Bremer has raised eyebrows in Baghdad. The 38-year-old law graduate had no experience as a judge and worked as a translator for the Coalition Provisional Authority, headed by Mr Bremer.
The government had to amend one of its own laws - a requirement that central criminal court judges must have at least five years' judicial experience - before it appointed Mr Maliki.
Iraq's central bank provided information yesterday that will assist Ahmad Chalabi. Judge Maliki said he had acted at the behest of the central bank after "significant sums of counterfeit Iraqi dinars" were discovered in Mr Chalabi's home in May.
But Sinan al-Shabibi, the bank governor, said: "The bank has not lodged a complaint . . . and never requested that such charges be brought."
Ahmad Chalabi said that as the head of the former finance committee of the Iraqi Governing Council, he had collected "samples of counterfeit Iraqi currency". His supporters say this totalled 3,000 dinars, or little more than pounds 1.
Salem Chalabi meanwhile told The Daily Telegraph that he was seeking assurances of his safety before returning.
He said he had never met Haithem Fadhil, the director-general of the finance ministry, who was killed in April.
He said he could prove he was elsewhere on the day he allegedly visited Mr Fadhil and threatened to kill him if he continued investigating Chalabi family properties.
He insisted he would not step down as head of the tribunal. "If I resign, I'm admitting I had something to do with these false accusations. I'm not planning to do that."
So where's Ahmad Chalabi? Iran?
believe he still is, yes.
Betcha he ain't coming back. Not upright, anyway.
bump to read later
oops. mistake in posting. This article came from the London Daily Telegraph.
Perle is about as big of a jackass as they come.
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