Chalabi and the First Lady's Box

[seemslikeadream]

Bush maybe against gay marriage but he sure doesn't mind sharing the little woman with Ahmed Chalabi while Chalabi screws us all in the ass!

From Iraq Watch last night, read it all!

http://www.house.gov/delahunt/iraqwatch_2-23-04.htm

Mr. Delahunt. Let me read from the original story that I discussed; we are still paying for the tainted intelligence. The American taxpayers are going to foot the bill for Ahmed Chalabi to come to the United States and sit in the First Lady's box. Let me read this: "The decision not to shut off funding for the information-gathering effort could become another liability for Bush as the Presidential campaign heats up, and suggests that some within the administration are intent on securing a key role for Chalabi in Iraq's political future." 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 in April.

So here we are. We received false information, as the gentleman indicated in response to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr.Hoeffel) yeilding. He said the Americans are in Bagdad, we got what we want, and he is continuing to get paid. And according to reports from British newspapers, business associates of his just secured more than $400 million of American taxpaper resources for contracts awarded by the CPA, by Paul Bremer.

Mr. Abercrombie. Mr. Speaker, I have never seen a picture or any film of Mr. Chalabi when he was not smiling and when he did not have the smuggest look on his face and when he did not have the demeanor of someone who had pulled off a coup, when he did not have a patronizing attitude towards those doing the interview. I can understand why. He had played us for saps and suckers, and the result is we have dead and wounded, grievously wounded. The result is the sacking of the Treasury of the United States, and the result is that we have had people whose ideological bent in the administration was such that they wanted to go to war using each other, Chalabi using them, them using Chalabi, in the most cynical fashion, the result of which we now see before us....

How could it be that these continue to be repeated? Is it any wonder that Mr. Chalabi laughs at us? Is it any wonder that he adopts a smug disposition when we continue to support him, we continue to pay him, we continue to support the policies that he espoused, and he is able to say what was said before is not important because obviously there are no penalties attached to it?

Mr. Hoeffel. Mr. Speaker, we have talked quite a bit tonight about Ahmed Chalabi, and rightly so; but he is not apparently the only favorite of the American government involved in positioning themselves for leadership in Iraq.

In today's Roll Call, one of the Hill newspapers, a fascinating front-page story titled "Iraqi Money Flows" detailing how four different Iraqis are paying over $100,000 a month for lobbying costs and public relations costs here in the U.S. capital. It is a million-dollar-plus annual industry.

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