Chalabi, Nephew Deny Murder Charges

[DelawareValleyDem]

Ahmad Chalabi and his nephew vigorously denied counterfeiting and murder charges Monday, saying Iraqi warrants for their arrest were part of a political conspiracy trumped up by Saddam Hussein loyalists.


But the judge who issued the warrants said Chalabi, a longtime Saddam opponent, and his 41-year-old nephew, Salem Chalabi, should get ready for a trial



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040809/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_arrest_warrants_26

[otohara]

1. I Think He's Lying

just a hunch....

[the Kelly Gang]

2. dupe

[the Kelly Gang]

3. dead men walking

[Bogus W Potus]

4. Chalabi is scum

He is responsible for the deaths of close to 1000 Americans and countless Iraqi civilians. He should rot in prison for the rest of his pathetic life.

[newyawker99]

5. Hi Bogus W Potus!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[54anickel]

6. Allawi = CIA?

Ahmad Chalabi and interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi have a long and complicated history, sometimes as allies and sometimes as rivals. The anti-Saddam group Allawi headed in exile was backed by the CIA (news - web sites), while Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress was supported by the Pentagon (news - web sites).

snip>

Iraqi police backed by U.S. troops found counterfeit money along with old dinars during a raid on Chalabi's Baghdad house in May, al-Maliky said. He apparently was mixing counterfeit money with real money and changing it into new dinars on the street, the judge said.

Ahmad Chalabi said he collected the fake currency in his role as chairman of the Governing Council's finance committee.

"It is these samples that Iraqi police found when they illegally raided our offices last May," he said. "The idea that I was involved in counterfeiting is ridiculous and the charges are being made for political purposes."


So just how many "samples" did he have anyway?

[Barrett808]

7. Telegraph: Chalabis negotiate over safe return to Baghdad

Chalabis negotiate over safe return to Baghdad
By Anton La Guardia Diplomatic Editor
(Filed: 10/08/2004)

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 beside prisoners of the former Ba'athist regime. Friends of the two said Iyad Allawi, Iraq's interim premier, and other senior leaders in Baghdad were trying to broker a face-saving deal.

...

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.

(more)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/10/wirq10.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/10/ixnewstop.html

[chookie]

8. Let me get this straight...

Darth Perle sez derisively that Judge Maliki is a "stooge of Paul Bremer's" who does not have qualifications for his post -- but, um, Salem Chalabi, is by far the most talented and qualified person to head the special tribunal trying Saddam Hussein, and the fact that he is the nephew of his dear friend and protege Ahmed Chalabi, who he tried to install as Iraq's Charles De Gaulle, is merely a quaint coincidence?

There's a LOT going on behind the scenes here -- NeoCons are fighting for their lives, and are so far prevailing. Bush was willing to sacrifice his CIA Director in order to keep his precious little Wolfowitz happy.

Bush -- after in dramatic fashion trying to be seen consulting Ahmed De Gaulle in public in the weeks prior to flying him and his private army to Iraq and for arranging for the media to get the footage of him getting off the helicopter looking so macho in his fatigues and skin tight black teeshirt -- has been pretending he doesn't know Chalabi, but it looks as though the NeoCons are NOT going to let anything bad happen to their darling Ahmed, who was their best hope to install in the presidency of Iraq, barring Ariel Sharon.