Chalabi Scott Free?

As is obvious over the last couple of days, I have taken a sincere offense that Ahmad Chalabi, who is alleged to have leaked critical intercept information to Iran has been welcomed with open arms by senior Bush admin officials and several influential outside neocons at the AEI.

The reason this is unforgivable is that the intercept information Chalabi is alleged to have leaked would have given the Iranians the keys to our electronic monitoring of their communications during this critical period of near crisis over their nuclear program. More succinctly, Chalabi is alleged to have shown the Iranians how we listen in, by definition, also showing them how to communicate outside our "ears." This is a huge intelligence loss.

Well, the WSJ hasn't forgotten either and they confirm the foot dragging. For god's sake, somebody ask Condi the question.

More than 17 months after then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice publicly promised a full criminal inquiry, the Federal Bureau of Investigation hasn't interviewed Mr. Chalabi himself or many current and former U.S. government officials thought likely to have information related to the matter, according to lawyers for several of these individuals and others close to the case.

The investigation of Mr. Chalabi, who had been a confidant of senior Defense Department officials before the war in Iraq, remains in the hands of the FBI, with little active interest from local federal prosecutors or the Justice Department, these people said. There also has been no grand-jury involvement in the case.

The investigation centers on allegations that one or more U.S. officials in early 2004 leaked intelligence to Mr. Chalabi, including the fact that the U.S. had broken a crucial Iranian code, and that Mr. Chalabi in turn had passed the information to the Baghdad station chief of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security. ....

Mr. Markham, a former federal prosecutor, said that, ordinarily in a leak investigation, "the first thing you would do would be to get the tippee," the person to whom the information was leaked, "in there and say 'Who talked to you?' " But, he said, "That never happened." .....

Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said in an emailed response to questions that he had no knowledge of the FBI or federal prosecutors having questioned current or former Defense Department officials.