Chalabi Is Focus Of Broad Review By White House

[PfcHammer]

http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=NYS/2004/05/05&ID=Ar00103

Publication:The New York Sun; Date:May 5, 2004; Section:Front page; Page:1

CHALABI IS FOCUS OF BROAD REVIEW BY WHITE HOUSE
INC DENIES SHARING INTELLIGENCE WITH THE GOVERNMENT IN IRAN

By ELI LAKE Staff Reporter of the Sun

WASHINGTON — The White House is reviewing reports culled from electronic intercepts that allege the Iraqi National Congress and its leader Ahmad Chalabi have shared sensitive information with the Iranian government.

The new allegations — part of a nearly two- year surveillance campaign of Mr. Chalabi’s contacts with the Iranian government — have apparently led to a decision from the White House to distance itself from one of the former exile leaders who opposed Saddam Hussein throughout the 1990s.

The INC has denied the charge in a public statement and many longtime supporters of Mr. Chalabi told The New York Sun the allegations, first reported in Newsweek magazine, are preposterous.

Those inside the government pushing the line that Mr. Chalabi has divulged secrets to the Iranians come from the same bureaucracies, the State Department and CIA, that have also advocated for the inclusion of Iraqi parties with more open links to Tehran in the Iraqi Governing Council, such as the Dawa Party.

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[johnfunk]

1. WARNING: NY Sun is a BushCo propaganda organ

ANYTHING in the fact-challenged, money-losing rag should be approached with great caution and interpreted from the standpoint of an official BushCo-Cheneyburton press release.

Translation: Chalabi's last supporters among the BushCo official and unofficial management team have turned on him -- probably the last to say "cut bait" was Richard "Turd Pearl" Perle.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. Indeed, it is

At least in the self-appointed sense.

Whether there's anything to this is uncertain. Chalabi's ascension to power in Iraq has been problematic since the invasion. The junta became aware early on that he had zero credibility with the people; that is something they should have known before the invasion, but only seem to have learned afterward.

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Playing footsie with the Iranians will get him in trouble

However, being a convicted embezzler is no impediment to making Chalabi the junta's choice to head a puppet regime in Iraq.

[LizW]

4. Chalabi has served his purpose

He provided what the neocons wanted to hear to get the war on, now he's a liability and is being jettisoned.

[gasperc]

5. So the guy who fucked us, isn't finished fucking us

no wonder I was sore this morning?

commander helmet "what's your name"
soldier "Asshole"
CH "who else here is named asshole"

everyone raises their hand!!!

[PurityOfEssence]

6. Funny how the Iraqi National Congresses initials look like "Incorporated"

This guy's way too big for his britches, and the administration's in a pickle. They know he's got a personal agendum that isn't in their best interests, and they can't quite kill him or let someone else get at him.

One really is judged by the company one keeps, and the Bushies actively cozied up to this charlatan with full knowledge of who and what he was. What's amazing with the Bushies is their arrogance: they truly feel that they can tame the beasts that nobody else can; their hubris is of such a magnitude that the preceding failures of other people mean nothing, since they were wrought by inferiors.

May they get their comeuppance.