Iraq Golden boy returning to the scene of the crime.

Ahmed Chalabi to meet Cheney

Washington D.C.—Ahmed Chalabi, deputy prime minister of Iraq and once a U.S. favorite to replace Saddam Hussein, has not lost his luster with Vice-President Dick Cheney. Mr. Chalabi will hold a private meeting with Vice-President Cheney during his visit to Washington D.C. this week, the first such trip in more than two years.

Though not on his official schedule, Mr. Chalabi is counting on meeting his biggest backer in the Bush administration, Vice-President Dick Cheney. Among other heavy hitters, Mr. Chalabi is also scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Mr. Chalabi will arrive in Washington D.C. late Tuesday, November 8th, on a British Airways Flight from London. He will stay at the Ritz-Carleton Hotel in the Georgetown section of Washington D.C., where he has booked no less than eight hotel suites for himself and staff.

Though he has been accused in the past by Washington officials of giving Iran classified intelligence before Saddam Hussein was toppled, Mr. Chalabi has been telling Vice-President Cheney’s aides that he is the only Iraqi leader who can control the Iranians. Chalabi’s message is short and simple: support me or Iran will become a greater adversary than you could ever have imagined.

Chalabi’s camp is likely to receive a few surprises during his visit to Washington D.C. Anti-war demonstrators will likely greet him at his hotel and other destinations during his visit, such as the headquarters of the American Enterprise Institute, where he speaks at noon on Wednesday. Other anti-war groups like Military Families Speak Out, Iraqi Vets Against The War and Goldstar Mothers, may have their representatives confront Mr. Chalabi as well.

Legal analysts are studying the proposition of serving Mr. Chalabi with legal documents involving him in “wrongful death claims” associated with American soldiers who have lost their lives in Iraq.

Meanwhile, anti-war Members of Congress are planning to send a letter to Mr. Chalabi demanding a meeting with him to discuss pre-war intelligence. “They want to talk to Mr. Chalabi because he deliberately provided false information to the U.S. government regarding a series of intelligence issues,” according to one congressional aide.


http://www.iimcr.org/blog/index.cfm

 

Hear Hear!!!!

Statement by Congressman George Miller on the House floor yesterday.

Monday, November 7, 2005

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, somebody ought to call the cops. Today I am not talking about collusion, corruption and cronyism and the leaking of sensitive classified information that has irreparably damaged the national security of the United States. No, I am not talking about Scooter Libby or Karl Rove, though their involvement in outing a female CIA agent to silence her husband's criticisms of the President's Iraq policy deserves closer scrutiny.

No, I am talking about another shadowy character and administration ally, someone whose deception played a large role in leading the United States into war in Iraq. I am talking about Ahmad Chalabi. Mr. Chalabi is the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq's newly constituted government. But Mr. Chalabi also is a convicted bank swindler who, we now know, fed the Bush administration false intelligence about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and capabilities and Iraq's ties to terrorism.

Many Americans remember Mr. Chalabi as a man who convinced Vice President Cheney that the United States would be greeted as a great liberator in Iraq. Some have even said it was Mr. Chalabi who promoted the false story about Iraq's attempted purchase of nuclear material in Niger. Chalabi fed false stories about Iraq's weapons capabilities to New York Times reporter Judith Miller, a story that the Times was later forced to publicly discount.

Mr. Chalabi, who supplied information to the White House Iraq working group, a mysterious cabal, as Colin Powell's former chief of staff recently said, that hijacked U.S. foreign policy and hyped the case for war in Iraq. The bottom line is that Mr. Chalabi played a central role in the orchestrated deception leading to the invasion of Iraq.

After the administration discovered that Mr. Chalabi provided false intelligence, instead of investigating, the Department of Defense attempted to prop Mr. Chalabi up as a candidate of choice in the post-war Iraq.

Keep in mind what Mr. Chalabi did next. He was suspected of leaking classified information about U.S. intelligence capabilities to Iran. He was suspected of telling the Iranians that we had broken the code by which we were learning information about their activities.

Seventeen months ago, then National Security Adviser Rice promised an FBI inquiry into who leaked information to Iran. Seventeen months ago, and yet nothing has happened. Despite the fact that Mr. Chalabi was a prime suspect, the FBI has never interviewed him. In fact, the Wall Street Journal quotes the FBI as having said they have little active interest in this matter. Little active interest in a person who is leaking intelligence material to Iran in the middle of the war in Iraq?

Just this week the administration invited this criminal to meet with the Secretary of State and maybe even Vice President Cheney in the West Wing to discuss his candidacy for the Iraq presidency in this December's election. I would be curious to learn from the President what role granting a U.S. entry visa to a man suspected of spying for Iran plays in the administration's terrorism strategy.

Mr. Chalabi's actions are an insult to every American, especially those serving in our Nation's Armed Forces, and his high-level visit to the United States is an additional affront. Chalabi's crimes cannot go unanswered. He belongs in jail for his misdeeds. Instead, he gets a White House photo-op.

As the Senate concludes its investigation into the administration's use of false and misleading intelligence to make the case for war, no such inquiry would be complete without Mr. Chalabi's testimony under oath. While he is sashaying around the streets of Washington, D.C., the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee may want to issue a subpoena for his presence. He has offered to testify, but no intelligence agency of the United States has interviewed him, nor has the FBI, as we learned today.

He should be detained in this country until he gives that testimony. I know I speak for all Americans when I say that our idea of democracy is not propping up a bank swindler, kidnapper and extortionist whose lies and deceptions contributed to the 14,000 U.S. soldiers injured and over 2,000 killed in action and is an intractable quagmire with no end in sight. Americans deserve the truth about the Bush administration's manipulation of intelligence to justify this tragic war.

Calling the cops to arrest Mr. Chalabi, while he is here, so he can be interrogated, would be a good beginning to understand how extensive the manipulation, how false the evidence was, that caused the President to take us to war and which was championed by the Vice President and the President and the cabal to try to justify to the American citizens the reason for this war.

Mr. Speaker, call the cops. Mr. Chalabi should not be allowed to run free on the streets of this Nation's capital.

http://www.house.gov/georgemiller/statement11705.html

 

Rumor has it that Chalabi was bought in as a guest lecturer for Jr's ethics refresher course that started today. And after that he's going to do a one on one with Delay about how to rehabilitate your image with the public.

 

Congressmen write letter requesting Chalabi meeting on Iraq intel
11/08/2005 @ 3:40 pm

Ahmed Chalabi, U.S. source for information leading to the Iraq war, arrives in Washington today to meet with Bush Administration officials for the first time in two years. Allegations that Chalabi provided the U.S. with false pre-war intelligence regarding Saddam Hussein, combined with allegations that he passed U.S. secrets to Iran, have strained America's relationship with the man the Tehran's hardline government recently endorsed to lead Iraq.

In response to his visit, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and 18 members of the U.S. Congress (with other signers expected to follow,) are sending a letter to Chalabi requesting he meet with them regarding the role his intelligence paid in respect to the lead-up to the Iraq war.

The letter, in its entirety, follows:

November 8, 2005

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi
Iraqi National Congress
c/o The Ritz-Carlton Georgetown
3100 South Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007

Dear Mr. Deputy Prime Minister:

In the months leading up to the present conflict in Iraq, information from your close circle of associates was a key element in the Bush Administration's effort to convince the public of the need to go to war. As one of the leading Members of the Iraqi National Congress, you were responsible for providing a major portion of the information the Bush Administration used to persuade Members of Congress and the American people that a war with Iraq was neccessary.

Most notably, an "Iraqi chemical engineer" designated "Curveball" supplied hundreds of pages "firsthand" descriptions of mobile biological and chemical weapons facilities to the United States Defense Intelligence Agency. Secretary of State Colin Powell later used this information in his February 2003 address to the United Nations detailing the state of Iraq's weapons programs.

Since then, the Congress and the American public have determined that these "firsthand" accounts were entirely fabricated. Moreover, we have learned that "Curveball" is, in fact, the brother of one of your top lieutenants within the Iraqi National Congress. Secretary Powell has since apologized for the use of such "intelligence" in making his case for the invasion of Iraq. However, neither you nor your associatees have ever fully accounted for the role you played in the buildup to this war, or for the $340,000 you and your associates received every month from the United States intelligence community for your efforts in gathering "evidence."

We respectfully request that you make yourself available to us to explain the details and reasons for your involvement in the manipulation of intelligence as the Bush Administration pushed for war. It is vital to the integrity of both our democracies that the truth behind these terribly destructive events be known.

In 2002, you told the New York Times that the Iraqi people "are grateful to President Bush for liberating Iraq, but it is time for the Iraqi people to run their affairs." As members of Congress and concerned citizens, we, too, seek an end to this war and a conclusion to the violence that has plagued both our countries for years. Your cooperation in this investigation will serve as an invaluable aid to the American people as we labor towards a final resolution in Iraq.Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi

We therefore encourage you to meet with us during your visit to the United States this week, explain your actions to the public, and help the people of both Iraq and the United States to understand why we are at war today. Please reply through the Judiciary Committee Democratic office, 2142 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, (tel: 202-225-6504; fax: 202-225-4423).

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr.
Maurice Hinchey
George Miller
Raul M. Grijalva
Chris Van Hollen
Susan Davis
Michael McNulty
Grace Napolitano
Lloyd Doggett
Ted Strickland
Ellen Tauscher
Jim McDermott
Jay Inslee
Marci Kaptur
Jan Schakowsky
Donald Payne
Cynthia McKinney
Hilda Solis