Chalabi Says U.S. Organization May Be Behind Attacks

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

Ahmad Chalabi, the controversial Iraqi politician and a onetime favorite of some officials of the U.S. Defense Department, has seen his political star fade in recent months. Largely abandoned by his U.S. allies, Chalabi has become the target of attack by Iraqi opponents as well. Now, in an interview in Baghdad with RFE/RL, Chalabi says he is investigating reports that the U.S. National Security Council may have instigated the recent political attacks against him.



Baghdad, 6 September 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Until recently, Ahmad Chalabi was considered Washington's favored Iraqi politician and a realistic contender for the post-Saddam Hussein Iraqi presidency.

But things have changed. In an interview with RFE/RL, he said an April memorandum drafted by the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) -- the presidential advisory body headed by Condoleezza Rice -- may be behind the recent string of political attacks against him.

Chalabi said he has not seen the memo himself. But he said some of his allies have and claim the events of the past few months correspond to the topics raised in the memo. "I heard a strange and disturbing report that there was an NSC memo to go after me, a seven-page memo. I have not seen it," he said. "If true, it is a serious thing because some people who has seen it have said many of the things that have happened to me are indicated in the memo which was written before."

Chalabi did not elaborate on the incidents to which he was referring. In the past few months, Chalabi has received a cold reception in Washington, where he has been accused of passing classified information to Iran and money laundering in Iraq.

<snip>


http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/09/d022f9bb-e515-4f17-a002-043357467345.html

[BootinUp]

1. Guess he is a liability now, too bad.

:nopity:

[Boredtodeath]

2. Chalabi will be assasinated soon

They can't risk him telling the truth now.

Chalabi thinks he's playing hardball and it will result in a "terrorist assasination" in the very near future.

He knows too much about too many in DC.

[Artemis Bunyon]

3. You're probably right.

The groundwork has already been laid.

[nolabels]

10. And the bucks have already been paid

This is kind of old news, but it still might be worth noting

Have thugs will travel
Bush Administration puts former Hussein torturers, executioners, and rapists on America's payroll
Bill Berkowitz
WorkingForChange
09.10.03

("War Criminals Hire War Criminals to Hunt Down War Criminals.")

(snip)
St. Petersburg (Russia) Times columnist Chris Floyd recently mused that a headline covering this new enterprise might read "War Criminals Hire War Criminals to Hunt Down War Criminals."

According to Floyd, America's tax dollars are now being used by the Bush Administration "to hire the murderers of the infamous Mukhabarat and other agents of the Baathist Gestapo -- perhaps hundreds of them. The logic, if that's the word," writes Floyd, "seems to be that these bloodstained 'insiders' will lead their new imperial masters to other bloodstained 'insiders' responsible for bombing the UN headquarters in Baghdad -- and killing another dozen American soldiers..."

The Washington Post's Anthony Shadid and Daniel Williams first reported on these disturbing developments in late August: "U.S.-led occupation authorities have begun a covert campaign to recruit and train agents with the once-dreaded Iraqi intelligence service to help identify resistance to American forces here after months of increasingly sophisticated attacks and bombings, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials." Although U.S., officials wouldn't say how many former Husseinistas were being put on the payroll, "recruitment" had been "stepped up" despite protestations from members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, "who complain that they have too little control over the pool of recruits."

(snip)

Shadid and Williams: "The emphasis in recruitment appears to be on the intelligence service known as the Mukhabarat, one of four branches in Hussein's former security service, although it is not the only target for the U.S. effort. The Mukhabarat, whose name itself inspired fear in ordinary Iraqis, was the foreign intelligence service, the most sophisticated of the four. Within that service, officials have reached out to agents who once were assigned to Syria and Iran, Iraqi officials and former intelligence agents say."

As Chris Floyd points out, this isn't the first time the U.S. has embraced world class thugs and killers and put them in service of the homeland: It appears to be "business as usual for the American security apparatus, which happily incorporated scores of its Nazi brethren into the fold after World War II, and over the years has climbed into bed with many a casually raping and murdering thug -- such as, er, Saddam Hussein, who spent a bit of quality time on the CIA payroll."
(snip)
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=15603

[MidwestTransplant]

4. There as an attempt last week

a couple of his body guards were killed or injured (can't remember which). The following day he was cleared of charges in Iraq.

[Tempest]

12. Two bodyguards killed

And it should come as no surprise Negroponte's in Iraq.

This is his M.O. from his Contra days.

[Ohio rules]

5. a "terrorist assasination" in Iraq

Like that will never happen.

Chalabi should go to jail in Jordan.

[salin]

6. Not that your feeding false info

enabling the hawks in the US to get their war on- but with info so false that it has blown up on them... while you then - when called on it last Spring - essentially (and arrogantly) said... "Sure, so what" - leaving those allies who had been paying your bills for years to be the one's stranding - not that any of this would have to do with your current problems. Not that any of your shady business dealings, of which you have left a track record over the years that give a sort of M.O rather than a these accusations seem so out of character - that couldn't have anything to do with your current problems, nah - its all somebody else's fault.

[Eloriel]

13. Well, you know how it is with narcissists, sociopaths and

psychopaths -- nothing is EVER their doing. It's always someone else's fault.

My favorite example of that (to me, one of the most stunning) was Newt Gingrich, back when he was Speaker of the House and romping around the country, all puffed up with himself, saying outrageous things, like the Democrats were responsible for Susan Smith drowning her children, and perhaps we ought to consider opening more orphanages. Couple of slow news days meant that these ridiculous statements of his got repeated over a few days. Whose fault was that, who did he blame for being in hot water over his statements? THe media, of course -- for actually reporting what HE had said (without all that much editorializing, as is so common these days). I thought it was hilarious.

[salin]

14. bwahahaha I missed that one

these folks take projection to new heights.

Follow the unfolding story of Perle and his problems at Hollinger (NYT business section)... his lawyer claims that the investigative report (legal not media) was "defamatory"... while of course it appears to be well documented (malfeasance, arrogance and greed all wrapped into a tidy package) and thus defamation is unfounded... the Prince of Darkness has so often thrown out unfounded, defamatory claims against opponents that the irony is... well... yet another example of sociopathic projection.

[the Kelly Gang]

7. I think there's a long queue Ahmad

[acmavm]

8. This guy played everyone for his own ambitions. It doesn't really matter

that the neocons drastically needed him and his 'intelligence' to justify the invasion of Iraq. Now they need someone to blame. And this dumbass is it. I think he deserves the mess he's in. He's too damn arrogant to understand that the bush* administration is chock full of people who have a vast amount of experience in using people for their own ends and then trowing them on the trash heap. And it was very unwise of him to deal with people who can draw on their experience in regard to Iran-Contra, the Guatemalan Death Squads, the Pinochet fiasco, etc. These people are not good guys, so why would Chalabi think that they wouldn't turn on him?

[ScrewyRabbit]

9. couldn't have happened to a nicer guy

eom

[democracy eh]

11. still will be interesting

how this all plays out