Chalabi, A

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">omfg WMD:</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wiki</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>In an interview published 7 April 2005, Cannistraro was asked by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Masters(journalist)" title="Ian Masters (journalist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; background: none;">Ian Masters</a> what he would say if it were asserted that the source of the forgery was former National Security Council and State Department consultant <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ledeen" title="Michael Ledeen" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Michael Ledeen</a>. </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">(Ledeen had also allegedly been a liaison between the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Intelligence_Community" title="United States Intelligence Community" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">United States Intelligence Community</a> and SISMI two decades earlier.) Cannistraro answered by saying: "you'd be very close".<sup id="cite_ref-WhoForged_43-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_uranium_forgeries#cite_note-WhoForged-43" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[43]</a></sup> Ledeen has denied this in an article which mentions, though, that he has worked for the aforementioned Panorama magazine.</span><sup id="cite_ref-LedeenPanorama_44-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_uranium_forgeries#cite_note-LedeenPanorama-44" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[44]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">In an interview on 26 July 2005, Cannistraro's business partner and columnist for the "American Conservative" magazine, former CIA counter terrorism officer </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Giraldi" title="Philip Giraldi" style="background: none rgb(255, 153, 0); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Philip Giraldi</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">, confirmed to </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Horton(radio_host)" title="Scott Horton (radio host)" style="background: none rgb(255, 153, 0); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Scott Horton</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> that the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><b> forgeries were produced by "a couple of former CIA officers who are familiar with that part of the world who are associated with a certain well-known <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservative" class="mw-redirect" title="Neoconservative" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">neoconservative</a> who has close connections with Italy." When Horton said that must be Ledeen, he confirmed it</b>, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">and added that the ex-CIA officers,<b> "also had some equity interests, shall we say, with the operation. A lot of these people are in consulting positions, and they get various, shall we say, emoluments in overseas accounts, and that kind of thing</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">".</span><sup id="cite_ref-45" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_uranium_forgeries#cite_note-45" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[45]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">In a second interview with Horton, Giraldi elaborated to say that<b> Ledeen and his former CIA friends worked with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Chalabi" class="mw-redirect" title="Ahmad Chalabi" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Ahmad Chalabi</a> </b>and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_National_Congress" title="Iraqi National Congress" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Iraqi National Congress</a>. "These people did it probably for a couple of reasons, but one of the reasons was that these people were involved, through the neoconservatives, with the <b>Iraqi National Congress and Chalabi and had a financial interest in cranking up the pressure against Saddam Hussein</b> and potentially going to war with him.</span>"<sup id="cite_ref-46" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_uranium_forgeries#cite_note-46" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[46]</a></sup></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ledeen sorta admits he had entities that had relations to other entities?</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>who forged the papers upon which Bush based his infamous 16-word claim that Saddam was seeking uranium from Africa, and that Joseph Wilson debunked? Justin Raimondo reports a new (though not entirely unexpected) revelation in the case, in the context of Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of the retaliatory leaking of Wilson's wife's identity as a CIA operative.  </div><div>Wikipedia's background on the origin of the forged documents:</div><div>By late 2003, the trail of the documents had been partially uncovered. They were obtained by a "security consultant" (and former agent of the precursor agency to SISMI, the SID), Rocco Martino, from Italian military intelligence (SISMI). An article in The Times (London) quoted Martino as having received the documents from a woman on the staff of the Niger embassy, after a meeting was arranged by a serving SISMI agent. ("Tracked down," by Nicholas Rufford and Nick Fielding, Sunday Times (London), Aug. 1, 2004.) Martino later recanted and said he had been misquoted, and that SISMI had not facilitated the meeting where he obtained the documents.</div><div>Martino, in turn, offered them to Italian journalist Elizabetta Burba. On instructions from her editor at Panorama, Burba offered them to the U.S. Embassy in Rome in October, 2002. [6]</div><div>
</div><div>It is as yet unknown how Italian intelligence came by the documents and why they were not given directly to the U.S. In 2005, Vincent Cannistraro, the former head of counterterrorism operations at the CIA and the intelligence director at the National Security Council under Ronald Reagan, expressed the opinion that the documents had been produced in the United States and funneled through the Italians: "The documents were fabricated by supporters of the policy in the United States. The policy being that you had to invade Iraq in order to get rid of Saddam Hussein ...." [7]</div><div>
</div><div>In an interview published April 7, 2005, Cannistraro was asked by Ian Masters what he would say if it was asserted that the source of the forgery was former National Security Council and State Department consultant Michael Ledeen. (Ledeen had also allegedly been a liaison between the American Intelligence Community and SISMI two decades earlier.) Cannistraro answered by saying: "you'd be very close." [8]</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In an interview on July 26, 2005, Cannistraro's business partner and columnist for the "American Conservative" magazine, former CIA counter terrorism officer Philip Giraldi, confirmed to Scott Horton that the forgeries were produced by "a couple of former CIA officers who are familiar with that part of the world who are associated with a certain well-known neoconservative who has close connections with Italy." When Horton said that must be Ledeen, he confirmed it, and added that the ex-CIA officers, "also had some equity interests, shall we say, with the operation. A lot of these people are in consulting positions, and they get various, shall we say, emoluments in overseas accounts, and that kind of thing." [9]</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a second interview with Horton, Giraldi elaborated to say that Ledeen and his former CIA friends worked with Ahmad Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress. "These people did it probably for a couple of reasons, but one of the reasons was that these people were involved, through the neoconservatives, with the Iraqi National Congress and Chalabi and had a financial interest in cranking up the pressure against Saddam Hussein and potentially going to war with him."[1</span>0]</div><div>
</div><div>Now Justin Raimondo writes:</div><div>
</div><div>Even as the FBI was following the trail of the forgers, the Italians were looking into the matter from their end. A parliamentary committee was charged with investigating, and they issued a heavily redacted report: now, I am told by a former CIA operations officer, the report has aroused some interest on this side of the Atlantic. According to a source in the Italian embassy, Patrick J. "Bulldog" Fitzgerald asked for and "has finally been given a full copy of the Italian parliamentary oversight report on the forged Niger uranium document," the former CIA officer tells me:</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">"Previous versions of the report were redacted and had all the names removed, though it was possible to guess who was involved. This version names Michael Ledeen as the conduit for the report and indicates that <b>former CIA officers Duane Clarridge and Alan Wolf were the principal forgers. All three had business interests with Chalabi."</b></span></div><div>
</div><div>Alan Wolf died about a year and a half ago of cancer. He served as chief of the CIA's Near East Division as well as the European Division, and was also CIA chief of station in Rome after Clarridge. According to my source, "he and Clarridge and Ledeen were all very close and also close to Chalabi." The former CIA officer says Wolf "was Clarridge's Agency godfather. Significantly, both Clarridge and Wolf also spent considerable time in the Africa division, so they both had the Africa and Rome connection and both were close to Ledeen, closing the loop."</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>(Ledeen and Clarridge links added)</div><div>This supports recent reports that Fitzgerald's investigation has widened considerably. UPDATE 10/24/05: U<b>PI confirmation of story.</b></div><div>This content was created by a Daily Kos Community member.</div><div>
</div><div>---</div><div>ref</div><div>https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2005/10/24/Walkers-World-Bush-at-bay/96791130158620/?u3L=1</div><div>
</div><div>no lnx</div><div><div>
</div><div>DEFENSE NEWS OCT. 24, 2005 / </div><div>Walker's World: Bush at bay</div><div>By MARTIN WALKER, UPI Editor</div><div>   </div><div>WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- The CIA leak inquiry that threatens senior White House aides has now widened to include the forgery of documents on African uranium that started the investigation, according to NAT0 intelligence sources.</div><div>
</div><div>This suggests the inquiry by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald into the leaking of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame has now widened to embrace part of the broader question about the way the Iraq war was justified by the Bush administration.</div><div>
</div><div>Fitzgerald's inquiry is expected to conclude this week and despite feverish speculation in Washington, there have been no leaks about his decision whether to issue indictments and against whom and on what charges.</div><div>
</div><div>Two facts are, however, now known and between them they do not bode well for the deputy chief of staff at the White House, Karl Rove, President George W Bush's senior political aide, not for Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby.</div><div>
</div><div>The first is that Fitzgerald last year sought and obtained from the Justice Department permission to widen his investigation from the leak itself to the possibility of cover-ups, perjury and obstruction of justice by witnesses. This has renewed the old saying from the days of the Watergate scandal, that the cover-up can be more legally and politically dangerous than the crime.</div><div>
</div><div>The second is that NATO sources have confirmed to United Press International that Fitzgerald's team of investigators has sought and obtained documentation on the forgeries from the Italian government.</div><div>
</div><div>Fitzgerald's team has been given the full, and as yet unpublished report of the Italian parliamentary inquiry into the affair, which started when an Italian journalist obtained documents that appeared to show officials of the government of Niger helping to supply the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein with Yellowcake uranium. This claim, which made its way into President Bush's State of the Union address in January, 2003, was based on falsified documents from Niger and was later withdrawn by the White House.</div><div>
</div><div>This opens the door to what has always been the most serious implication of the CIA leak case, that the Bush administration could face a brutally damaging and public inquiry into the case for war against Iraq being false or artificially exaggerated. This was the same charge that imperiled the government of Bush's closest ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, after a BBC Radio program claimed Blair's aides has "sexed up" the evidence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.</div><div>There can be few more serious charges against a government than going to war on false pretences, or having deliberately inflated or suppressed the evidence that justified the war.</div><div>
</div><div>And since no WMD were found in Iraq after the 2003 war, despite the evidence from the U.N. inspections of the 1990s that demonstrated that Saddam Hussein had initiated both a nuclear and a biological weapons program, the strongest plank in the Bush administration's case for war has crumbled beneath its feet.</div><div>
</div><div>The reply of both the Bush and Blair administrations was that they made their assertions about Iraq's WMD in good faith, and that other intelligence agencies like the French and German were equally mistaken in their belief that Iraq retained chemical weapons, along with the ambition and some of technological basis to restart the nuclear and biological programs.</div><div>
</div><div>It is this central issue of good faith that the CIA leak affair brings into question. The initial claims Iraq was seeking raw uranium in the west African state of Niger aroused the interest of vice-president Cheney, who asked for more investigation. At a meeting of CIA and other officials, a CIA officer working under cover in the office that dealt with nuclear proliferation, Valerie Plame, suggested her husband, James Wilson, a former ambassador to several African states, enjoyed good contacts in Niger and could make a preliminary inquiry. He did so, and returned concluding that the claims were untrue. In July 2003, he wrote an article for The New York Times making his mission -- and his disbelief -- public.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But by then Elisabetta Burba, a journalist for the Italian magazine Panorama (owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi) had been contacted by a "security consultant" named Rocco Martoni, offering to sell documents that "proved" Iraq was obtaining uranium in Niger for $10,000. Rather than pay the money, Burba's editor passed photocopies of the documents to the U.S. Embassy, which forwarded them to Washington, where the forgery was later detected. Signatures were false, and the government ministers and officials who had signed them were no longer in office on the dates on which the documents were supposedly written.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Nonetheless, the forged documents appeared, on the face of it, to shore up the case for war, and to discredit Wilson. The origin of the forgeries is therefore of real importance, and any link between the forgeries and Bush administration aides would be highly damaging and almost certainly criminal.</div><div>
</div><div>The letterheads and official seals that appeared to authenticate the documents apparently came from a burglary at the Niger Embassy in Rome in 2001. At this point, the facts start dribbling away into conspiracy theories that involve membership of shadowy Masonic lodges, Iranian go-betweens, right-wing cabals inside Italian Intelligence and so on. It is not yet known how far Fitzgerald, in his two years of inquiries, has fished in these murky waters.</div><div>
</div><div>There is one line of inquiry with an American connection that Fitzgerald would have found it difficult to ignore. This is the claim that a mid-ranking Pentagon official, Larry Franklin, held talks with some Italian intelligence and defense officials in Rome in late 2001. Franklin has since been arrested on charges of passing classified information to staff of the pro-Israel lobby group, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. Franklin has reportedly reached a plea bargain with his prosecutor, Paul McNulty, and it would be odd if McNulty and Fitzgerald had not conferred to see if their inquiries connected.</div><div>
</div><div>Where all this leads will not be clear until Fitzgerald breaks his silence, widely expected to occur this week when the term of his grand jury expires.</div><div>
</div><div>If Fitzgerald issues indictments, then the hounds that are currently baying across the blogosphere will leap into the mainstream media and whole affair, Iranian go-betweens and Rome burglaries included, will come into the mainstream of the mass media and network news where Mr. and Mrs. America can see it.</div><div>
</div><div>If Fitzgerald issues no indictments, the matter will not simply die away, in part because the press is now hotly engaged, after the new embarrassment of the Times over the imprisonment of the paper's Judith Miller. There is also an uncomfortable sense that the press had given the Bush administration too easy a ride after 9/11. And the Bush team is now on the ropes and its internal discipline breaking down, making it an easier target.</div><div><b>Then there is a separate Senate Select Intelligence Committee inquiry under way, and while the Republican chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas seems to be dragging his feet, the ranking Democrat, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, is now under growing Democratic Party pressure to pursue this question of falsifying the case for war.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And last week, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, introduced a resolution to require the president and secretary of state to furnish to Congress documents relating to the so-called White House Iraq Group. Chief of staff Andrew Card formed the WHIG task force in August 2002 -- seven months before the invasion of Iraq, and Kucinich claims they were charged "with the mission of marketing a war in Iraq."</span></div><div>
</div><div>The group included: Rove, Libby, Condoleezza Rice, Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and <b>Stephen Hadley</b> (now Bush's national security adviser) and produced white papers that put into dramatic form the intelligence on Iraq's supposed nuclear threat. WHIG launched its media blitz in September 2002, six months before the war. Rice memorably spoke of the prospect of "a mushroom cloud," and Card revealingly explained why he chose September, saying "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August."</div><div>
</div><div>The marketing is over but the war goes on. The press is baying and the law closes in. The team of Bush loyalists in the White House is demoralized and braced for disaster.</div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref 2</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261">http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://<b>rightweb.irc-online</b>.org/profile/1261</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">m<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ichael A. Ledeen, who holds the Freedom Chair at the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1431" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">American Enterprise Institute</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, objects to being called a conservative. Instead Ledeen, a regular contributor to</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><i style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">National Review Online</i><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, prefers the term “democratic revolutionary.” What's more, Ledeen says that “most self-described leftists today are reactionaries, and have lost the right to describe themselves as people of the left.”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn2" name="ftnref2" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">2</a></font></div><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ledeen prides himself on being a public intellectual who has over the past few decades been directly involved in shaping and implementing U.S. foreign policy. He is a prolific author who has written 15 books, including recent ones on terrorism, Tocqueville, and Machiavelli, who Ledeen often cites in explaining his views along with Leo Strauss, another leading influence on neoconservatives like himself. Rather than advocating a conservative foreign policy, Ledeen and other neoconservatives say they are committed to “democratic revolution.”</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Michael Ledeen is a Renaissance man in the tradition of Machiavelli,” said Ted Koppel.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Along with many other neoconservatives, Ledeen's main institutional affiliation is with the American Enterprise Institute, the think tank that has provided the Bush administration with at least 20 officials and continues to help shape the administration's foreign policy.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1343">Karl Rove</a>, when he served as Bush's policy analyst, regularly consulted with Ledeen on foreign policy issues. When the <i>Washington Post</i> published a list of the people whom Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's closest adviser, regularly consulted for advice outside the administration, foreign policy veterans were shocked when Michael Ledeen popped up as the only full-time international affairs analyst, wrote Jim Lobe of Inter Press Service. <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn3" name="ftnref3">3</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The two met after Bush's election,” the <i>Post</i> reported, quoting Ledeen about Rove's request that “any time you have a good idea, tell me.” “More than once, Ledeen has seen his ideas, faxed to Rove, become official policy or rhetoric,” noted the newspaper. “When I saw that, I couldn't believe it,” said one retired senior diplomat. “But then again, with this administration, it seemed frighteningly plausible.” <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn4" name="ftnref4">4</a></p><p style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Other AEI associates that are busy advancing a neoconservative foreign policy agenda include: <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1125" style="">Thomas Donnelly</a>, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1141" style="">Nicholas Eberstadt</a>, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1155" style="">David Frum</a>, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1191" style="">Reuel Gerecht</a>, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1240" style="">Frederick Kagan</a>, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1250" style="">Jeane Kirkpatrick</a>, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1253" style="">Irving Kristol</a>, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1302" style="">Joshua Muravchik</a>, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1310" style="">Michael Novak</a>, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1315" style="">Richard Perle</a>, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/3273" style="">Danielle Pletka</a>, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1345" style="">Michael Rubin</a>, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1349" style="">Gary Schmitt</a>, and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1380" style="">Ben Wattenberg</a>.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">AEI lists Ledeen's areas of expertise as the following: American national character, leadership and the use of power, U.S. foreign policy, U.S.-China relations, Europe (Italy), Africa (Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe) and intelligence. In addition, Ledeen testifies in Congress on Iran policy and terrorism, and is frequently quoted by the media on terrorism and the Middle East. Ledeen also advises “multinational corporations in Europe, Africa, and the United States, and is a corporate director in America and Africa.” <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn5" name="ftnref5">5</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Although by academic training he is not a Middle East expert, Ledeen is known largely for his statements about U.S. policy toward the region and for his own activism and involvement in regional affairs. He has been a major figure in such groups as the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1508">Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs</a> (which focuses almost exclusively on U.S. military ties with Israel), <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1565">U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon</a>, and the now-defunct <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1457">Coalition for Democracy in Iran</a>, which he founded with <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1007">Morris Amitay</a>, former director of the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1432">American Israeli Public Affairs Committee</a> (AIPAC). Ledeen's most recent book, <i>The War against the Terror Masters </i>, pinpointed Iraq, Iran, and Syria as the leading “terror masters.”</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In March 2006 Ledeen testified before the House Committee on International Relations and recommended a policy of regime change and revolution in Iran. Ledeen argued that the U.S. government has “yet to fight back” against the terror masters in Iran. The mullahs “have waged unholy war against us” since 1979, he said. “They created Hizbollah and Islamic Jihad, and they support most all the others, from Hamas and <b>al-Qaida </b>to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command. Iran's proxies range from Shiites to Sunnis to Marxists, all cannon fodder for the overriding objective to dominate or destroy us.” <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn6" name="ftnref6">6</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“That leaves us with three courses of action,” said Ledeen, “none of which is automatically exclusive of the others: sanctions, military strikes, and support for democratic revolution. I am opposed to sanctions, I am generally opposed to military strikes, and I fully endorse support for revolution.”</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He recommended that Congress move to back the Iran Freedom Support Act “by more openly embracing a policy of regime change in Iran, and allocating an adequate budget to demonstrate our seriousness in this endeavor. I know some members would prefer to dance around the explicit declaration of regime change as the policy of this country, but anyone looking closely at the language and content of the Iran Freedom Support Act, and its close relative in the Senate, can clearly see that that is in fact the essence of the matter. You can't have freedom in Iran without bringing down the mullahs.”</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The first step in crafting a suitable policy toward Iran,” said Ledeen, “is to abandon the pretense that we can arrive at a negotiated settlement.” Instead, the U.S. government should support “revolution” against the Iranian regime. While arguing that Iran is rife with dissent, Ledeen has failed to make a convincing case that dissidents living in Iran would welcome U.S. aid.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Oftentimes, those who disagree with Ledeen's foreign policy assessments are labeled “appeasers.” Writing in 2003, Ledeen said that the “appeasers” in Congress and the State Department “don't want to know about Iran, because if they did, they would be driven to take actions that they do not want to take. They would have to support democratic revolution in Iran, and they prefer to schmooze with the mullahs.” Concluding his 2003 commentary in <i>National Review Online </i>, Ledeen wrote: “I guess some top official will have to die at the hands of (obviously) Iranian-supported terrorists before the Pentagon is permitted to work on the subject.” <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn7" name="ftnref7">7</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ledeen frequently urges Congress and the White House to move “faster, please” in pursuing the terror masters. In December 2005, Ledeen wrote: “Look in the mirror and say ‘they are at war with us, but we are not taking the war to them anywhere but Iraq. That's a sucker's game.' Then call the White House and say ‘faster, please.'” <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn8" name="ftnref8">8</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Although Ledeen is frequently quoted by the media and has testified in Congress on Iran policy, he has dubious credentials as an Iran expert. “Michael Ledeen has never been to Iran; he speaks no Persian,” said Brown University Professor William Beeman, the author of a new book on U.S.-Iran relations. “He has minimal credibility in assessing the Iranian elections, or evaluating the political situation there.” <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn9" name="ftnref9">9</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In a <i>National Review Online</i> commentary in January 2006, Ledeen wrote that the Republican leadership in Congress, namely Henry Hyde and Richard Lugar, was marching “in lockstep with Foggy Bottom and Langley.” <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn10" name="ftnref10">10</a> Over the past three decades, the neoconservatives together with the hawks have blamed the State Department and the CIA for underestimating the threats to U.S. national security and blocking a more interventionist U.S. foreign policy.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Not one for the niceties of diplomacy, Ledeen wrote: “Whenever I hear policymakers talk about the wonders of ‘stability,' I get the heebie-jeebies. That is for tired old Europeans and nervous Asians, not for us.” <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn11" name="ftnref11">11</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Going “faster, please” is what Ledeen advocated at the onset of the Iraq invasion. “I think we're going to be obliged to fight a regional war, whether we want to or not,” said Ledeen. “As soon as we land in Iraq, we're going to face the whole terrorist network,” he said. “It may turn out to be a war to remake the world.” <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn12" name="ftnref12">12</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ledeen was the first executive director of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a group established in the mid-1970s with the objective of promoting close strategic relations between the United States and Israel, especially through military ties. While doing consulting work for the Reagan administration, Ledeen bypassed the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv for a private meeting with Prime Minister Peres. According to congressional testimony by then-National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, Ledeen introduced the original Israeli proposal to trade arms for hostages that led to the Irangate scandal. Ledeen was also part of a secret National Security Council initiative directed by <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/969">Elliott Abrams</a> and Oliver North to aid the Nicaraguan contras by channeling U.S. arms through Israel to Iran and then rerouting the sales income to the contras. This was at a time when Congress expressly prohibited U.S. military aid to the contras.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Such notoriety may have inspired the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> in a front-page profile of Ledeen to describe him as “a man with an intense knowledge of 20 th century history, a deep commitment to democracy, and a willingness to be adventurous. This is a man who has helped shape American foreign policy at its highest levels.” JINSA proudly notes that in his few years with the Reagan administration “he carried out some of the most sensitive and dangerous missions in recent American history.” <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn13" name="ftnref13">13</a> Ledeen remains an advocate for dangerous missions.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 1992 the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> article titled “Roles of Ex-Pentagon Officials at Jewish Group Show Clout of Cold-Warrior, Pro-Israel Network,” examined the role of JINSA and such key figures as <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1063">Stephen Bryen</a>, Richard Perle, Ledeen, and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1072">Richard Cheney</a>—all of whom remain active in shaping the U.S.-Israeli military-industrial complex. This “tight little circle illustrates the enduring network of Cold War conservatives and pro-Israel interests in Washington, DC.” <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn14" name="ftnref14">14</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ledeen has a colorful track record, which has produced substantial grist for the conspiracy mill: He was allegedly tied to the Italian P2 Masonic Lodge, a violent right-wing group that was involved in a number of terrorists attacks in Italy in the 1970s the 1980s; in the late 1970s, while P2 was doing its dirty work, Ledeen was working as a consultant to Italian intelligence on terrorism issues; as a consultant to the National Security Council in the 1980s, Ledeen acted as a go-between for Oliver North in the early stages of the Iran-Contra affair, working with the Israeli spy David Kimche to gain the release of U.S. hostages in Beirut through an <b>Iranian arms dealer, Manucher Ghorbanifar;</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b> h</b>e helped promote the “Bulgarian Connection” theory that the KGB was behind the assassination attempt on the pope in 1981; and, more recently, the <i>Sydney Morning Herald</i> reported (August 8, 2003) that Ledeen worked with Pentagon staffers to redevelop the channel to arms dealer Ghorbanifar in support of resistance efforts in Iran. </p><p style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Reported the <i style="">Herald</i>: “[Harold] Rhode recently acted as a liaison between <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1146" style="">[Douglas] Feith</a>'s office, which drafted much of the administration's post-Iraq planning, and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1068" style="">Ahmed Chalabi</a>,</b> a former Iraqi exile groomed for leadership by the Pentagon. Mr. Rhode is a protégé of Michael Ledeen, who was a National Security Council consultant in the mid-1980s when he introduced Mr. Ghorbanifar to Oliver North, a NSC aide, and others in the opening stages of the Iran-Contra affair. It is understood Mr. Ledeen reopened the Ghorbanifar channel with Mr. Feith's staff.”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615211748/http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261#ftn15" name="ftnref15" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">15</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Not one to mince words, Ledeen urged the then-newly installed Bush administration (<i>National Review Online</i>, March 8, 2001) to<b> purge the “environmental whackos, radical feminazos,” </b>and “foreign-policy types on the National Security Council Staff and throughout State, CIA, and Defense, who are still trying to create Bill Clinton's legacy in the Middle East.”</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ledeen's books include: Perilous Statecraft: An Insider's Account of the Iran-Contra Affair (1988), Freedom Betrayed: How America Led a Global Democratic Revolution, Won the Cold War, and Walked Away (1996), Machiavelli on Modern Leadership (1999), Tocqueville on American Character (2000), and The War Against the Terror Masters (2002). From his book <i>The War against the Terror Masters</i>: “The awesome power of a free society committed to a single mission is something [our enemies] cannot imagine. … Our unexpectedly quick and impressive victory in Afghanistan is a prelude to a much broader war, which will in all likelihood transform the Middle East for at least a generation, and reshape the politics of many older countries around the world.”</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[sources ...]</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref 3 long mostly iran contra?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060221012010/http://www.parascope.com/articles/0297/walshdoc.htm">http://web.archive.org/web/20060221012010/http://www.parascope.com/articles/0297/walshdoc.htm</a></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">central am death squads?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Iraqi_National_Congress"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Iraqi_National_Congress</font></a></p>

<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ahmed Chalabi</font></h1>

<h3 id="siteSub"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From SourceWatch</font></h3><div id="contentSub"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Dr. Ahmed Chalabi</b> (also spelled "Ahmad") is part of a three-man leadership council for the <a title="Iraq" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Iraq">Iraqi</a> opposition group, the <a title="Iraqi National Congress" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Iraqi_National_Congress">Iraqi National Congress</a> (INC), which was created at the behest of the U.S. government for the purpose of fomenting the overthrow of Iraqi dictator <a title="Saddam Hussein" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Saddam_Hussein">Saddam Hussein</a>.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chalabi, a secular Iraqi Shiite Muslim and mathematician by training, previously served as chairman of the Petra Bank in Jordan, where he engaged in various cloak-and-dagger operations that ended abruptly in August 1989 when he fled the country "under mysterious circumstances" and in 1992 was<b> convicted in absentia for embezzlement, fraud and currency-trading irregularities, sentencing him to 22 years' hard labour. <a title="http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/print/V13/21/dreyfuss-r.html" href="http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/print/V13/21/dreyfuss-r.html" class="external autonumber" rel="nofollow">[1]</a>,<a title="http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/081903J.shtml" href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/081903J.shtml" class="external autonumber" rel="nofollow">[2]</a></b></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In August 2003 a petition was circulating among Jordanian deputies to hold a special session soon in the 110-member house to demand the government take legal steps to seek Chalabi's extradition from Iraq. <a title="http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/081903J.shtml" href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/081903J.shtml" class="external autonumber" rel="nofollow">[3]</a></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During 2004 Chalabi's influence with the U.S. has waned to the point where government funding for him is likely to be discontinued.</font></p>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ahmad_Chalabi#History"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">History</span></font></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ahmad_Chalabi#SourceWatch_Resources"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">SourceWatch Resources</span></font></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ahmad_Chalabi#External_links"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">External links</span></a>

</font><ul>

<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ahmad_Chalabi#Speeches_by_Chalabi"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">3.1</span> <span class="toctext">Speeches by Chalabi</span></font></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ahmad_Chalabi#Articles_about_Chalabi"><span class="tocnumber">3.2</span> <span class="toctext">Articles about Chalabi</span></a>

</font><ul>

</ul>

</li>

<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ahmad_Chalabi#Resources"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">3.3</span> <span class="toctext">Resources</span></font></a></li></ul></li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2><span class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">History</font></span></h2>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In March 2002, <a title="Seymour Hersh" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Seymour_Hersh">Seymour Hersh</a> reported in <i>The New Yorker</i> </span>that "A dispute over Chalabi's potential usefulness preoccupies the bureaucracy" within the U.S. government, "as the civilian leadership in the Pentagon continues to insist that only the INC can lead the opposition. At the same time, a former Administration official told me, 'Everybody but the Pentagon and the office of the Vice-President wants to ditch the INC.' The INC's critics note that Chalabi, despite years of effort and millions of dollars in American aid, is intensely unpopular today among many elements in Iraq. 'If Chalabi is the guy, there could be a civil war after Saddam's overthrow,' one former <a title="CIA" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=CIA" class="mw-redirect">CIA</a> operative told me. A former high-level Pentagon official added, 'There are some things that a President can't order up, and an internal opposition is one.'" <a title="http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?020311fa_FACT" href="http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?020311fa_FACT" class="external autonumber" rel="nofollow">[4]</a></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Notwithstanding these concerns, Hersh reported that "<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">INC supporters in and around the Administration, including <a title="Paul Dundes Wolfowitz" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Paul_Dundes_Wolfowitz">Paul Dundes Wolfowitz</a> and <a title="Richard Perle" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Perle" class="mw-redirect">Richard Perle</a>, believe, like Chalabi, that any show of force would immediately trigger a revolt against Saddam within Iraq, and that it would quickly expand.</span>" In December 2002, Robert Dreyfuss reported that the <b>administration of <a title="George Walker Bush" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=George_Walker_Bush">George Walker Bush</a> actually preferred INC-supplied analyses of Iraq over analyses provided by long-standing analysts within the CIA.</b> "Even as it prepares for war against Iraq, the Pentagon is already engaged on a second front: its war against the Central Intelligence Agency.," he wrote.</font></p></div>

<a href="http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Blackwater_PR_firm_aided_Chalabi_Works_1022.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Blackwater_PR_firm_aided_Chalabi_Works_1022.html</font></a>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The firm that "coached" Blackwater CEO Eric Prince for a Congressional hearing previously represented Iraq intelligence launderer Ahmed Chalabi and is now working with AT&T to repair their image in the wake of their involvement in President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program.</font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The communications firm <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">BKSH,</span></b> a subsidiary of public relations giant Burson-Marsteller, is run by a man with extremely close ties to the Bush Administration.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The founder and current head of BKSH is</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b> <a href="http://www.clas.ufl.edu/alumni/alumninotes/05spring/alumnispotlight_black.shtml">Charlie Black</a>, </b>whose ties with the Bush family go back to 1972, when he and Karl Rove </span>were jockeying for control of the College Republicans in a campaign so dirty that George H.W. Bush, then head of the Republican National Committee, had to step in and sort matters out. Black then worked for Ronald Reagan's and George H.W. Bush's presidential campaigns from 1976 to 1992. He served as an adviser to George W. Bush's campaigns in 2000 and 2004 and is often quoted in news stories as an unofficial White House spokesman.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">BKSH was representing Iraq exile Ahmed Chalabi as early as 1999 and continued doing so until the invasion of Iraq</span>. An international con-man found guilty in absentia in Jordan for <b>bank scams, Chalabi is most widely known for being one of the key pre-Iraq war intelligence propagandists who supplied skewed information to support the Pentagon's ultra-secretive Office of Special Plans and the <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">now-discredited pre-war reporting of Judith Miller for the New York Times</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. </span>During 2004, Francis Brooke of<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> the Rendon Group, which had represented Chalabi since the early 90's, was working on contract in Baghdad for BKSH</span>. Then in the summer and fall of 2005,<b> Lincoln Group,</b> which had been tasked by the Pentagon with providing pro-US stories to Iraqi media, was subcontracting the work to BKSH, as the same time as BKSH was registered to represent the government of Iraq as its US lobbyist.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Because of Black's personal ties to the Bush administration, it seems reasonable to wonder whether his lobbying assignments might be selected as much to help his friends there as his nominal clients.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Black is <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20884696/site/newsweek/page/0/">currently working</a> with AT&T in its lobbying campaign to be given retroactive immunity against lawsuits for having assisted the administration in its warrantless wiretapping program.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">stone hell 3</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="line-height: 22.75px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Black explained, “and then come in on Monday morning and schedule a speech or call reporters to get a speech covered or get Chalabi or the other leaders to get a message out.” The 200K to 300K that BSK&H received to promote the INC was paid not by the INC, but the State Department. The State Department wanted to promote the INC, but couldn’t fund it directly because it wasn’t a legal entity or incorporated anywhere, so it directly paid BSK&H for its work. This was also intended to keep Chalabi within the control of the State Department, though this was an attempt that was doomed to fail, with Chalabi saying and doing whatever he wanted. Given that they were lobbying for the interests of a foreign power, the Iraqi National Congress, BSK&H should have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act – it was this lack of doing so on the part of Fai and the KCA, who were lobbying on behalf of the state of Pakistan, that is at the heart of Fai’s criminal complaint.<b> However, since BSK&H were being paid by the U.S. government, with U.S. tax dollars, there was no need</b></span><b><a name="bkfrftnote63" style="text-decoration: underline; line-height: 22.75px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><a href="http://italkyoubored.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/roger-stone-pretty-reckless-is-going-straight-to-hell-part-three/#ftnote63" sl-processed="1" style="line-height: 22.75px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><sup>63</sup></a><span style="line-height: 22.75px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Chalabi would, of course, lobby for a war in Iraq, on the basis that the country had</span><span style="line-height: 22.75px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> chemical weapons,</span><span style="line-height: 22.75px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> an eerie reprise of what had already been attempted in Namibia, and this time it was successful.</span></b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><div style="line-height: 14px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hmmn:</font></div><div style="line-height: 14px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="line-height: 14px;"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Building a new Iraq in the Chalabi Vision</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perception Management: New Bridge Strategies, LLC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">inside the underbelly with Ahmed Chalabi and <b>John Rendon</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Having close ties to Dick Cheney, Ahmed Chalabi,</b> also ethically tone deaf, is our man in Baghdad working out the details of who gets what and when. Ahmed has settled in to the task at hand with passion, and the full faith and credit of the Bush Administraton.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chilling With the WHIG: <b>White House Iraq Group </b>and AIPAC are perfect partners for Chalabi. Ahmad Chalabi</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">in conference with Joe Allbaugh, Donald Rumsfeld,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Douglas Feith,[LEDEEN PAL] </span> Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Dick Cheney. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ahmad Chalabi freedom fighter </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ahmad Chalabi in perception management conference</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The close friend of Dick Cheney has <b>made over one of Saddam's Palaces as his own.</b> Petit Pale Chalabi is lush with decor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A man of sophisticated tastes, Ahmed Chalabi has brought in feng shui (gay eye) metrosexual decorators from New York thanks to The Rendon Group and New Bridge Strategies, LLC, <b>Douglas Feith</b> has arranged all the details...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div style="line-height: 14px;"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.scari.org/chalabi.html" style="">http://www.scari.org/chalabi.html</a></font></div><div style="line-height: 14px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="line-height: 14px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="line-height: 14px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi</font></div><div style="line-height: 14px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="line-height: 14px;"><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi</b><sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a></sup> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Arabic language" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Arabic</a>: <span lang="ar" dir="rtl" xml:lang="ar" xmlns:xml="xml">أحمد عبد الهادي الجلبي</span>‎‎; 30 October 1944 – 3 November 2015) was an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_people" class="mw-redirect" title="Iraqi people" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iraqi</a> politician, a founder of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_National_Congress" title="Iraqi National Congress" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iraqi National Congress</a> (INC) and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Iraq" title="Prime Minister of Iraq" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">President</a> of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Governing_Council" title="Iraqi Governing Council" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Governing Council of Iraq</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Iraq" title="List of Prime Ministers of Iraq" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">37th</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Iraq" title="Prime Minister of Iraq" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Prime Minister of Iraq</a>)</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">He was interim Minister of Oil in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq" title="Iraq" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iraq</a><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a></sup> in April–May 2005 and December 2005 – January 2006 and Deputy Prime Minister from May 2005 to May 2006. Chalabi failed to win a seat in parliament in the December 2005 elections, and when the new Iraqi cabinet was announced in May 2006, he was not given a post. Once dubbed the "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington" title="George Washington" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">George Washington</a> of Iraq"<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a></sup> by American supporters, he later fell out of favor and came under investigation by several U.S. government sources. He was also the subject of a 2008 biography by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_journalist" class="mw-redirect" title="Investigative journalist" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">investigative journalist</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aram_Roston" title="Aram Roston" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Aram Roston</a>, <i>The Man Who Pushed America to War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures, And Obsessions of Ahmad Chalabi</i><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a></sup> and a 2011 biography by <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60_Minutes" title="60 Minutes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">60 Minutes</a></i> producer Richard Bonin, <i>Arrows of the Night: Ahmad Chalabi's Long Journey to Triumph in Iraq</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-miller_5-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-miller-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chalabi was a controversial figure, especially in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States</a>, for many reasons.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In the lead-up to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq" title="2003 invasion of Iraq" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2003 invasion of Iraq</a>, the Iraqi National Congress (INC), with the assistance of lobbying powerhouse <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BKSH%26_Associates" class="mw-redirect" title="BKSH & Associates" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">BKSH & Associates</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-roston_6-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-roston-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a></sup> provided a major portion of the information on which <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Special_Plans" title="Office of Special Plans" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">U.S. Intelligence</a> based its condemnation of the Iraqi President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein" title="Saddam Hussein" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Saddam Hussein</a>, including reports of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapons_of_mass_destruction" class="mw-redirect" title="Weapons of mass destruction" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">weapons of mass destruction</a> and alleged ties to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda" title="Al-Qaeda" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">al-Qaeda</a>. Most, if not all, of this information has turned out to be false and Chalabi has been called a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabricator(intelligence)" title="Fabricator (intelligence)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">fabricator</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-prairieweather.typepad.com_7-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-prairieweather.typepad.com-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That, combined with the fact that Chalabi subsequently boasted, in an interview with the British <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_Telegraph" class="mw-redirect" title="Sunday Telegraph" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sunday Telegraph</a></i>, about the impact that their alleged falsifications had on American policy, led to a falling out between him and the U.S. government. Furthermore, Chalabi was found guilty in the Petra Bank scandal in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan" title="Jordan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jordan</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In January 2012, a French intelligence official stated that they believed Chalabi to be an Iranian agent.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1;"><div class="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#Early_life" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Early life</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#Western_education" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Western education</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#Business_career" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Business career</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#Exile_in_the_UK" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Exile in the UK</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#Invasion_of_Iraq" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Invasion of Iraq</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#Falling_out_with_the_U.S..2C_2004.E2.80.9305" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Falling out with the U.S., 2004–05</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#Political_activity_in_Iraq.2C_2005.E2.80.9315" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Political activity in Iraq, 2005–15</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#Death" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Death</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">References</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">8</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">External links</span></font></a></li></ul></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Early_life">Early life</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Chalabi was the son of a prominent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia_Islam" title="Shia Islam" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Shi'a</a> family,<sup id="cite_ref-aljazeera-obit_9-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-aljazeera-obit-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a></sup> one of the wealthy power elite of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad" title="Baghdad" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Baghdad</a>. He was born at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadhimiya" title="Kadhimiya" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Kadhimiya</a> in 1944. His family, who dated back 300 years to the Sultanate ran Iraq’s oldest commercial bank under the British-backed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Iraq" title="Kingdom of Iraq" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Kingdom of Iraq</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-TE_Chalabi_10-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-TE_Chalabi-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup> His father was a wealthy grain merchant and member of the Iraqi parliament, became head of the senate when King Abdullah was assassinated.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">His family retired from public life to a farmhouse near Baghdad when the military seized power. Chalabi left Iraq with his family in 1958, following the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14_July_Revolution" title="14 July Revolution" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">14 July Revolution</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-TE_Chalabi_10-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-TE_Chalabi-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-legacy_11-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-legacy-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a></sup>and spent most of his life in the United States and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom" title="United Kingdom" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United Kingdom</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-profile_12-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-profile-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup> He was educated at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_College" title="Baghdad College" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Baghdad College</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaford_College" title="Seaford College" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Seaford College</a> in Sussex, England before leaving for America.</font></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Western_education">Western education</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ahmed_Chalabi&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Western education" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In exile, following the Ba'ath party takeover, his family acted as the Iraqi Shia clergy’s bankers.</span><sup id="cite_ref-TE_Chalabi_10-2" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-TE_Chalabi-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> In the mid-1960s, he studied with </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptography" title="Cryptography" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">cryptographer</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitfield_Diffie" title="Whitfield Diffie" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Whitfield Diffie</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> at the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology" title="Massachusetts Institute of Technology" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> from which he received a </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_science" class="mw-redirect" title="Bachelor of science" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">bachelor of science</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> degree in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics" title="Mathematics" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">mathematics</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>In 1969, he earned a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Philosophy" title="Doctor of Philosophy" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Ph.D.</a> in mathematics from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago" title="University of Chicago" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">University of Chicago</a></b> under the direction of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Glauberman" title="George Glauberman" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">George Glauberman</a> on the Theory of Knots.</span><sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">after which he took a position in the mathematics department at the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_University_of_Beirut" title="American University of Beirut" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">American University of Beirut</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He published three mathematics papers between 1973 and 1980, in the field of </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_algebra" title="Abstract algebra" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">abstract algebra</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In 1971, Chalabi married Leila Osseiran, daughter of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_people" title="Lebanese people" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Lebanese</a> politician <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adil_Osseiran" class="mw-redirect" title="Adil Osseiran" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Adil Osseiran</a>. They had four children.<sup id="cite_ref-Where_Plan_A_15-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-Where_Plan_A-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a></sup> Whilst still at Beirut the civil war broke out in 1975, so he moved to Jordan and found work as an interpreter.</font></p><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Business_career">Business career</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Chalabi was a bold and shrewd investor, amassing a fortune of $100 million. During his life he was accused of corruption many times. In 1977, he founded the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Petra_Bank&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Petra Bank (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Petra Bank</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan" title="Jordan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jordan</a> with Crown Prince Hassan, the King's brother.<sup id="cite_ref-profile_12-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-profile-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup> In May 1989, the Governor of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Bank_of_Jordan" title="Central Bank of Jordan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Central Bank of Jordan</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Said_Nabulsi" title="Mohammed Said Nabulsi" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Mohammed Said Nabulsi</a>, issued a decree ordering all banks in the country to deposit 35% of their reserves with the Central Bank.<sup id="cite_ref-Roston2009_16-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-Roston2009-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a></sup> Petra Bank was the only bank that was unable to meet this requirement. An investigation was launched which led to accusations of embezzlement and false accounting. The bank failed, causing a $350 million bail-out by the Central Bank.<sup id="cite_ref-chequered_17-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-chequered-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup> Chalabi fled the country, in the boot of a Jordanian prince's car,<sup id="cite_ref-TE_Chalabi_10-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-TE_Chalabi-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup> before the authorities could react. Chalabi was convicted and sentenced <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_in_absentia" title="Trial in absentia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">in absentia</a></i> for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_fraud" title="Bank fraud" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">bank fraud</a> by a Jordanian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_tribunal" class="mw-redirect" title="Military tribunal" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">military tribunal</a> to 22 years in prison. Chalabi maintained that his prosecution was a politically motivated effort to discredit him sponsored by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein" title="Saddam Hussein" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Saddam Hussein</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-profile_12-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-profile-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup></font></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Exile_in_the_UK">Exile in the UK</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Living abroad by 1992 in London, prohibited to return for fear of his life, he set up the Iraqi National Congress with an agenda of regime change for his homeland. The organization was open to all ethnic Iraqis - Kurds and Arabs - as well as Sunnis and Shias. Already a fluent English speaker, he turned his attention to Washington DC.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1995 after preparation and lobbying he persuaded President Clinton to fund an expedition into northern Iraq to use subterfuge to start an insurgency. Chalabi was convinced that the Iraqi military would rise up to usurp the dictator. The commanders to whom he had spoken, were the same who openly supported Saddam and crushed his opponents in the Kurdish and Shi'ite revolts. The insurgency failed, lacked the promised ground troops, and 100 insurgents were killed by the military. The command structure of INC fell apart with factional infighting. Chalabi was banned from those frequent visits to CIA HQ at Langley, Virginia. Nonetheless Chalabi was doggedly determined: in 1998 Congress passed the Iraqi Liberation Act making it American law that "regime change" would happen in Iraq.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It was reported by BBC News in May 2005 that the Jordanian government was considering whether to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon" title="Pardon" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">pardon</a> Chalabi, in part to ease the relations between Jordan and the new Iraqi government of which Chalabi was a member.<sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a></sup> According to one report, Chalabi proposed a $32 million compensation fund for depositers affected by Petra Bank's failure. The website for Petra Bank contains a press release stating that Chalabi would refuse the pardon.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a></sup> Although Chalabi always maintained the case was a plot to frame him by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad" title="Baghdad" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Baghdad</a>, the issue was revisited when the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.State_Department" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. State Department" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">U.S. State Department</a> raised questions about the accounting practices of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_National_Congress" title="Iraqi National Congress" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iraqi National Congress</a> (INC).<sup id="cite_ref-profile_12-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-profile-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup> According to <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The New York Times</a></i>, "Chalabi insisted on a public apology, which the Jordanians refused to give."<sup id="cite_ref-Where_Plan_A_15-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-Where_Plan_A-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Chalabi headed the executive council of the INC, an umbrella Iraqi opposition group created in 1992 for the purpose of fomenting the overthrow of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein" title="Saddam Hussein" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Saddam Hussein</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-legacy_11-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-legacy-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a></sup> The INC received major funding and assistance from the United States.<sup id="cite_ref-chequered_17-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-chequered-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup> Chalabi was involved in organizing a resistance movement among <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurd" class="mw-redirect" title="Kurd" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Kurds</a> in northern Iraq in the early mid-1990s.<sup id="cite_ref-profile_12-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-profile-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-chequered_17-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-chequered-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup> When that effort was crushed and hundreds of his supporters were killed, Chalabi fled the country.<sup id="cite_ref-profile_12-5" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-profile-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup> Chalabi lobbied in Washington for the passage of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Liberation_Act" title="Iraq Liberation Act" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iraq Liberation Act</a> (passed October 1998). This <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earmark(politics)" title="Earmark (politics)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">earmarked</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar" title="United States dollar" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">US$</a>97 million to support Iraqi opposition groups.<sup id="cite_ref-profile_12-6" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-profile-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup> But in 2001 it was revealed that INC was accused of false accounting and irregularities. During the period from March 2000 to September 2003, the U.S. State Department paid nearly $33 million to the INC, according to a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Accounting_Office" class="mw-redirect" title="General Accounting Office" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">General Accounting Office</a> report released in 2004,some of which was used to purchase office artefacts.<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span class="mw-headline" id="Invasion_of_Iraq" style="">Invasion of Iraq</span></font></h2><div class="thumb tright" style="clear: right; float: right; margin: 0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); padding: 3px; background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); text-align: center; overflow: hidden; width: 222px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><div class="thumbcaption" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; text-align: left;"><div class="magnify" style="float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ahmed_Chalabi_in_discussion_with_Paul_Bremer_and_Donald_Rumsfeld.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" standalone="standalone" no="no" f="F" e="E" a="A" csvg="Csvg" http="http" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" viewbox="viewBox" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" id="id" magnify-clip="magnify-clip" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" bigbox="bigbox" m1.509="M1.509" h10.99v7.919h-10.99z="h10.99v7.919h-10.99z" smallbox="smallbox" m-1.499="M-1.499" h5.943v4.904h-5.943z="h5.943v4.904h-5.943z" fg="Fg" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" user-select="user-select" none="none" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data" /></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ahmed_Chalabi_in_discussion_with_Paul_Bremer_and_Donald_Rumsfeld.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" standalone="standalone" no="no" f="F" e="E" a="A" csvg="Csvg" http="http" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" viewbox="viewBox" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" id="id" magnify-clip="magnify-clip" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" bigbox="bigbox" m1.509="M1.509" h10.99v7.919h-10.99z="h10.99v7.919h-10.99z" smallbox="smallbox" m-1.499="M-1.499" h5.943v4.904h-5.943z="h5.943v4.904h-5.943z" fg="Fg" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" user-select="user-select" none="none" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chalabi in discussion with </font></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bremer" title="Paul Bremer" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Paul Bremer</a> and US Secretary of Defense <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld" title="Donald Rumsfeld" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Donald Rumsfeld</a></font></div></div></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Before the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War" title="Iraq War" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Iraq War</a> (2003), Chalabi enjoyed close political and business relationships with some members of the U.S. government, including some prominent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatives" class="mw-redirect" title="Neoconservatives" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">neoconservatives</a>within <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon" title="The Pentagon" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">the Pentagon</a>. Chalabi was said to have had political contacts within the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century" title="Project for the New American Century" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Project for the New American Century</a>, most notably with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz" title="Paul Wolfowitz" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Paul Wolfowitz</a>, a student of nuclear strategist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Wohlstetter" title="Albert Wohlstetter" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Albert Wohlstetter</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Perle" title="Richard Perle" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Richard Perle</a>. He also enjoyed considerable support among politicians and political <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pundit(politics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Pundit (politics)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">pundits</a> in the United States, most notably <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hoagland" title="Jim Hoagland" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Jim Hoagland</a> of <i style=""><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">The Washington Post</a></i>, who held him up as a notable force for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy" title="Democracy" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">democracy</a> in Iraq.<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[21]</a></sup> He was a special guest of First Lady <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Bush" title="Laura Bush" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Laura Bush</a> at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_State_of_the_Union_Address" title="2004 State of the Union Address" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">2004 State of the Union Address</a>.</span><sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[22]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA" class="mw-redirect" title="CIA" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">CIA</a> was largely skeptical of Chalabi and the INC, but information allegedly from his group (most famously from a defector codenamed "Curveball") made its way into intelligence dossiers used by President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W.Bush" title="George W. Bush" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">George W. Bush</a> and British Prime Minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair" title="Tony Blair" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Tony Blair</a> to justify an invasion of Iraq. "Curveball", <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curveball(informant)" title="Curveball (informant)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi</a>, fed officials hundreds of pages of bogus "firsthand" descriptions of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_weapons_laboratory" title="Mobile weapons laboratory" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">mobile biological weapons factories</a> on wheels and rails.<sup id="cite_ref-curve_23-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-curve-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a></sup> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Secretary_of_State" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. Secretary of State" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Secretary of State</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell" title="Colin Powell" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Colin Powell</a> later used this information in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.N." class="mw-redirect" title="U.N." style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">U.N.</a> presentation trying to garner support for the war, despite warnings from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Intelligence_Service(Germany)" title="Federal Intelligence Service (Germany)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">German intelligence</a> that "Curveball" was fabricating claims.<sup id="cite_ref-curve_23-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-curve-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a></sup> Since then, the CIA has admitted that the defector made up the story, and Powell said in 2011 the information should not have been used in his presentation.<sup id="cite_ref-curve_23-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-curve-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a></sup> A later congressionally appointed investigation (Robb-Silberman) concluded that Curveball had no relation whatsoever to the INC, and that press reports linking Curveball to the INC were erroneous.<sup id="cite_ref-LATIMES_24-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-LATIMES-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[24]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The INC often worked with the media, most notably with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller(journalist)" class="mw-redirect" title="Judith Miller (journalist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Judith Miller</a>, concerning her <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapon_of_mass_destruction" title="Weapon of mass destruction" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">WMD</a> stories for <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The New York Times</a></i> starting on 26 February 1998.<sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-25" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[25]</a></sup> After the war, given the lack of discovery of WMDs, most of the WMD claims of the INC were shown to have been either misleading, exaggerated, or completely made up while INC information about the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein's loyalists and Chalabi's personal enemies were accurate.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap;">[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (November 2014)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> Another of Chalabi's advocates was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Enterprise_Institute" title="American Enterprise Institute" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">American Enterprise Institute</a>'s Iraq specialist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danielle_Pletka" title="Danielle Pletka" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Danielle Pletka</a>. Chalabi received advice on media and television presentation techniques from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland" title="Ireland" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Irish</a>scriptwriter and commentator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eoghan_Harris" title="Eoghan Harris" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Eoghan Harris</a> prior to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq" title="2003 invasion of Iraq" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">invasion of Iraq</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-26" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[26]</a></sup><sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap;">[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span title="Additional citation needed. (November 2014)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In April as U.S. forces took control during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq" title="2003 invasion of Iraq" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2003 Invasion of Iraq</a>, Chalabi entered with allied troops the southern town of Shatrah. 300 US-trained FIF (Freedom for Iraq Fighters) expected opposition, but none emerged. Thousands of Iraqis cheered the troops. Chalabi returned under their aegis and was given a position on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_interim_governing_council" class="mw-redirect" title="Iraq interim governing council" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iraq interim governing council</a> by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_Provisional_Authority" title="Coalition Provisional Authority" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Coalition Provisional Authority</a>. He served as president of the council in September 2003. He denounced a plan to let the UN choose an interim government for Iraq. "We are grateful to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W.Bush" title="George W. Bush" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">President Bush</a> for liberating Iraq, but it is time for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_people" class="mw-redirect" title="Iraqi people" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iraqi people</a> to run their affairs," he was quoted as saying in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The New York Times</a></i>.<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In August 2003, Chalabi was the only candidate whose unfavorable ratings exceeded his favorable ones with Iraqis in a State Department poll.<sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[28]</a></sup> In a survey of nearly 3,000 Iraqis in February 2004 (by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oxford_Research_International&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Oxford Research International (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Oxford Research International</a>, sponsored by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC" title="BBC" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">BBC</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom" title="United Kingdom" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United Kingdom</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Broadcasting_Company" title="American Broadcasting Company" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ABC</a> in the U.S., <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARD(TV)" class="mw-redirect" title="ARD (TV)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ARD</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany" title="Germany" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Germany</a>, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHK" title="NHK" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">NHK</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan" title="Japan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Japan</a>), only 0.2 percent of respondents said he was the most trustworthy leader in Iraq (see survey link below, question #13). A secret document written in 2002 by the British Overseas and Defence Secretariat reportedly described Chalabi as "a convicted fraudster popular on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill" title="Capitol Hill" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Capitol Hill</a>."<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-29" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[29]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In response to the WMD controversy, Chalabi told London's <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Telegraph" class="mw-redirect" title="Daily Telegraph" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Daily Telegraph</a></i> in February 2004,</font></p><blockquote style="overflow: hidden; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 40px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">We are heroes in error. As far as we're concerned, we've been entirely successful. That tyrant Saddam is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_George_W.Bush" title="Presidency of George W. Bush" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Bush administration</a> is looking for a scapegoat.<sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-30" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[30]</a></sup></font></p></blockquote><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Falling_out_with_the_U.S..2C_2004.E2.80.9305">Falling out with the U.S., 2004–05</span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As Chalabi's position of trust with the Pentagon crumbled, he found a new political position as a champion of Iraq's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi%27ite" class="mw-redirect" title="Shi'ite" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Shi'ites</a> (Chalabi himself was a Shi'ite</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">). Beginning 25 January 2004, Chalabi and his close associates promoted the claim that leaders around the world were illegally profiting from the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_for_Food_program" class="mw-redirect" title="Oil for Food program" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Oil for Food program</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. These charges were around the same time that UN envoy </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakhdar_Brahimi" title="Lakhdar Brahimi" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Lakhdar Brahimi</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> indicated that Chalabi would likely not be welcome in a future Iraqi government. Up until this time, Chalabi had been mentioned formally several times in connection with possible future leadership positions. Chalabi contended that documents in his possession detailed the misconduct, but he did not provide any documents or other evidence. The U.S. sharply criticized Chalabi's Oil for Food investigation as undermining the credibility of its own.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Additionally, Chalabi and other members of the INC were investigated for fraud involving the exchange of Iraqi currency, grand theft of both national and private assets, and many other criminal charges in Iraq. On 19 May 2004 the U.S. government discontinued their regular payments to Chalabi for information he provided. Iraqi police, supported by U.S. soldiers, raided his offices and residence on 20 May, taking documents and computers, presumably to be used as evidence.<sup id="cite_ref-analysis_31-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-analysis-31" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[31]</a></sup> A major target of the raid was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aras_Habib" title="Aras Habib" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Aras Habib</a>, Chalabi's long-term director of intelligence, who controlled the vast network of agents bankrolled by U.S. funding. The U.S. announced that they had stopped funding the INC, having previously paid the organization $330,000 per month.<sup id="cite_ref-analysis_31-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-analysis-31" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[31]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In June 2004, it was reported that Chalabi gave U.S. state secrets to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran" title="Iran" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Iran</a> in April, including the fact that one of the United States' most valuable sources of Iranian intelligence was a broken Iranian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code(cryptography)" title="Code (cryptography)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">code</a> used by their spy services</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-code_32-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-code-32" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[32]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Chalabi allegedly learned of the code through a drunk American involved in the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-breaking" class="mw-redirect" title="Code-breaking" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">code-breaking</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> operation.</span><sup id="cite_ref-code_32-1" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-code-32" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[32]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Chalabi denied all of the charges, which nothing ever came of.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">An arrest warrant for alleged <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterfeiting" class="mw-redirect" title="Counterfeiting" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">counterfeiting</a> was issued for Chalabi on 8 August 2004, while at the same time a warrant was issued on murder charges against his nephew <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_Chalabi" title="Salem Chalabi" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Salem Chalabi</a> (at the time, head of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Special_Tribunal" class="mw-redirect" title="Iraqi Special Tribunal" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iraqi Special Tribunal</a>), while they both were out of the country.<sup id="cite_ref-2005_profile_33-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-2005_profile-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[33]</a></sup> Chalabi returned to Iraq on 10 August planning to make himself available to Iraqi government officials, but he was never arrested. Charges were later dropped against Chalabi, with Judge <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zuhair_al-Maliki&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Zuhair al-Maliki (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Zuhair al-Maliki</a> citing lack of evidence.<sup id="cite_ref-2005_profile_33-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-2005_profile-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[33]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On 1 September 2004, Chalabi told reporters of an assassination attempt made on him near <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latifiya" title="Latifiya" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Latifiya</a>, a town south of Baghdad. Chalabi reported he was returning from a meeting with Ayatollah <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Ayatollah_Ali_al-Sistani" class="mw-redirect" title="Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ali al-Sistani</a> (whose trust Chalabi enjoyed)<sup id="cite_ref-TE_Chalabi_10-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-TE_Chalabi-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Najaf" title="Najaf" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Najaf</a>, where a few days earlier a cease-fire had taken effect, ending three weeks of confrontations between followers of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muqtada_al-Sadr" title="Muqtada al-Sadr" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Muqtada al-Sadr</a> and the U.S. military, at the time.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap;">[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (October 2012)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>He regained enough credibility to be made deputy prime minister on 28 April 2005.<sup id="cite_ref-2005_profile_33-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-2005_profile-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[33]</a></sup> At the same time he was made acting oil minister,</b><sup id="cite_ref-2005_profile_33-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-2005_profile-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[33]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-34" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[34]</a></sup> before the appointment of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Bahr_al-Uloum" class="mw-redirect" title="Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum</a> in May 2005. On protesting IMF austerity measures, Al-Uloum was instructed to extend his vacation by a month in December 2005 by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, and Chalabi was reappointed as acting oil minister. Al-Uloum returned to the post in January 2006.<sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-35" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[35]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In November 2005, Chalabi traveled to the U.S. and met with top U.S. government officials, including Vice President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney" title="Dick Cheney" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Dick Cheney</a>, Secretary of State <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleezza_Rice" title="Condoleezza Rice" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Condoleezza Rice</a>, and National Security Advisor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hadley" title="Stephen Hadley" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Stephen Hadley</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-36" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[36]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At this time Chalabi also traveled to Iran to meet with Iranian president </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad" title="Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Political_activity_in_Iraq.2C_2005.E2.80.9315">Political activity in Iraq, 2005–15</span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_National_Congress" title="Iraqi National Congress" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iraqi National Congress</a>, headed by Chalabi, was a part of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Iraqi_Alliance" class="mw-redirect" title="United Iraqi Alliance" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United Iraqi Alliance</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_parliamentary_election,December_2005" title="Iraqi parliamentary election, December 2005" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2005 legislative election</a>. After the election, Chalabi claimed that he had the support of the majority of elected members of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Iraqi_Alliance" class="mw-redirect" title="United Iraqi Alliance" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United Iraqi Alliance</a> and staked claim to be the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Iraq; however, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_al-Jaafari" title="Ibrahim al-Jaafari" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ibrahim al-Jaafari</a> later emerged as the consensus candidate for prime minister.<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-37" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[37]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Prior to the December 2005 elections, the Iraqi National Congress had left the United Iraqi Alliance and formed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Congress_Coalition" class="mw-redirect" title="National Congress Coalition" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">National Congress Coalition</a>, which ran in the elections but failed to win a single seat in Parliament, gaining less than 0.5% of the vote.<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-38" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[38]</a></sup> Other groups joining the INC in this list included: Democratic Iraqi Grouping, Democratic Joint Action Front, First Democratic National Party, Independent List, Iraqi Constitutional Movement, Iraqi Constitutional Party, Tariq Abd al-Karim Al Shahd al-Budairi, and the Turkoman Decision Party. He was refused a seat in the cabinet. Dogged by allegations, still unproven, of corruption he retorted that he had never "participated in any scheme of intelligence against the United States."<sup id="cite_ref-The_Daily_Telegraph.2C_p.33_39-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-The_Daily_Telegraph.2C_p.33-39" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[39]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Chalabi attended the 2006 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Conference" class="mw-redirect" title="Bilderberg Conference" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Bilderberg Conference</a> meeting outside of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa" title="Ottawa" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ottawa</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario" title="Ontario" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ontario</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada" title="Canada" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Canada</a>. In October 2007, Chalabi was appointed by Prime Minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouri_al_Maliki" class="mw-redirect" title="Nouri al Maliki" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Nouri al Maliki</a> to head the Iraqi services committee, a consortium of eight service ministries and two Baghdad municipal posts tasked with the "surge" plan's next phase, restoring electricity, health, education and local security services to Baghdad neighborhoods.<sup id="cite_ref-Chalabi_Back_40-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-Chalabi_Back-40" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[40]</a></sup> "The key is going to be getting the concerned local citizens—and all the citizens—feeling that this government is reconnected with them.... [Chalabi] agrees with that," said Gen. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Petraeus" title="David Petraeus" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">David Petraeus</a>. Chalabi "is an important part of the process," said Col. Steven Boylan, Petraeus' spokesman. "He has a lot of energy."<sup id="cite_ref-Chalabi_Back_40-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-Chalabi_Back-40" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[40]</a></sup> In April 2008, journalist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Melik_Kaylan&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Melik Kaylan (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Melik Kaylan</a> wrote about Chalabi, "Arguably, he has, more than anyone in the country, evolved a detailed sense of what ails Baghdadis and how to fix things."<sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[41]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">After the invasion Chalabi was placed in charge of "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-Ba%27athification" title="De-Ba'athification" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">de-Ba'athification</a>"—the removal of senior office holders judged to have been close supporters of the deposed Saddam Hussein. The role fell into disuse, but in early 2010 Chalabi was accused of reviving this dormant post to eliminate his political enemies, especially Sunnis. The banning of some 500 candidates prior to the general election of 7 March 2010 at the initiative of Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress was reported to have badly damaged previously improving relations between Shias and Sunnis.<sup id="cite_ref-42" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-42" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[42]</a></sup></font></p><div class="quotebox" style="float: right; clear: right; margin: 0.5em 0px 0.8em 1.4em; width: 230px; padding: 10px; border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div class="" style="position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our national and political arena has lost a prominent figure who dedicated his life to serve the country</font></div><cite style="font-style: inherit; display: block;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humam_Hamoudi" title="Humam Hamoudi" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sheikh Humam Hamoudi</a>, Statement on 3 November 2015<sup id="cite_ref-aljazeera-obit_9-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-aljazeera-obit-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-hamoudi-release_43-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-hamoudi-release-43" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[43]</a></sup></font></cite></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On 26 January 2012, <i>the New York Times</i> reported Western intelligence officials expressing concern that Chalabi was working with the leading opposition group in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain" title="Bahrain" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Bahrain</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Wefaq_National_Islamic_Society" class="mw-redirect" title="Al Wefaq National Islamic Society" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Al Wefaq National Islamic Society</a>. A French intelligence official said, "When we hear that some members of the opposition are in touch with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah" title="Hezbollah" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Hezbollah</a> or with shady figures like the Iraqi Ahmed Chalabi, of whom we think he is acting on behalf of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran" title="Iran" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iran</a>, then this worries us". The connection between Chalabi and Al Wefaq was acknowledged by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jawad_Fairooz&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Jawad Fairooz (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jawad Fairooz</a>, secretary general of Wefaq and a former member of Parliament in Bahrain. Fairooz said, "Mr Chalabi has helped us with contacts in Washington like other people have done and we thank them."<sup id="cite_ref-44" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-44" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[44]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During an interview in 2014, he was shown to be frail and depressed about his country's future:</font></p><blockquote style="overflow: hidden; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 40px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Iraq is a mess. Daesh is organised, with one command, united and well run, and we are so fragmented. We have no discipline, no command structure, no effective plans.<sup id="cite_ref-The_Daily_Telegraph.2C_p.33_39-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-The_Daily_Telegraph.2C_p.33-39" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[39]</a></sup></font></p></blockquote><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Death">Death</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Chalabi died on 3 November 2015, four days after his 71st birthday, having apparently suffered a heart attack at his home in Kadhimiya, Baghdad.<sup id="cite_ref-aljazeera-obit_9-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-aljazeera-obit-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-45" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-45" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[45]</a></sup><b> When he died, he was a current Member of the Iraqi Parliament, serving as the chairman of the Finance Committee.<sup id="cite_ref-wsj-obit_46-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#cite_note-wsj-obit-46" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[46]</a></sup></b></font></p></div><div style="line-height: 14px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="line-height: 14px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="line-height: 14px;"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-hveid="37" data-ved="0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQFQglKAAwAA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Ahmed Chalabi - Wikipedia</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv _SWb" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="Rm" style="font-style: normal;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi</cite></font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi+chalabi&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQHwgqMAA" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi+chalabi&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQHwgqMAA" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Ahmed Abdel Hadi <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chalabi</span> was an Iraqi politician, a founder of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and the President of the Governing Council of Iraq He was ...</font></span></a><div class="osl" style="margin-top: 0px;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi+chalabi&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQHwgqMAA" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">‎</font></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#Early_life" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Early life</a> · ‎<a class="fl" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#Business_career" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Business career</a> · ‎<a class="fl" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#Invasion_of_Iraq" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Invasion of Iraq</a> · ‎<a class="fl" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#Political_activity_in_Iraq.2C_2005.E2.80.9315" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Political activity in Iraq ...</a></font></div></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-hveid="48" data-ved="0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQFQgwKAEwAQ"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/world/middleeast/ahmad-chalabi-iraq-dead.html?mcubz=3" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Ahmad Chalabi, Iraqi Politician Who Pushed for US Invasion, Dies at 71</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv _SWb" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><cite class="Rm" style="font-style: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/world/.../ahmad-chalabi-iraq-dead.html?mcubz=3</font></cite></div><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f" style="">Nov 3, 2015 - </span>Ahmad <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chalabi</span>, center, in 2014. Mr. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chalabi</span> died in Baghdad on Tuesday, state television said. Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times.</font></span></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-hveid="51" data-ved="0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQFQgzKAIwAg"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ahmed-chalabi-iraqi-politician-who-pushed-for-us-invasion-dies-of-heart-attack/2015/11/03/07bd3a99-cd43-4f45-ab0f-5d37c9c6bbb5_story.html" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Ahmed Chalabi, Iraqi exile who helped spur U.S. invasion, dies of ...</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv SWb" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="Rm" style="font-style: normal;">https://www.washingtonpost.com/...chalabi.../07bd3a99-cd43-4f45-ab0f-5d37c9c6bb...</cite></font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; 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padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ahmed-chalabi-iraqi-politician-who-pushed-for-us-invasion-dies-of-heart-attack/2015/11/03/07bd3a99-cd43-4f45-ab0f-5d37c9c6bbb5_story.html+chalabi&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQHwg3MAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li></ol></div></div></div><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ahmed-chalabi-iraqi-politician-who-pushed-for-us-invasion-dies-of-heart-attack/2015/11/03/07bd3a99-cd43-4f45-ab0f-5d37c9c6bbb5_story.html+chalabi&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQHwg3MAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="f" style="">Nov 3, 2015 - </span>IRBIL, Iraq — Ahmed <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chalabi</span>, an Iraqi exile whose rarefied Washington access and later-discredited claims about Saddam Hussein's arsenal ...</font></span></a></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-hveid="57" data-ved="0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQFQg5KAMwAw"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/03/ahmed-chalabi-exile-reputation-waned-iraq" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Ahmed Chalabi: Iraqi exile whose reputation waned after return ...</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv _SWb" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="Rm bc" style="font-style: normal;">https://www.theguardian.com › World › Iraq</cite></font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 1px 3px 0px; 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padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0epqXhzvdlsJ:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/03/ahmed-chalabi-exile-reputation-waned-iraq+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li></ol></div></div></div><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0epqXhzvdlsJ:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/03/ahmed-chalabi-exile-reputation-waned-iraq+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="f" style="">Nov 3, 2015 - </span>Ahmed <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chalabi</span>, then head of the Iraqi National Congress, waiting for a meeting to recommence in Baghdad in September 2004. Photograph: ...</font></span></a></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-hveid="64" data-ved="0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQFQhAKAQwBA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/11/ahmed-chalabi-real-victor-iraq-war-151104065757581.html" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Ahmed Chalabi: The real victor of the Iraq War - Al Jazeera English</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv _SWb" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="Rm" style="font-style: normal;">www.aljazeera.com/.../ahmed-chalabi-real-victor-iraq-war-151104065757581.html</cite></font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; 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padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5nNldHL4ACsJ:www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/11/ahmed-chalabi-real-victor-iraq-war-151104065757581.html+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/11/ahmed-chalabi-real-victor-iraq-war-151104065757581.html+chalabi&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQHwhFMAQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/11/ahmed-chalabi-real-victor-iraq-war-151104065757581.html+chalabi&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQHwhFMAQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="f" style="">Nov 4, 2015 - </span>I first met <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chalabi</span> in 1995, and despite the controversy that surrounds him, he was a master of US and Iraqi politics.</font></span></a></div></div></div></div></div><div style="line-height: 14px;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/11/ahmed-chalabi-real-victor-iraq-war-151104065757581.html+chalabi&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQHwhFMAQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">=</font></a></div><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/11/ahmed-chalabi-real-victor-iraq-war-151104065757581.html+chalabi&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKzsLClKjWAhWk5lQKHeyhBoIQHwhFMAQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">

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