[plschwartz]

Interesting article here How Chalabi Played the Press at http://cjr.org/issues/2004/4/ cjr is columbia journalism review.

[Al-Firdaus]

Originally Posted by eggplant43

Call me cynical. I find it interesting that Allawi's government conveniently issues arrest warrants for these two while they're out of Iraq. Could it be they want to appear to be "doing the right thing", while making sure the Chalabi's are out of harms way?

It's more like a vain attempt by the stooge government to appear as if it actually wields power.

The rise and fall of Ahmed Chalabi
By:The Guardian on:10.08.2004 [05:17 ] (24 reads)
Monday August 9, 2004

In early 2003 Ahmed Chalabi would have had every reason to feel pleased with himself. A long-nurtured plan to topple Saddam Hussein was coming to fruition and there was a chance the Iraqi exile would be the one to take his place.

Eighteen months later and the Iraq he helped to create has turned against him: he is charged with money laundering and his nephew and associate, Salem Chalabi, the man organising Saddam's trial, is charged with murder. Both deny what they claim are politically motivated prosecutions.

Outside Iraq he is not faring much better. In the United States, where he was once considered as the Iraqi opposition leader, he is no longer the Pentagon's darling. His Iraqi National Congress has been named as the source for the much of the discredited WMD intelligence and Mr Chalabi himself was accused by US intelligence officers of spying for Iran.

It was alleged that he tipped off Tehran that the US had broken its codes and was eavesdropping on communications. Mr Chalabi claims that the CIA - his former paymaster - was hitting him with a smear campaign.

Charges of political motivation and smears directed against his enemies and opponents are one way in which Mr Chalabi responds to setbacks. A 22-year jail sentence received in absentia from a Jordanian court for his role in the Petra bank collapse was blamed on an Iraqi plot to frame him.

After his failure in 1996 to overthrow Saddam with CIA-bankrolled resistance fighters from the Kurdish north, his achievement in getting the INC named as the recipient of taxpayer's money in the US's 1998 Iraq Liberation Act was considerable. He had not lived in Iraq since he left as a child in 1956 and had no power base in the country.

What he had done, however, was to sell himself to the neo-conservatives who took charge of the Pentagon with the inauguration of George Bush in 2001. The September 11 attacks gave them an influence over US foreign policy that chimed with his wishes.

But whether Mr Chalabi was leading the US's Iraqi policy where he wanted it go, or was an opportunist telling the White House and Pentagon what they wanted to hear remains the major question about his conduct.

An original invasion plan, presented in early 2002, was for INC fighters to invade from Kuwait with US air and special forces support and watch the people come over to their side. That the actual invasion used US infantry and marines rather than Mr Chalabi's fighters suggests that the US was taking what it wanted from him (mainly intelligence, which was mostly wrong) and then conducting the war as it thought best.

After the invasion he never achieved the level of political influence or power that many expected - he was the Pentagon's favourite Iraqi but as it was forced to compromise and take on board changes and challenges to its plan for the country, Mr Chalabi similarly found his opportunities curtailed.

Even so: he did not have the capabilities to take up the opportunities that were presented to him. The Pentagon dispatched him to Nassiriya in April 2003 to form a political grouping in Iraq but there was not a great deal of popular support for a man who had spent most of his life in the US and Britain.

Mr Chalabi made it to the US-appointed governing council but, unlike many of his colleagues, failed to transfer to the UN-assembled interim government. By the time it took over from Paul Bremer and the US's Coalition Provisional Authority he was out of favour with Iraqis and the US.

[angelize56]

Chalabi survives convoy attack
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 Posted: 4:55 AM EDT (0855 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi escaped injury when two carloads of gunmen opened fire on his convoy, injuring two bodyguards, an aide has said.

According to Haider Musawi, the convoy was en route from Najaf to Baghdad when it came under fire in the Latifiya area about 30 miles (48 km) south of Baghdad at around 7:30 a.m. (0330 GMT).

Haider said Chalabi's bodyguards returned fire, but the gunmen escaped.

Chalabi had visited the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf on Tuesday to wish him well and to discuss the future plans for Iraq elections. Chalabi also made a visit to the Imam Ali Shrine, the scene of recent clashes.

Al-Sistani and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr brokered a cease-fire in the holy Shia city of Najaf last week.

Chalabi had been a key U.S. ally leading up to the war in Iraq, but has recently fallen out of favor with Washington.

In May, Iraqi police and U.S. troops searched his home and office, and U.S. officials accused him of passing closely held American secrets to Iran -- allegations he denied.

Chalabi blames Jordan for generating a smear campaign against him for exposing the country's weapons dealing with Saddam Hussein.

In 1992, Chalabi was convicted in absentia of bank fraud by a military court in Jordan after Petra Bank collapsed in 1989 amid charges of wrongdoing. He has said those charges were politically motivated.

[angelize56]

From Reuters:

September 1, 2004 4:15 PM

Chalabi says judge drops charges

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi says that a judge has informed him that counterfeiting charges against him have been dropped.