Best coverage of the Chalabi/Iranian spy story: Laura Rozen

Folks - This story - and where it looks like it is leading - is the worst thing that I have seen in my life. Please read Laura Rozen's blog - the entries for the past two days alone. Then add related news stories (for example I need to find the story that detailed the background of the Chalabi associate who has fled to Iran, which indicated that US Intel knew of his association with Iranian intel since the late 1990s.)

To be fully blunt - it is very possible - given the pieces that are falling together - that the neocons in their blind desire to:
1) get the intel needed to justify their war (be it real or not), and
2) place a "friendly" head to the new country
that they have been blind to the out in plain open ties to Iranian intelligence - including (it appears) an ongoing connection to the person incharge of Iranian covert operations against the US.

Now, the Pentagon has been framing the increased fighting on the ground as "more sophisticated and coordinated" - infering it is coming from the remnants of Saddam Loyalists, bolstered by "foreign fighters" (al qeada implied.) Now - would Iranian coordinated efforts fit that same description? Is that what we are possibly looking at?

Here are a few bites from her recent blog entries (note Rozen has written for the Nation, Salon, the Economist, the Boston Globe among other publications)

snippet one:
From the Guardian's Julian Borger today:

"An intelligence source in Washington said the CIA confirmed its long-held suspicions when it discovered that a piece of information from an electronic communications intercept by the National Security Agency had ended up in Iranian hands. The information was so sensitive that its circulation had been restricted to a handful of officials.

"This was 'sensitive compartmented information' - SCI - and it was tracked right back to the Iranians through Aras Habib," the intelligence source said.

Hmm.

And this, later on: "An intelligence source in Washington said the FBI investigation into the affair would begin with Mr Chalabi's 'handlers' in the Pentagon."

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/000720.html


snippet two:
What really is Ahmad Chalabi thought to have done with Iran? One too many friendly conversations too far? A meeting unreported? Passing off a bit of US operational intelligence that the Iranians likely already had?

That's not what I'm being told. It was suggested to me today to revisit the allegations in the CBS 60 Minutes piece from May 21, 2004. I was told that gets at the real line that Chalabi is believed to have crossed, between a guy who has a relationship of convenience with neighboring Iran, to a guy who is working for the bad guys.

---snip

So two important points here: US intelligence officials are telling CBS that there is "undeniable" evidence that:

1) Chalabi himself has been having unreported meetings with

2) A senior Iranian intelligence official "with a direct hand in covert operations against the United States." In other words, someone who plans operations to kill Americans.

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/000719.html

There is so much more... best place to start (and then fan out to other sources) is www.warandpiece.com

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/052504.html

Bush Sr.'s Iraq-Iran Secrets
By Robert Parry
May 25, 2004


Before the Iraq War spins further out of control, former President George H.W. Bush should sit down his son, George W. Bush, and level with him about the real history of U.S. relations with Iraq, Iran and Israel’s Likud Party – even if the father has to admit to illegal and unethical conduct in the process.

The latest Iraq embarrassment – allegations that the longtime U.S. favorite Ahmed Chalabi and the intelligence chief for Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress were Iranian spies – derives from the younger Bush’s continuing failure to see the Middle East as it is, not how he might like it to be. While Bush junior crafts hopeful nation-building plans, he doesn’t seem to have the foggiest notion who the players are, where their true allegiances may lie or why these conflicting interests could undermine U.S. policy.

---snip---

Many of the overly optimistic assumptions behind the war, as well as much of the supposed evidence of Iraqi WMD stockpiles, came from Chalabi and his associates. After the invasion, U.S. forces discovered that much of the information was bogus.

Initially, many observers suspected that Chalabi had promoted the false information either to make money or to get the U.S. to install him in power in Iraq. But the new allegations suggest that Chalabi also may have been a stalking horse for Iranian leaders seeking to get the United States to do what Iran couldn’t do: remove Saddam Hussein from power.

On May 21, Chalabi’s Baghdad home was raided by U.S.-backed Iraqi police as part of an investigation into suspicions that INC officials had passed sensitive intelligence about U.S. troop positions to Iran. A warrant also was issued for the arrest of Aras Habib, Chalabi’s top intelligence adviser, on a variety of charges. Appearing on U.S. news programs, Chalabi has denied the “smear” and blamed CIA Director George Tenet for spreading the allegations.

more....
long article - recounts the October surprise story and others - have to read well into it to get to the current story.

Thanks so much for posting that. I've sent it out to my list.

because he KNOWS how the info that was passed on... got into his hands.

and the military catching on, being that the solidiers are getting killed, caught Chalabi not knowing that the real source was of the info in the end was their commander in chief? hmmmmm...the worm turns

for the malevolent neocons even long after they have proven they are at best incompetent, at worst intentionally doing harm to the country.

in the Cheney, Lutti, Feith, Wolfie cabal. My best bet is that on orders of the above - there were joint efforts with Habib and DIA (reportedly 2 dia agents shared an office with Habib)... and that info was shared back and forth (Habib tasked with collecting intel from - I believe - Saddam's old papers - a joint effort with the DIA)... and that in this process intel that shouldn't have been shared - intel that few had the level of security needed to access - and that intel ended up in the hands of Iranian intelligence.

So indirectly back to bush. Directly back, in terms of orders and assignments to bush's neocon advisors and/or their direct underlings.

Morons...

they put OUR national security at risk. Like Plame - but even more obvious to the public if it ever comes out so clearly documented.

These folks are venal.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/002992.php

(May 22, 2004 -- 02:17 AM EDT)
On the new charges that Ahmed Chalabi's 'intelligence chief' Aras Karim is in fact an Iranian spy, Knut Royce's piece in Newsday contains the biggest bombshells. This is a follow-up on his piece from yesterday.

The Post meanwhile has a lengthier, though less clear-cut account, which includes important new details and an interview with Chalabi's long-time Washington handler Francis Brooke.

(ed. note: Most of the articles discussing this issue refer to the man in question as Aras Karim Habib, though he is sometimes referred to as Aras Habib, Aras Karim, or Aras Habib Karim.)

---snip---

We've been discussing for some time that Chalabi's connections to the Iranians and his flow of money from the Iranians has been known about among Chalabi's Washington supporters for years. But suspicions that Aras Karim was an Iranian agent are not new either.

Take this October 13th, 1998 New York Times article, which says that "An F.B.I. report said Mr. Karim's cousin Aras Habib Muhamad Al-Ufayli, who had been the intelligence chief for the Iraqi National Congress, had a 'well-documented connection to Iranian intelligence.'"

---snip---
Two years later, Dr. Ali Yasin Mohammed Karim, of the six original detainees, was finally released from INS custody. And the following passage appeared in an August 19th, 2000 article in the LA Times (emphasis added)...

Attorneys for the INS have contended that there is a reasonable belief Karim is a danger to national security. They have argued that one of the doctor's cousins is a suspected Iranian intelligence agent, the doctor's travel patterns were suspicious, and he might have misled federal agents about how his brother Mohammed made it into the United States.

more...

Thanks Josh - I couldn't remember where I had read this - but if the way the pieces appear to fit together for me are correct - this information (that this information was out in the plain open and intentionally ignored) seems to be significant.

Dots are connected here!

:kick:

but I didn't start the post framing it as a rant or counter rant at a particular radio host :(

I'd say this counts as treason

taking us into war on KNOWN false information... or... use the legal grounds for impeachement that John Dean refers to in bush's NOT living up to the IWR before sending troops to war.

the Plame affair - with the biggest point missed by most of the public, that these folks were willing to risk national security in order to cover political ass - hasn't seemed to push into the public psyche that they destroyed a longstanding intelligence gathering operation that tracked the international flow of WMDs - (allowing for the disruption of that flow if/when about to fall in "terrorist or rogue state" hands.)

And this - particularly if my speculations are correct (I recognize at this point it is speculative) that the intel recently flowing to Iran could/has led to attacks against US interests on the ground in Iraq.

Your count?

that former governments signed onto--especially the fourth Geneva Convention. Isn't that grounds for impeachment at the least? If not criminal charges? By pissing on that convention in particular, they've endangered Americans (not to mention innocent Iraqis, Afghans, etc.) by breeding terrorists.

is exceptionally serious - and does present great danger to Americans (and others - as we have already seen.) This one also has the potential to do serious damage to this particular administration - as it appears that there is a paper trail leading pretty far up the chain.

and really bad one's too...Possibly four if one can make a case for criminal negligence/complicity in 9/11...

they turned a blind eye on many things - derailed efforts - and placed Cheney in charge who did nothing (but his energy binge for industry) in the first 9 months of the year. Couldn't even be bothered to hold a single meeting, even when the "chatter" was escalating and "Tenet was going around with his hair on fire."

can get people interested in this. His thread is off page one! :wtf:

Things are happening so fast and furious right now it's hard to keep up...How's this story playing in TV land?

They oughta be plastering that pic of Bush standing next to Chalabi all over the place w/ the caption "WH Duped by Iranian Spy Ahmed Chalabi"

once again post the same thing before I have read what your wrote (per overload.)

Great minds and all that!

if I recall the magnitude of what they had betrayed to a little work for folks to see and glomb onto. Like this story there was a flurry of immediate discussion per speculation... then it branched out - but again the implications just sat there... unspoken. Then after a few discussions like this... steam started picking up - in terms of the bigger picture of what that story was about. Am hoping that will be the case with this as well.

I think folks see this as a past tense story. But it is definitely an active story. The intel that was passed - happened within the last month. They weren't talking about conning the neocons with prewar intel at that time. Pretty heavy stuff - perhaps folks are really burnt out on the heavy. There have been so many outrages as of late - maybe this is just too hard to take on at the moment.

and even then, it's still kind of just sitting there. I wonder if there's anybody anywhere--the media, the Congress or somewhere--who can synthesize this and make it really stick.

Now that I think of it, Watergate took a long while to boil, as well. I remember George McGovern's half hour ad on election eve 1972 when he went over the basics of the break-in. But it wasn't until June 1973, I think, that the story really exploded.

This story needs an explosion before election day!

Their arrogance and greed blinded them to the real consequences of invading Iraq, and Iran fed them the lies they wanted to hear through Chalabi. Now we get to watch as the Iranians use their influence in Iraq to take control of the country.

Good job you goddamned morons!

I mean solely responsible. Think about this for a second. Rummy didn't know about it apparently. Could this be more payback from the intel agencies???? Could they have set up this raid of Chalabi independently from DOD to embarrass Rummy and the admin???? All the sources for this story are intel, including the claims that it's "rock solid" that he passed very damaging evidence on to Iran...And we all know how PO'd intel is at the admin.

At your peril.

the Jordanians, during the King of Jordan's visit. Whole slew of directions that could be derived from. Laura Rozen speculates that the initial break in attitudes may have come from... the WH itself after Chalabi began speaking out against the US (as the US began to talk about the UN plan - which would cut Chalabi out). Seems that the key contact with Chalabi in Iraq is a former colleague (mentor?) of Rice who speaks frequently with George. So it is possible that he starts getting pissed off (we know how W reacts to "disloyalty") - and a window of opportunity to wedge action beyond the Neocons becomes visible through the King of Jordan's visit. Did the Jordanian's have the info ("irrefutable" we are told) and someone tip off that the time is right? Or did someone feed that info to the Jordanians? This is important because it shifts the whole game and allows the avalanche to start.

Important information, bookmarked and will pass along.

Thank you for this salin. You do and have done great work here at DU. :thumbsup:



Again, this is VERY important and must read information.



JetCityLiberal

It seems to be an important story that many are quickly dismissing out of hand as more neocon tricks (which, in the end it could be, but it appears that there are so many threads to it that it seems unlikely, imo.) Only through trying to make sense of what is out there did I run across Laura Rozen's (war and piece) site (either through Josh Marshall, or through the Washingtonmonthly) - and she deserves a great deal of credit for following this much more closely than just about anyone.