You remember him, right? Distinguished gent, if a bit sly for some tastes. Shifty-eyed, and in demeanor as oily as the Zagros Fold Belt. Convicted and sentenced in absentia for a bank swindle in Jordan, he redeemed himself as an agent in the War on Terror.
Mr. Chalabi provided an essential link to evidence of Saddam's cooperation with Al Queda terrorists, the reconstituted weapons program, and the increasingly urgent nuclear threat. It was his insight into the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people that helped predict a brief, nearly bloodless end to Project Iraqi Freedom.
When the liberation failed to turn up any WMD, Mr. Chalabi was unapologetic. The existence of weapons was irrelevent, he told a British reporter. "What matters is that the Americans are in Baghdad." And so we were. That is the last time I remember seeing him on camera. He was still on America's payroll then, as a consultant to the Defense Department.
Afterwards, wasn't there some messy business with the CIA raiding Mr. Chalabi's new office in Baghdad? And wasn't there talk that he was a double agent, reporting to both the U.S. and Iran?
He seems to have dropped off the radar then. No more interviews. No more photo ops alongside America's movers and shakers. No more invitations in Georgetown, I'll bet, nor ever again an honored guest at the President's State of the Union Address -- and my! what a triumphant moment that must have been for Ahmed Chalabi. Exiled patriot. Voice of the Iraqi People. Enemy of our enemy. Convicted scam artist. Now grasped to the bosom of ultimate power, taking it all in with those darting hawk-dark eyes that never seemed to reflect his smile. What do you suppose he was thinking in that shining hour?
He'd have been less than human if some portion of his mind hadn't been occupied with the Jordanian court that sentenced him to prison. I imagine him flipping them a mental middle-finger. Jail this, suckers.
What happened to him, I wonder, after that Baghdad office raid? Did the CIA apologize? Does Dick still take his calls? Does anybody know? Seriously, I can google my grandmother's name and get more recent news.
It's odd.
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To answer your question (if you want an answer) , after the jail raid he used the Secret Police files we handed over to him to blackmail his way into being named Oil Minister in '06, and just recently he got Prime minister Malaki to name him Chair of the Services Committee, which is responsible for restoring services like electricity and water in Baghdad. It is a position ripe with potential for graft and bribery, so he's probably the right man at the right time. He's had the position since last year but to date not a single service has been restored that can be traced to his efforts but he has bought a big house and is always accompanied by a small army of guards. To protect the money belt, no doubt.
Any info on how that turned out?
I'm battling my inner conspiracy theorist. who insists that the CIA was ordered to back off. (It would have been awfully embarrassing to have an Iranian agent not only on our payroll, but largely responsible for helping Bush-Cheney justify an invasion of Iran's old enemy. )
If anyone can link me to a follow-up story on the CIA raid of Chalabi's office, I'd appreciate it.
Sad to see him still pulling a scam. The surest way to get caught when scamming is not stopping when the stopping is good.
Honestly, I've always thought he was a much more complex figure than the media presents him as. It's very hard to get trustworthy info when the CIA is your biggest enemy. And of course it served the Bush administration quite well to have a scapegoat.
Noam Chomsky would probably agree with me, since he was a big supporter of Chalabi's back in the Clinton era. Maybe they know each other from MIT?
Frankly if I were just a simple minded scam artist, I'm not sure I'd be building myself a house in Baghdad. It's not exactly the lap of luxury. He certainly gets some points for persistence if nothing else.
Larry L: I'm curious because I took a nasty delight in hearing about that CIA raid. I looked forward to watching his pals in the administration attempting to scrape him off their shoes if could be confirmed that he'd been in cahoots with Iran. (I tend to underestimate the brazenness of Cheney, Wolfowitz and co; that whole Project for the New American Century clan who put Chalabi on my payroll knowing full well that any 'intelligence' he turned up would be colored by his own agenda.
When he told that British reporter, in so many words, that the WMD didn't matter, that we had done what he intended us to do, I wished I could slap his self satisfied face.
We'd been paying him for the privilege of furthering his own agenda. We had shed blood, sacrificed lives, exchanged our credibility for contempt, opened up Iraq to Al Queda and provided them with the means to inspire an army of new recruits.
We had been led into an abyss, at least in part on the word of a man who was on the lam when we acquired him.
And he smiled. Smiled a Cheney smile, shameless and dark with subtext.
Got justice?
He's gone to befriend the cute little desert gophers. I heard this nasty "big bag gut guy " was rumored to be getting a plea-bargain deal going. He will give free manicures to all DOD and DoJ lawyers.
Soon it will Memorial Day. There will be discount mattresses sold for the White House garden's lazy, hired-hand crews. This may be a "fact" ... ?
But, you know how reliable those discount mattress are? I read that there is now another scratchy bedbug plague. This is now breaking on the front page news. It's a "bad guy" bedbug epidemic, and may become worst than the bedbug panic after a bedbug scare following WW 2. That bedbug makes anyone who tells a lie, itchy.
There is a inner beltway reliable source? A Exxon CEO in a secret cave in Afghanistan smokes with toddler? I am guessing that the rumor, just maybe, was initiated by Chalabi? Someone said:`The State Department has arranged for him to live with the Attorney General's Granny.
Granny is teaching a preschool class? ~How To Make Afghanistan Quilts that look similar to the Amish Quilt? They see a quilt snitch .
I am not sure if one can believe anything these days. I wish I could find one?
Find what?
A nice walker.
Ay, beach walks!
Watch clouds float.
A someone to go with to the calm, Nova Scotia, seashore. It's at a beach, we could build some pretty sandcastles. Listen to Canadian loons. You want a vacation? But, No talking, No blogging, No more lice.
Maybe chalibi can give pedicures?
Why do I yak so much? I irritated.
I want to watch ducks and hush up.
I do stay in this two-bedroom shack.
It's a cedar-shake, shingle, painted,
and it's white. A Place. rural. quiet.
Its really a very useful situation for "serious officials" ... use others to spread misinformation so that you have plausible denieability (sp??? how DO you spell that???) when the truth about the lies comes out.