Ex-U.S. ally Chalabi, now closer to Iran, on the rise in Iraq

[laststeamtrain]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Ex-U.S. ally Chalabi, now closer to Iran, on the rise in Iraq
By Hannah Allam and Warren P. Strobel, Mcclatchy Newspapers 2 hrs 50 mins ago

BAGHDAD — The Bush administration introduced Ahmad Chalabi , the former U.S. ally and perennially controversial Iraqi politician, as a secular, pro-Western Mr. Fix-It who could slide right into Saddam Hussein's old seat.

Instead, he embarrassed the Bush White House with bogus pre-war intelligence, aligned himself with Shiite Muslim extremists and got uncomfortably friendly with Iran .

Now, he's No. 3 on an electoral ticket alongside Iraq's biggest Shiite Muslim factions and his name is cropping up regularly as a potential prime minister. If Chalabi does, finally, ascend to an elected post in Iraq , Washington won't be cheering. These days, the nimble politician's fortunes are more closely tied to militant Shiite factions and their allies in Tehran than they are to Washington .

"The Americans outplayed themselves, nobody outplayed them," Chalabi said in an interview with McClatchy this week in Baghdad . "They believed their own propaganda."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20100227/wl_mcclatchy/3438064

[DURHAM D]

1. Is the U.S. still paying him $140,000 a month for "intel"? nt

[Rick Myers]

2. That turd is still floating???

[Rhiannon12866]

3. Why isn't this dishonest sack-of-s*** in jail?!

I thought that Interpol got him. :grr:

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Still apparently wanted for fraud in Jordan

But Chalabi's bad behavior long predates Iraq. The record begins in the 1970s in Jordan. That's where Chalabi, who was born to a wealthy Shiite family in Baghdad, had settled. In 1977, he founded the Petra Bank, which was, according to Jordanian authorities, a huge embezzlement vehicle. In the 1980s Jordan passed a law that all banks in the country would have to deposit 30 percent of their reserves in the Central Bank, and Petra Bank was the only one that didn't comply.

Chalabi fled Jordan, where he faces a 22-year sentence for bank fraud should he ever return. (Chalabi claims he's innocent and blames, improbably, Saddam Hussein.)

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/ahmad-chalabi-keeps-causing-trouble-as-iraqi-elections-near/19361740

[Rhiannon12866]

10. That was it! Thanks...

Now I remember! Thanks for the details. I remember that he was already in trouble well before swindling and misguiding the US about the situation in Iraq. Last I knew, he was being led away by Interpol and I thought that we'd seen the last of him, but this isn't the first time he's reappeared. And of course he'd blame Saddam Hussein. Who's still around to contradict him?! :grr:

[hollowdweller]

4. What did they expect?

That a country full if Shiites wouldn't be friends with Iran?

Bush accomplished what 8 years of war witn Iraq could not do.

All he had to do was remove a dictator that was comitted to secular society.

[jaysunb]

6. Bingo !

Another Bush fail, that's completely ignored. :evilfrown:

[pinto]

5. Chalabi - what an opportunistic slime ball and a con man embraced by Bushco.

"The split between the U.S. government and Chalabi, who sat behind then-first lady Laura Bush during the 2004 State of the Union address, began years ago. Most of the intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and terrorist ties that his Iraqi National Congress fed to the Bush administration as the group lobbied for an invasion turned out to be bogus."

[Judi Lynn]

7. Ahmed Chalabi's renewed influence in Iraq concerns U.S.

Ahmed Chalabi's renewed influence in Iraq concerns U.S.
By Ernesto Londoño and Leila Fadel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 27, 2010

BAGHDAD -- Ahmed Chalabi, the onetime U.S. ally, is in the limelight again, and his actions are proving no less controversial than they did years ago.

On the eve of Iraq's parliamentary elections, Chalabi is driving an effort aimed at weeding out candidates tied to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. Chalabi is reprising a role he played after the U.S.-led invasion -- which many critics believe he helped facilitate with faulty intelligence -- and, in the process, is infuriating American officials and some Iraqis, who suspect his motive is to bolster his own political bloc.

Chalabi, a Shiite, has defended the work of the commission he is leading as legal and crucial during a period of transition to Iraq's first sovereign government. But his reemergence on the political scene has rankled U.S. officials and fueled concerns that Sunnis and other secular Iraqis will be marginalized.

Some Iraqi and U.S. officials think Chalabi might have his eyes on the ultimate prize, however unlikely he can attain it.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR2010022606139.html?wprss=rss_print/asection

[ck4829]

8. Say hi to the new boss...