Did We Get Sucked Into Iraq By Iran?

[theknife]

that darling of the neocons Ahmad Chalabi, has had a quite a fall from grace, no? Chalabi is the Iraqi expatriate and founder of the Iraqi National Congress who provided much prewar "intelligence " to the US with regards to WMD's and the Saddam "threat". he was getting millions from the US and was considered to be a good candidate to head the new Iraq, as well as being Cheney and Wolfowitzs' pet - but who was leading who around on a leash?

Patrick Lang, former director of the DIA's Middle East branch, said he had been told by colleagues that Chalabi's U.S.-funded program to provide information about weapons of mass destruction and insurgents was effectively an Iranian intelligence operation. "They (the Iranians) knew exactly what we were up to," he said.

hmmm, isn't this interesting?

"Iranian intelligence has been manipulating the United States through Chalabi by furnishing through his Information Collection Program (ICP) information to provoke the United Sates into getting rid of Saddam Hussein," said an intelligence source who was briefed on the conclusions of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

so, apparently we finally got wise to this and raided his house the other day in Bagdhad...we're also cutting off his $340,000 per month allowance.

At the center of the alleged Iranian intelligence operation, according to administration officials and intelligence sources, is Aras Habib, 47, a Shiite Kurd who was named in an arrest warrant issued during a raid on Chalabi's home and offices in Baghdad on Thursday. He eluded arrest.

so, not only was our prewar intelligence bad - it was actually disinformation from another government. in other words, we got owned

An intelligence official said Habib also was the INC official who handled most of the Iraqi defectors, including one code-named "Curveball," who provided much of the fabricated, exaggerated and unconfirmed information about Iraqi weapons programs and links to terrorism that President Bush used in making his case for invading Iraq.

Curveball was the basis of Powell's dramatic testimony before the UN, when he laid out the US "case" for invading Iraq. wonder how he feels right about now?

Chalabi and Iran apparently played us like a fiddle, if this report is accurate. the ironic thing is that by being on the US shit list, Chalabi now appears to the Iraqis as someone who stood up to the US - he gets to play both sides of the street.

seems the Bushies wanted to go into Iraq so bad, they never questioned the source of the info they were getting. yet another intelligence coup for the administration

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...chalabi22.html

[floydian slip]

Chalabi's lucky he diddn't get car bombed.

[theknife]

Originally posted by floydian slip
Chalabi's lucky he diddn't get car bombed.

prolly so, but at the moment, he seems to have landed on his feet. he can now position himself as throwing off the yoke of his US masters and appeal to the popular resentment against the US occupation.

[JackSpratts]

it's obvious bush's as stubborn as a mule (and almost as smart). he'll never do what he doesn't want to, no matter how important it is for america, and getting him to do what he already wants to do is patheticaly easy, even if it's bad for america. the iranians saw bush coming long before he saw them and he fell right into thier hands. manipulating weak leaders is a story as old as rome but this is what happens when a president doesn't read, has no sense of history, and cares about neither.

- js.

[Mazer]

Originally posted by JackSpratts
it's obvious bush's as stubborn as a mule (and almost as smart). he'll never do what he doesn't want to, no matter how important it is for america, and getting him to do what he already wants to do is patheticaly easy, even if it's bad for america. the iranians saw bush coming long before he saw them and he fell right into thier hands. manipulating weak leaders is a story as old as rome but this is what happens when a president doesn't read, has no sense of history, and cares about neither.

Guess this means we'll be puting Bush's face on our currency and carving it into the side of a mountain, bucause they said the same things about Lincoln too.

[miss_silver]

Originally posted by Mazer
Guess this means we'll be puting Bush's face on our currency and carving it into the side of a mountain, bucause they said the same things about Lincoln too.

Lincoln was shot dead for what he believed and for wanting to changes things.

[JackSpratts]

Originally posted by Mazer
Guess this means we'll be puting Bush's face on our currency and carving it into the side of a mountain, bucause they said the same things about Lincoln too.

our hills and currency are safe from defacement. to paraphrase an old gentleman from vienna: sometimes a mule is just a mule.

- js.

[theknife]

Chalabi comes out swinging...

Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi National Congress chief whose Baghdad offices were raided last week by U.S.-backed Iraqi police who seized documents and computers, denied on Sunday that he was spying for Iran and challenged CIA director George Tenet to go toe-to-toe with him by testifying before Congress on the matter.

"This charge is put out by George Tenet," Chalabi told ABC's "This Week."

"Let Mr. Tenet come to Congress and I'm prepared to come there and lay out all the facts and all the documents that we have. And let Congress decide whether this is true or whether they're being misled by George Tenet."

this story is starting to grow legs...

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=5227903

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2...3/100211.shtml

Iran acknowledged Sunday it had a strong dialogue with embattled Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, but rejected accusations that he passed classified intelligence to Iran.

so where's your axis of evil now? getting a bit convoluted, no?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/i...-chalabi_x.htm

[theknife]

for some reason, i find this whole turn of events fascinating...

Chalabi said it was "outlandish" to believe that "an exile organization, which was criticized and vilified by the CIA throughout the past decade, would provide information and the United States officials would take it as credible and go to war on its basis. That is ridiculous."

yes, it is outlandish - yet it appears this is exactly what has happened, no?

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/23/iraq.chalabi/

[floydian slip]

Ahmad Chalabi's Bay of Goats

'This is a Hell that was created by the neo-conservative "Children of Satan," the cabal of Straussian liars in the Bush Administration who launched the Iraq war on false pretenses: lies about the imminent danger posed by Saddam Hussein's non-existent weapons of mass destruction, lies about Iraq's connection to the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, and lies about the ease with which the "regime change" in Iraq would come about.

An exaggeration? Not at all.