Iraq Golden boy returning to the scene of the crime.

Who is this guy?

Iraqi Chalabi meets Cheney, Rumsfeld

By Charles Aldinger

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, once embraced and then shunned by the Bush administration, held talks with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday but the Pentagon did not allow television cameras to record the event.

He also held a private meeting at the White House with Vice President Dick Cheney after his 45 minutes of talks with Rumsfeld, but Cheney's office would not provide details.

Chalabi's trip to Washington has angered Iraq war critics who have denounced the visit of the man most associated with discredited prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Democratic lawmakers have demanded to know why Chalabi was meeting top U.S. officials after allegations he had passed American secrets to Iran and they urged congressional committees to subpoena him for testimony.

Last week Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Chalabi but did not appear publicly with him, underscoring the political sensitivity of the meeting.

A senior U.S. defense official said Rumsfeld and Chalabi discussed the importance of protecting Iraq's oil and electric power grids from insurgent attacks and improving intelligence-gathering by U.S.-led military forces in Iraq.

The Pentagon did not allow television cameras to record Chalabi's arrival. His visit to Washington ahead of Iraqi elections next month comes amid a bitter U.S. debate over President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and Bush's conduct of the war in which more than 2,060 Americans have died.

Information provided by Chalabi's organization, the Iraqi National Congress, was influential in making the case for the Iraq war within the U.S. government. But critics say the information greatly exaggerated the threat posed by former President Saddam Hussein.

Chalabi was taken into Iraq by the American forces, along with an armed group of supporters, as Washington tried to build a new power structure in the weeks after the invasion. But he soon fell into disfavor, targeted with allegations that he betrayed U.S. secrets to Iran.

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