In a post-invasion interview with Frontline, Chalabi outlined some of the helpful information he provided to the U.S.
We provided exactly three defectors on the weapons of mass destruction to the United States. The first one was an engineer who was involved in building sites for weapon storage and development. ... The second fellow -- Harith. ... He gave them information about mobile biological weapons labs. ... The third one is a young man who is with us here, still, who told them about an isotope separation facility that he was working on. They didn't want to talk to him.
Chalabi also provided information, including some of the informants cited above, to the New York Times, which uncritically published the claims of the first informant, helping fuel public sentiment in favor of the war. Two years later, the Times published a half- hearted correction.
Another defector "discovered" by Chalabi claimed Saddam had let terrorists do practice runs in hijacking on a grounded aircraft near Baghdad. The CIA dismissed the claim as "bullshit."
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/misc/ahmed-chalabi/Anyway he is a bit like Bush. Both came from a priviliged family:
Ahmed Chalabi was born in 1945 into one of the wealthiest and best connected families in Iraq. A number of Chalabis held high-ranking government posts under the monarchy installed by the British colonialists. Ahmed’s grandfather served in several Iraqi cabinets, while his father was president of the ceremonial senate.
The Chalabis amassed a considerable fortune under the monarchist dictatorship. Ahmed enjoyed a privileged upbringing, and was educated by American Jesuits at Baghdad College. The 1958 coup (See: Abd al-Karim Qasim) that saw the overthrow of the monarchy threw the Chalabi family into turmoil. They quickly fled Iraq and went into exile, living at different times in England, Jordan and the United States.
Ahmed resumed his education abroad, going on to study mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1969 he received a doctorate from the University of Chicago and then took up an academic post in the American University of Beirut.
(...)
While in Lebanon, Chalabi developed his connections in the Middle East. In 1972 he married the daughter of the speaker of the Lebanese parliament. He also made full use of his family’s monarchical contacts. The Chalabi family maintained their ties with the Jordanian Hashemite monarchy after the coup in Iraq, and in 1977 Crown Prince Hassan invited Ahmed to establish a bank in Jordan.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/apr2004/chal-a30.shtmlHe did a small swindle, but they forgave him ;)
King of Jordan to Pardon Chalabi's $300 Million Swindle
The Rise, Fall and Rise of Ahmed Chalabi
By PATRICK COCKBURN
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 $300m (£160m) in missing deposits in 1989.
(...)
Previously an ally of the neoconservatives and of the civilians in the Pentagon whom he managed to convince of the need to topple Saddam Hussein, Mr Chalabi sought new friends. He cultivated Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia clergyman whose militia the US Army was trying to destroy. He became a leader of one of the main factions in the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shia coalition which triumphed in the election on 30 January. Again Mr Chalabi has escaped not only political annihilation, but has emerged from a crisis with his power enhanced.
(...) In 1977, he moved to Jordan and set up the Petra Bank and in a decade made it the second biggest bank in the country. It was linked with family banks and investment companies in Beirut, Geneva and Washington, D.C..
In 1989, Petra was taken over by the Jordanian banking authorities after all Jordanian banks were told to deposit 30 per cent of their foreign exchange in the central bank. Petra could not come up with the money. Mr Chalabi hurriedly left the country - in the boot of a friend's car according to one report. In April 1992, he was sentenced in absentia by a military court to 22 years in prison. An audit by Arthur Andersen showed that Petra, far from having a net balance of $40m had a deficit of at least $215m. The military prosecutors said that $72m listed as assets were in fact fictitious accounts. Other sums had allegedly been diverted into private accounts or had disappeared in bad loans to other Chalabi companies.
(...)
http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick05112005.htmlAnd he did two coups and they failed miserably, but thanks to the help of the BFEE he finally succeeded... (that is until Iraq collapses again which is bound to happen)
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