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.