George Bush - Played like the sucker he is

[Boris]

I don't think I need to comment. The article speaks for itself.

web page (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1512&e=1&u=/afp/20040521/wl_afp/us_iraq_chalabi_040521191814)

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi faced accusations that he passed classified US intelligence to Iran as the United States faced strong criticism from the Iraqi Governing Council over a raid on Chalabi's home.


AFP Photo



CBS television, quoting senior US officials, said the former Pentagon (news - web sites) favourite personally handed Iranian intelligence officers sensitive information that could "get Americans killed."


It quoted the officials as saying that the evidence against Chalabi was "rock solid."


The Wall Street Journal also quoted a US official as saying that Chalabi passed sensitive information to Iran. "That's absolutely true," the official said on condition of anonymity.


The reports said the US administration has started a high-level inquiry to determine who could have given the information to Chalabi.


An aide to Chalabi, who is head of finance for the Iraqi Governing Council as well as leader of the Iraqi National Congress, dismissed the accusations as "nonsense". He said they were part of a strategy by the Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) to discredit Chalabi.


The council on Friday came to the defence of Chalabi over a raid on his Baghdad home and office by Iraqi police and US forces.


Documents, computers, personal belongings and weapons were seized during the operation.


After the raid, a furious Chalabi, who was once considered Washington's favourite to become Iraq (news - web sites)'s post-war leader, said he was breaking ties with the US-led coalition authorities.


The governing council held a special meeting on Friday and blamed the coalition for the raids.


"The Governing Council unanimously condemned the raids on Mr. Chalabi's home and holds the coalition authorities responsible," said Samir al-Askari, deputy council representative for Shiite member Mohammed Bahr al-Ulum.


But in Washington, General Richard Myers, the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Iraqi authorities are handling the case against Chalabi.


"It was the Iraqi police who conducted the activity, that the role for US forces was as an outer cordon, not part of the activity in any of the facilities," Myers told the House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee.


"It's Iraqis doing what they should be doing. And I don't know about the facts in the case about Chalabi and so forth, but to have the minister of interior, the police and the court connected, doing things they think are important, is a good sign."


Askari said however that neither interior minister Samir al-Sumaydai nor justice minister Hashem Abderrahman al-Shibli were aware of the raids.


Myers was asked about reasons for the US administration's break with Chalabi but he would only say that information provided by Chalabi's organisation was "useful in many cases."


Chalabi, a wealthy Shiite banker and politician, has fallen from grace in Washington amid allegations his party provided false information ahead of last year's invasion of Iraq.

[cardcounter0]

The $100,000 or so per month that the Bush Administration had been paying Chalabi for the past two years came out of the US Treasury, not Bush's pocket.

So who has been playing who for a sucker?

Prince Bandar from Saudi Arubia says "Thanks for playing, and be sure to fill up your SUV on the way home."

[Cyrus]

Some time ago, I was talking to some Arab businessmen, all US-educated, smart and well versed in modern history. Also known to knock back a few, the relevant Koran passage be damned!

They were amazed at American gullibility. The man Chalabi is a well-known crook in the Arab world. Don't Americans have spies, or at least friends, in the Arab world, they wondered? Anyone could've told them. It's like inviting Bebe Rebozo to take over as U.S. President, the way they put it.

They were incredulous rather than angry.

[eastbay]

[ QUOTE ]
Some time ago, I was talking to some Arab businessmen, all US-educated, smart and well versed in modern history. Also known to knock back a few, the relevant Koran passage be damned!

They were amazed at American gullibility. The man Chalabi is a well-known crook in the Arab world. Don't Americans have spies, or at least friends, in the Arab world, they wondered? Anyone could've told them. It's like inviting Bebe Rebozo to take over as U.S. President, the way they put it.

They were incredulous rather than angry.

[/ QUOTE ]

Most who have taken 1 second to look into him know Chalabi for who he is.

Unfortunately, a very few became concentrated in power simultaneously who had an agenda that coincided with Chalabi's: removal of Saddam. Wolfowitz, Perle, and Cheney were absolutely eating out of Chalabi's hand because they thought he would be useful for getting what they wanted. And frankly, he was: he provided the fabricated evidence on WMD that garnered public support for a war.

How this was not stopped by everybody else leaves me incredulous as well. A new low in my disillusionment with my country.

George Bush was just played for the fool that he is on this ride.

eastbay

[GeorgeF]

[ QUOTE ]
They were amazed at American gullibility

[/ QUOTE ]

Con men start with someone who wants to believe their story.

Look at the dot com bubble, perhaps this generation is more gullible in general.

[Chris Alger]

The notion that the U.S. was "duped" by Chalabi seems naive. For years, the Washington word on Chalabi and his INC was "unreliable" and "not credible." The idea that Cheney and Rummy etc. were "duped" by Chalabi presumes that some set of facts suddenly turned this around.

Chalabi was just another corrupt royalist waiting in the wings until 9/11. When mass hysteria changed the political calculus and made the conquest of Iraq possible, he suddenly became neocon "hero." For the first time, the U.S. urgently needed an agent with passable local credentials to help adminster our new province and do the dirty work to keep the locals in line. As part of the deal, Chalabi and his people provided "intelligence" from "defectors" to help sell the war. But now that Chalabi won't toe the line, he's not so useful anymore, except perhaps as a scapegoat for the WMD hoax and the general failure of policy. Now all of sudden it's "news" that our designated savior of "free Iraq" is a crook.