Chalabi, the INC, Phase II, Cheney, and the Big Lie

With the parts of the Phase II report coming out I think it's time to revisit the question, "whose side was Chalabi really on?"

The report also said exiles from the Iraqi National Congress (INC) tried to influence U.S. policy by providing, through defectors, false information on Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons capabilities. After skeptical analysts warned that the group had been penetrated by hostile intelligence services, including Iran's, a 2002 White House directive ordered that U.S. funding for the INC be continued.

But the thing to note is that this also worked with the war party's interests.

Although the Senate report raises questions about the reliability of the information provided by Iraqi exiles, it notes that the information had little direct impact on the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq produced in October 2002. Many of the Iraqi National Congress claims, however, were passed on to the White House and the office of Vice President Cheney through reports by a separate intelligence analysis group established by then-Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith.

And, while we're at it, let's take a little trip back to Nov. 9, 2005, well after all of Chalabi's lies have been revealed to Cheney/Feith/Hadley/etc. (Link is dead, sorry.)

U.S. officials said Chalabi came to Washington at this time because he was invited by Treasury Secretary John Snow. But Snow is traveling in India all week.

Also in this article,

Chalabi is also due to meet Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley while in Washington.

Speaking to reporters after the half-hour session with Rice, Chalabi denied giving U.S. officials false intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and said the focus should be on the future.

Or maybe a little trip further back, (June 3, 2004) (In all Rice's appearances on TV, has anyone ever asked her about this?)

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice yesterday promised Congress a full investigation into allegations that an Iraqi politician supported by the Pentagon told Iran the United States had broken the code it used for secret communications, and U.S. officials said the revelation destroyed an important source of intelligence. ......

In a closed-door damage assessment on Capitol Hill, National Security Agency officials said the disclosure cut off a significant stream of information about Iran at a time when the United States is worried about the country's nuclear ambitions, its support for terrorist groups and its efforts to exert greater influence over Iraq.

So, the answer seems to be that the pro-war Bush folks were warned that Chalabi's INC had been penetrated by foreign intelligence services, that the information coming from the INC was bad, and yet they still rested a war upon it.

There's evidence Chalabi has worked directly for Iran, and yet even up to 10 months ago, he was still garnering meetings with Cheney and and his carefully placed cadre of followers.

I have no snappy closing line. I just wish someone would ask the questions.

(Maybe I should add two more data points. The INC's bad data went straight into the VP's office from where it was distributed. (That gives confirmation 1 from Feith's DoD outfit, and 1 from Hannah/VP's office.)

On June 26, 2002, the INC wrote a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee staff identifying Hannah as the White House recipient of information gathered by the group through a U.S.-funded effort called the Information Collection Program. Knight Ridder obtained a copy of the letter and previously reported on it.

And a little less concrete, but perhaps the weirdest of all, after Iraq blew up, after he had proven ties to the Iranians, after all the intel had been proven false, this man convicted in absentia for bank fraud in Jordan, Chalabi shows up as an invited guest at Bilderberg in 2005.)

Last: And most disgusting of all. During that Nov. 2005 visit, Chalabi went to Walter Reed to visit soldiers wounded in Iraq.