U.S. Steps Up Hunt in Leaks to Iraqi Exile

[UpInArms]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/politics/24CHAL.html?ex=1085976000&?en=dd7efb6cc7d0e282&?ei=5062&?partner=GOOGLE

WASHINGTON, May 23 — The information that Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile leader, is believed to have passed to Iran was so highly classified that federal investigators have intensified their inquiry to find out whether anyone in the American government gave the material to Mr. Chalabi, government officials said Sunday.

Federal investigators now suspect that Mr. Chalabi funneled a wide array of Pentagon and C.I.A. secrets to Iran — much more material than they believe he might have obtained through his political contacts with Americans, they said. "This was not the kind of stuff that he would have gotten by accident," one official said.

Intelligence officials have said the investigation centers on a handful of officials in Washington and Iraq who dealt regularly with Mr. Chalabi, and an even smaller number who also had access to the compromised information. Most of them are at the Pentagon, which was Mr. Chalabi's main point of contact with the Bush administration.

<snip>

While Mr. Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress received about $40 million in the last four years from the State Department and Defense Intelligence Agency, the C.I.A. cut its ties to him in the 1990's after concluding that his group was unreliable.

...more...

[Spazito]

1. Wow! Am I reading this right?

"Intelligence officials have said the investigation centers on a handful of officials in Washington and Iraq who dealt regularly with Mr. Chalabi, and an even smaller number who also had access to the compromised information. Most of them are at the Pentagon, which was Mr. Chalabi's main point of contact with the Bush administration."

Could this mean Rummy, Wolf, etc??? Oh, I hope so!

[hedda_foil]

3. Or perhaps it was an act of Feith.

[TahitiNut]

11. Yes, I'd say Feith is the odds-on favorite in this one.

[gratuitous]

2. Yeah, they'll track down this leak

Right after they bring in Osama, find the anthrax killer, figure out the Valerie Plame affair . . . Say, what do think DU? Could this gang of Keystone Kops could find their own ass with both hands and a flashlight?

[fearnobush]

4. So who will win the war?

The Neo-Cons at Rumsfeld's O.S.P., or the CIA?
I'm routing for the CIA. They have not forgotten what was done to Agent Plame.

[shraby]

5. Federal espionage statutes prohibit

anyone from knowingly passing classified information to a foreign power..

This is from the article above. If this is true how did Bush get away with showing the Saudi Ambassador the Iraq war plans before even the State Department had seen them????

[grytpype]

6. It's Feith. It's gotta be Feith.

That guy is at the center of every fuckup and screwup that the Maladministration has perpetrated in this whole Iraq adventure.

It has to be Feith. I'd bet a thousand bucks on it.

Read this if you haven't already:

Douglas Feith
What has the Pentagon's third man done wrong? Everything.
By Chris Suellentrop
http://slate.msn.com/id/2100899/

[acmavm]

8. I think you're absolutely right. He is so crazed that there isn't anything

that he wouldn't stoop to, even treason IMHO. But I don't for one minute think that there aren't a couple of more of those nasty critters involved. Wolfie and/or Perle aren't out of the question if you ask me.

In a rational, sane, legitimate United States, this would be enough to bring a whole administration down. And it should. bush* is so clueless and out-of-touch with reality and the everyday events of his administration, he should be held just as responsible.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. I love this quote from Tommy Franks:

Franks calls Feith "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth."

[madrchsod]

7. another blow to the cia.

how much damaged has been done? iran could go either way and now we might not have the intell on what is happening untill it`s to late. if all this is true- how much damage has bush really done to the security of this country? i guess we will know in the future,won`t we...
this link was reported several months ago and nobody in the press believed it ,the only sources were internet reports...
isn`t it strange to be "on the side" of the cia?

[maddezmom]

9. I say Cheney, Wolfie and Feith are the leakers n/t

[Just Me]

10. Although I rarely believe anything I read these days,...

,...oh, how I want to believe that this investigation will reach full fruition 'cause ya' just KNOW it will lead to the neocon cabal:

Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, Libby and that whole lot of despots!!!

And, if the investigation reveals that these folks shared ANY classified info with Chalabi,...they are in such deep caa caa,...a freakin' bulldozer couldn't dig 'em out.

[salin]

12. er... what is wrong with the first paragraph?

Did that jump out at anyone else???

Excuse me... but the question should be whether or not he passed on information and if it was highly classified - and if he did WHO gave it to him... not "did someone give it to him"... er... IF he had it to pass on - someone HAD to give it to him - OR there is some security flaw that enabled him to get it. If it is as highly classified as alleged (yesterday it was referred to as so highly classified that few high officials even had access to it).

[Gin]

13. We own Iraq...is that still considered a foreign country?

in the minds of the thugs in the pentagon...they were sharing information with their brothers in Iraq.

[CHIMO]

14. Not The Clearest

Statement.
".....is believed to have passed.."
Interpret this that they believe he passed on the information. Means that he had the information.

"...whether anyone in the American government gave the ..."
We know he had the info, now did someone give it to him. Well if they didn't give it to him then he must of stolen it.

Not a very clear statement.

[yellowcanine]

16. Of course someone gave it to him and it had to be someone high up

The suspect list should be short. I am betting on Wolfie but Chaney would not surprise me.