Posted on 11/15/2005 9:15:26 PM PST by F14 Pilot
Ahmed Al Chalabi, who has taken several steps that were not well estimated in the past, is seeking to re-produce himself in front of the Americans, whom some observers believe that they would keep a distance between them and the man, whose image has shaken a lot due to the policies that he adopted in the past.
In the beginning, Al Chalabi's visit to Washington has been surrounded with many questions. It came during a very sensitive period, due to the intensive Iranian intervention in Iraqi affairs and the American reaction towards it. It has been preceded with a history of lack of trust in Al Chalabi, who was in charge of the doubtful intelligence information that has been sneaked to the American administration and upon which it has justified launching the war that has overthrown the ousted president Saddam Hussein. It has also put the American administration in a hard situation after being proven to be false. There is also the American charge against him of being an Iranian agent. The investigation on this accusation has stopped for a reason or another.
On the other hand, diplomatic sources in Washington said it is still skeptical about Al Chalabi's intentions, especially as he is facing opposition on behalf of several groups in the foreign affairs ministry and the CIA.
What is more surprising is Al Chalabi's boasting of obtaining the approval of Tehran for occupying the position of Iraqi Prime Minister. After meeting with the Iranian leaders, Al Chalabi said in an interview with the New York Times newspaper that the Iranians promised him that they would not fail him or oppose him in case he attempted to become an Iraqi Prime Minister.
Al Chalabi added, "I would not be nominated for premiership as the Iranians told me so. Nevertheless, they would support the process of my nomination for the position of Prime Minister, in case I was locally approved to fill this position through the elections. They would not object to that.
The newspaper continued saying that it is impossible to verify Ahmed Al Chalabi's confidence in these promises. Nevertheless, after a meeting with Ali Larijani, head of the Iranian National Security Council and a high-ranking official in Iran, Larijati said that that Al Chalabi enjoys great respect on behalf of the Iranians and that "he is a wise man, whom Iraq would greatly benefit from."
On their behalf, the Iranian officials stated that they (the Iranians) are actually a major effective force in the Iraqi interior policy and that they would continue that. These statements disclose the extent of the Iranian penetration in Iraq, which the forces, close to Iran are desperately attempting to deny. The statements are even considered as a smack against them, as well as disclosing that the Iranians seem to be the only ones, who see that Al Chalabi enjoys such qualities.
The newspaper continued saying that after the Shiite Coalition elected Ibrahim Al Ja'fari for Prime Minister last January, rumors were circulated in Baghdad on the Iranian effective intervention to carry Al Ja'fari to his current position, while Al Chalabi was one of the Iraqi leaders nominated for key positions.
When Larijani was asked about this issue, he said that the Iranians have actually interfered, supported by the Shiite leaders. Nevertheless, they did not stand by any specific candidates.
Larijani said, "We have supported them to create an entity together." When he was dealing with the role of his country in Iraq, Larijani said, "The United States should acknowledge this force as it is legitimate. It should not stand against it."
These statements arouse many questions in the light of the fact that Al Ja'fari himself was one of those who strongly denied the Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs, while press and intelligence reports were talking about the spread of Iranian intelligence in southern Iraq in the form of Islamic and charity organizations, in addition to the low of weapons to militias affiliated to Tehran. They also represent a proof on Al Chalabi's benefits from the Iranian support.
The sources said that this time, Al Chalabi would not succeed in promoting for his good in Washington, in case they were appealing to the decision makers there. This might be attributed to the fact that the Iranian green light to him is faced with a different light in the American administration.
As head of the Governing Council's finance committee, Chalabi hired an accounting firm to investigate the oil-for-food scandal. ------ "From Friend to Foe : After a startling raid in Baghdad, the U.S. launches an investigation into its former ally Ahmad Chalabi. Was he working for Iran?," aka (ChalabiGate is the next invented scandal by the press) , by ROMESH RATNESAR, TIME , May 23, 2004
Which is why certain folks tried to raid his house - to get the docs.
MAY 20, 2004 : (CBS & PAT LANG vs CHALABI) One of the "former U.S. intelligence officials" who frequently feeds the media with false allegations about Chalabi actually has a name. He is Pat Lang, a former DIA Middle East analyst, who sometimes appears on air as a CBS News consultant.
Lang was quoted by Washington Post reporter Robin Wright in her front-page story on the raids [on Chalabi's house] that appeared yesterday, disparaging the intelligence Chalabi's group had provided the United States before the war.
"Now it's demonstrable that [Chalabi] told the U.S. government a lot of things that were not true," Lang said.
In citing Lang as an expert on Iraq, neither CBS nor the Washington Post ever has mentioned that Lang has registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for an Arab government. "How can somebody working for an Arab government parade about as a neutral analyst?" asks Rubin.
Chalabi never has denied his many visits to Iran or his meeting with high-level Iranian government officials. Before the U.S.-led invasion, Chalabi and top INC officials had to travel through Iran to reach Iraq because Turkey had closed its borders to INC operatives.
"Actually, if truth be told, I think Ahmed has actually used the Iranians for our benefit," a key Chalabi supporter tells Insight. Chalabi appears to have been instrumental in getting the Iranian government to drop its support for radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, several sources say.
Not so...
MARCH 2004 : (US MILITARY DIVISION : INC INTEL PROVED TO BE "HEAD AND SHOULDERS ABOVE" THE INFO PROVIDED BY FOUR OTHER IRAQI POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS) Back in March, the Pentagon requested feedback on the effectiveness of cooperation from five Iraq political organizations. The written report from the chief intelligence officer of one front-line U.S. division declared that the INC "proved to be head and shoulders above the information provided by the other four organizations." According to this report--which is classified but was made available to us--the INC has provided "imminent threat warning" and "reconnaissance surveillance capability that U.S. forces cannot match in an urban environment." For example, Saddam Hussein was captured last December with documents containing eight names. The INC was directly responsible for the capture of four on that list, and thanks to its lead a fifth was captured within a month. The intelligence assessment calls the INC a "true force multiplier" and says that the U.S. division's "ability to accomplish our mission would have been significantly hampered" without its support. "In the final analysis, the INC has been directly responsible for saving the lives of numerous soldiers as a result of early warning and providing surveillance of known enemy elements," the report says.------"U.N. Oil-for-Food Scandal : The Chalabi Fiasco - He's a Pawn in a Much Larger Strategic Game ," By The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal - Opinion Journal, May 26, 2004 Wed
MARCH 31?, 2005 : (ROBB-SILBERMAN BIPARTISAN COMMISSION REPORT SAYS DEFECTOR "CURVEBALL," WIDELY ATTRIBUTED TO BEING LINKED TO THE INC- WAS NOT INFLUENCED, CONTROLLED BY OR CONNECTED TO THE INC - See CHALABI) The most damning charge is that he cooked up the phony intelligence that led to the invasion of Iraq. In the words of that noted foreign policy sage Maureen Dowd: "Ahmad Chalabi conned his neocon pals, thinking he could run Iraq if he gave the Bush administration the smoking gun it needed to sell the war."
Such calumnies are so ingrained by now that La Dowd published that sentence on Sunday [April 3, 2005], three days after the release of the Robb-Silberman report that refutes it. The bipartisan commission headed by Chuck Robb and Laurence Silberman did not give Chalabi a totally clean bill of health. It found that two INC-supplied defectors were "fabricators." But it also determined that the most notorious liar popularly linked to the INC — a defector known as "Curveball" who provided false information on Saddam Hussein's biological weapons — "was not influenced by, controlled by, or connected to the INC."
"In fact, over all," the Robb-Silberman report concluded, "CIA's postwar investigations revealed that INC-related sources had a minimal impact on prewar assessments." Translation: The CIA's attempts to scapegoat Chalabi for its own failures won't wash.
------ "The friend we betrayed - (in defense of Ahmad Chalabi),"MAX BOOT, JEWISH WORLD REVIEW.COM, APRIL 8, 2005 Friday, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1380149/posts
APRIL 3, 2005 : (UNDETERRED BY THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE ROBB-SILBERMAN BIPARTISAN COMMISSION REPORT, WHICH DISMISSED THE "CURVEBALL" DEFECTOR LINK TO CHALABI'S INC- WRITER MAUREEN DOWD WRITES YET ANOTHER SCREED AGAINST CHALABI) The most damning charge is that he cooked up the phony intelligence that led to the invasion of Iraq. In the words of that noted foreign policy sage Maureen Dowd: "Ahmad Chalabi conned his neocon pals, thinking he could run Iraq if he gave the Bush administration the smoking gun it needed to sell the war."
Such calumnies are so ingrained by now that La Dowd published that sentence on Sunday [April 3, 2005], three days after the release of the Robb-Silberman report that refutes it. The bipartisan commission headed by Chuck Robb and Laurence Silberman did not give Chalabi a totally clean bill of health. It found that two INC-supplied defectors were "fabricators." But it also determined that the most notorious liar popularly linked to the INC — a defector known as "Curveball" who provided false information on Saddam Hussein's biological weapons — "was not influenced by, controlled by, or connected to the INC."
"In fact, over all," the Robb-Silberman report concluded, "CIA's postwar investigations revealed that INC-related sources had a minimal impact on prewar assessments." Translation: The CIA's attempts to scapegoat Chalabi for its own failures won't wash.------ "The friend we betrayed - (in defense of Ahmad Chalabi),"MAX BOOT, JEWISH WORLD REVIEW.COM, APRIL 8, 2005 Friday, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1380149/posts
MAY 25, 2004 Tuesday : (IRAQ : CHALABI SAYS A UN ROLE IN SHAPING A NEW IRAQI GOVERNMENT WOULD BE DANGEROUS) Baghdad - Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi, who has recently fallen out with the US-led coalition, said on Tuesday a UN role in shaping a sovereign Iraqi government after June 30 would be "dangerous". "The envoy [Lakhdar Brahimi ] of the UN secretary general [Kofi Annan] is organising a national conference to choose a consultative council. This is a dangerous idea that provokes instability," an emotional Chalabi told reporters here. "Iraq is not Afghanistan and we do not need a Loya Jirga" he said, referring to the tribal assembly that shaped the Afghan government after the end of the US-led war to oust the Taliban regime. He said replacing "the coalition's occupation in Iraq with a UN mandate will not give Iraqis a stake in their country." ----- "Chalabi not keen on UN role ," news24.com, 25/05/2004
Because of the timing, I have always suspected that we publically dumped on Chalabi so that he could be seen as distanced from the US by Iraqis. That way he would not be called a puppet. His electoral prospects improved quickly. So much of what we see on TV is staged.
Chalabi may be just what Iraq needs.
If he wasn't tough as nails, and have huge ones, he would have gone home long ago.
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