Officials: U.S. still paying millions to group that provided false Iraqi i

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Sun, Feb. 22, 2004


Officials: U.S. still paying millions to group that provided false Iraqi intelligence

By JONATHAN S. LANDAY, WARREN P. STROBEL and JOHN WALCOTT

Knight Ridder Newspapers


WASHINGTON - The Department of Defense is continuing to pay millions of dollars for information from the former Iraqi opposition group that produced some of the exaggerated and fabricated intelligence President Bush used to argue his case for war.

The Pentagon has set aside between $3 million and $4 million this year for the Information Collection Program of the Iraqi National Congress, or INC, led by Ahmed Chalabi, said two senior U.S. officials and a U.S. defense official.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because intelligence programs are classified.

The continuing support for the INC comes amid seven separate investigations into pre-war intelligence that Iraq was hiding illicit weapons and had links to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. A probe by the Senate Intelligence Committee is now examining the INC's role.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/8010308.htm

[indepat]

1. With enough money, any information you want can be bought

[prolesunited]

2. Of course they are

He provided the pretext that they needed to put their plans in motion. They came into office wanting to invade Iraq. They needed help building the case and Chalabi was more than happy to provide it.

He even later admitted to lying, but basically said the ends justified the means.

"In Baghdad, the Iraqi leader accused of feeding false prewar intelligence to Washington said his discredited information about Saddam Hussein's weapons had achieved the aim of convincing the US to topple the dictator.

Ahmad Chalabi and his London-based Iraqi National Congress for years provided a conduit for Iraqi defectors who were debriefed by US intelligence agents. Many US officials blame Mr Chalabi for providing false or wildly exaggerated intelligence about Iraq's weapons.

Mr Chalabi shrugged off charges that he had deliberately misled US intelligence. "We are heroes in error," he said. "As far as we're concerned we've been entirely successful. Our objective has been achieved. That tyrant Saddam is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important.

"The Bush Administration is looking for a scapegoat. We're ready to fall on our swords if he wants." Mr Chalabi's comments are likely to inflame the debate on both sides of the Atlantic over the quality of prewar intelligence, and the spin put on it by President George Bush and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair."

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/19/1077072781286.html

[0007]

3. I don't know who's worse -- Chalabi or Halliburton -- ??

But of course we know who's responsible for this mess.

And the three stooges are running the pentagon.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

7. I'll take Chalabi in this case.

There's nothing worse than a cockroach that would put his own countrymen/women through all this bullshit just to make a buck.

[jackstraw45]

10. Sounds Familiar....

Couldn't you say the same for Bush/Cheney/Haliburton and our military?

[Cooley Hurd]

4. The bigger context of this article is...

...the admission that the Pentagon (and, although not mentioned specifically, the OSP) paid for faulty information.

<snip>
Chalabi, who built close ties to officials in Vice President Cheney's office and among top Pentagon officials, is on the Iraqi Governing Council, a body of 25 Iraqis installed by the United States to help administer the country following the ouster of Saddam Hussein last April.

<snip>
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by Knight Ridder, said the information went directly to "U.S. government recipients" who included William Luti, a senior official in Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's office, and John Hannah, a top national security aide to Cheney.

The letter appeared to contradict denials made last year by top Pentagon officials that they were receiving intelligence on Iraq that bypassed established channels and vetting procedures.

<snip>
The State Department and the CIA, which soured on Chalabi in the 1990s, viewed the INC's information as highly unreliable because it was coming from a source with a strong self-interest in convincing the United States to topple Saddam.

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has concluded since the invasion that defectors turned over by the INC provided little worthwhile information, and that at least one of them, the source of an allegation that Saddam had mobile biological warfare laboratories, was a fabricator. A defense official said the INC did provide some valuable material on Saddam's military and security apparatus.
</snip>

This is a great story that needs to be drummed long and hard!

[Elidor]

9. And is STILL paying

It's a blatant payoff to Chalabi. He certainly has nothing to offer in return that would be worth millions of dollars. And he never did.

[seemslikeadream]

5. Start-up Company with Connections - Chalabi

U.S. gives $400M in work to contractor with ties to Pentagon favorite on Iraqi Governing Council.

U.S. authorities in Iraq have awarded more that $400 million in contracts to a start-up company that has extensive family and, according to court documents, business ties to Ahmed Chalabi, the Pentagon favorite on the Iraqi Governing Council.

The most recent contract, for $327 million to supply equipment for the Iraqi Armed Forces, was awarded last month and drew an immediate challenge from a losing contractor, who said the winning bid was so low that it questions the "credibility"of that bid.

A key beneficiary of both the oil security contract and last week's Iraq army procurement contract is Nour USA Ltd., which was incorporated in the United States last May. The security contract technically was awarded to Erinys Iraq, a security company also newly formed after the invasion, but bankrolled at its inception by Nour. Nour's founder was a Chalabi friend and business associate, Abul Huda Farouki. Within days of the award last August, Nour became a joint venture partner with Erinys and the contract was amended to include Nour.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uschal083671397feb15,0,735950.story

and check out this http://nourusa.com/Contact.htm

[9215]

6. I don't see much wrong with this

Heck, the Iraqi opposition group gave the Pentagon what they wanted didn't they? ((:shrug:))

[JoFerret]

8. Steve Bell on Bush, Blair and intelligence

[tom_paine]

11. Of course, that money is payoff for the phony data they already got

Plus, you never really know when you are going to need some more phony data to help cover up another Imperial Misadventure.

PLUS, who knows what else that money is REALLY FOR?