Iraq's Chalabi defensive on weapons intelligence

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10277334.htm

NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) - U.S.-backed Iraqi political leader Ahmad Chalabi on Tuesday defended information his group gave Washington on weapons of mass destruction amid growing questions about intelligence used to justify the war on Iraq.

Chalabi said he was aware of media reports suggesting his Iraqi National Congress gave false information on Baghdad's alleged illegal biological, chemical and nuclear weapons program, but remained convinced they would yet be found.

"We gave very accurate information and we produced people who we handed over to the United States," Chalabi, on a brief visit to the United States, told the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank. "The only tangible things they've found are the mobile labs, which our defectors talked about."

Chalabi, aided by Washington, was the first major exiled politician to reach the Iraqi capital after the invasion by U.S. and British forces nearly three months ago removed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who is still missing. In April, Chalabi said he did not want a post in an interim government.

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[indictrichardperle]

1. Chalabi is the sleeziest piece

of garbage i have ever seen.

His ass needs to be indicted for embezzling tax payer dollars, lying to government officials, being responsible for needless deaths.....

Maybe the best punishment for Chalabi would be just to announce him "king of Iraq", drop him off in Baghdad, pull out all of the troops(including his 100 marine bodyguards) and let his loyal Iraqi subjects deal with him.

[UpInArms]

2. Chalabi is

a worthless piece of scum

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0315/fahim.php

But it is precisely this business experience, and Chalabi's indictment in 1992 for embezzlement and fraud (among other charges), that worry many in the Jordanian financial community who have had dealings with him. The details of this story are of, course, in dispute, with Chalabi saying charges brought against him in the wake of his Petra Bank's collapse in 1989 were "political," and were due in part to his opposition to Saddam Hussein, who Chalabi says put pressure on Jordan's King Hussein to close Petra Bank and indict him and his associates. But Jordanians willing to talk about the scandal, like Mohammed Said Nabulsi, who, as former head of Jordan's Central Bank, had to clean up Chalabi's financial mess, say it was a mess purely of Chalabi's making. At best, these men say, he was grossly negligent, at a tremendous cost not only to the Jordanian economy, but to thousands of shareholders in Petra Bank, and at worst, in the words of Nabulsi, he "was a crook who absolutely cooked the books to hide his crimes."

http://www.jordanembassyus.org/hemm04272003.htm

"Our problem does not stem from the fact that is an Iraqi opposition member,’ Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher said last week in Amman, ‘but that he is wanted in Jordan and convicted of a criminal offense.’ In 1992, the Jordanian government convicted Chalabi in absentia for embezzlement and fraud and sentenced him to 22 years of hard labor. The charges stem from the demise of the Petra Bank, which Chalabi founded in 1977 and ran until it collapsed in 1989. At its peak, the bank was Jordan’s third-largest..."

[indictrichardperle]

4. CIA cant stand Chalabi

Several million dollars the congress "gave" to the INC, just "disappeared".

Now think about how slimey the neo-cons in bed with Chalabi must be......Perle, Wolfowitz, Adelman, Woolsey....they are his character witnesses.....:puke:

[shockingelk]

3. uh ...

Has anybody before plainly said that any of the intelligence came from the INC - a group of people who had a vested interest in the US invading Iraq - regardless of WMD?

Also ... the first press conference the president held that started spouting the Iraq WMD claims came April 6. 2002 - the joint conference with Blair. This was jest a few weeks after Cheney went to the ME to discuss Iraq with Sharon -= another party with a vested interest in the invasion regardless of WMD.

Is all the "new" intelligence from the INC and Israel? In January 2002, * plainly indicated he wasn't sure if Iraq had an active WMD program - the words were something along the lines of "Hussein must let the inspectors in so we can find out whether he's developing a weapons program."

... but again, does anybody know if it's been said before that some of the intelligence came from the INC?

[UpInArms]

5. Chalabi source of information links

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/27/1053801397576.html

also see:

http://www.tjm.org/articles/msg00100.html

She apologized for any confusion, but noted that the Army unit she was traveling with -- Mobile Exploration Team Alpha -- "is using Chalabi's intell and document network for its own WMD work. . . . Since I'm there every day, talking to him. . . . I thought I might have been included on a decision by you" to have another reporter write about Chalabi.

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/special_packages/iraq/dispatches/6078464.htm

In the Capitol on Thursday, an Iraqi exile leader told reporters "there was no hyping of information."

Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, said his group had put the U.S. government in contact with three defectors who provided information on Iraqi weapons

One was an engineer "who built sites for the weapons storage areas." He was presented to the U.S. government on Dec. 17, 2001, and entered into the witness protection program, Chalabi said.

The second exile told the United States about mobile biological labs, he said. U.S. officials believe two truck trailers it seized in Iraq were likely those labs. But no traces of biological weapons have been found.

The third exile spoke only briefly to U.S. officials. Chalabi said he was involved in a nuclear weapons program.

(edit to add info)

[shockingelk]

7. if people chilabi produced ...

... were a major source of intell ... man, that changes everything: Imagine if in presentations to congress, they would have heard: "Now, this is information we got from a group we've promised a leadership role in post Saddam Iraq ...

[NNN0LHI]

6. Looks like it all came from Chalabi and his thugs

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/2003/05/000910.html

Chalabi cited as secret source on Iraqi WMDs
Posted by Matt on May 27, 2003 @ 12:42PM

Judith Miller's controversial columns for the New York Times cited unnamed (and admittedly uninterviewed) sources and were then subject to military review prior to publication, all of which run contrary to fundaments of impartial journalism. Now comes the revelation that the source used was none other than CIA and Pentagon buddy Ahmed Chalabi, who also just happened to be the Iraqi most likely to benefit from regime change in Iraq.

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[ze_dscherman]

8. Chalabi will be the fall guy

It was obvious ever since his militia was dissolved. He was dropped too fast.

Apparently, there was little HUMINTEL from inside Iraq - but that surfaces only now, with all the reports on outdated info the CIA had to rely on? But *before* the war they absolutely bragged about how much they knew about weapons and all. But all this "hot" intelligence, when investigated by the U.N. inspectors, was just hot air.

So, either all these claims about weapons were fiction made up by someone in the U.S. or U.K. intelligence, or they came from sources that were interested in destroying Saddam Husseins regime.

Now who could be interested in making this up? Take wild guesses.

There have been several "leaks" on Chalabi/INC being the source of the misinformation the US/UK intel relied on. Could be true, could be a cover up as well. And it is apparent that they desperately wanted to believe it.

But I'd bet that they try to blame it all on Chalabi.

[sandnsea]

9. Uncle Fadhil Chalabi and the oil connections

Fadhil was a former Iraqi oil minister and is the Executive Director of the Centre for Global Energy. Funny how everything always leads back to the oil.

http://www.cges.co.uk/default.asp?cdn=governingboard&pt=Governing%20Board&nav=governingboard&lnav=associates

[annagull]

10. Yep, their in charge, after all

It is so sickening, all that globby crude is ruling our society as well as the rest of the world, and only when it runs out will they stop.