Chalabi Mystery
June 4, 2004
There’s something that really bugs me about the “Chalabi: Spy for Iran” story. If Chalabi is what they’re saying he is, he would seem to be a pretty high-profile target. Someone we’d want to have in custody. You know, to try to ascertain the damage done and find out more about Iranian intelligence operations.
I guess the story is they don’t have enough real evidence. But then, if the US Executive Branch claims it can hold Jose Padilla (a US Citizen) on suspicion of thinking he might one day plan to someday blow up an apartment building, lack of evidence hardly matters.
Why is Chalabi still free?
Update: On the other hand, this administration is probably just a bunch of freaking idiots.
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June 4th, 2004 at 5:44 am
Ah, the Bush administration — where every day is Opposite Day! I don’t know if Chalabi is what they say he is either — essentially an Iranian spy — but he *is* a known embezzler ($300 million from a Jordian bank in the 1980s) and had practically no credibility in Iraq until his recent split with BushCo. There were plenty of other reasons he might have lied to us besides working for Iranian intelligence. Like, I dunno, wanting to take Saddam’s place. The only reason he’s not in custody or being questioned, I would think, is because we paid him all that money…
June 4th, 2004 at 9:45 am
What’s really loopy is how they found out…
We decoded a message that an Iranian official in Baghdad sent to Tehran using this broken code, this message detailed the official’s conversation with Chalabi and Chalabi’s warning that the code had been compromised. The govt tried to hide that all of this happened, but then the media got a hold of the info, sat on it for two weeks because the govt asked them to sit on it… finally, the govt let them run with it. So, essentially, the govt by somewhat confirming the story that they intercepted an Iranian coded message is confirming Chalabi’s statements to Iran. Cause, it seemed that Iran actually didn’t believe Chalabi until recently…. or maybe the Iranian official purposely sent that message coded over the wire to see if it did getting any reaction fromt the States.
Anyway… according to this message, Chalabi talked about a “drunk” American who told him about the secret code. Additionally, it seems he mentioned all this in an off-hand manner in the context of wanting to do some deals with Iran but didn’t want the dealings to be overheard by the Americans… so, he cautioned the official about the U.S. having the ability to decode their messages.
In any case, more than likely… the U.S. can’t politically do anything unless Chalabi comes back to American soil. Yes, they “could” do more than ransack his house in Iraq… but it seems that politically they want the Iraqi govt to do something about him, and so far they have not. And of course, the ironies of ironies, is that Chalabi was suppose to be part of that govt! :)