King Of Jordan To Pardon Ahmed Chalabi's 300 Million Dollar Swindle

[Itsthetruth]

CounterPunch
May 11, 2005

King of Jordan to Pardon Chalabi's $300 Million Swindle
The Rise, Fall and Rise of Ahmed Chalabi
By PATRICK COCKBURN

BAGHDAD.

King Abdullah of Jordan has agreed to pardon Ahmed Chalabi, the controversial Iraqi political leader, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for fraud after his bank collapsed with $300 million (£160m) in missing deposits in 1989.

Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi President, asked the king to resolve the differences between Jordan and Mr Chalabi, now Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, during a visit to Ammanthis week.

Latif Rashid, the Iraqi minister of water resources, said Mr Talabani confirmed to him that King Abdullah had promised, in effect, to quash the conviction. He expected there would first be a meeting between Jordanian officials and Mr Chalabi "who has some questions of his own."

The expected pardon, is the latest twist in the extraordinary career of Mr Chalabi, now again in the ascendant as an important member of the Shia coalition and the new Iraqi government. Only a year ago US soldiers raided his house in Baghdad, put a gun to his head, arrested two of his supporters and seized papers. He was accused of passing intelligence information to Iran.


http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick05112005.html

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

1. They talked about this on Democracy Now this morning

I believe it was Seymour Hersch who said that Bush approached the King of Jordan on his last visit to the White House and asked for a special favor: the pardoning of Chalabi. Supposedly, the King was shocked but thought it over and then agreed. Apparently, this is a very touchy and controversial subject in Jordan as a lot of innocent people including old ladies were conned out of their money by Conman Chalabi.

[gratuitous]

2. The short explanation

Chalabi (or as Stupidhead refers to him "Ahmad who?") sold his playbook on bilking widows and orphans to the BFEE. This is just part of the payoff.