[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 146 (Monday, November 7, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H9936-H9937]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             AHMAD CHALABI

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Drake). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, somebody ought to 
call the cops. Today I am not talking about collusion, corruption and 
cronyism and the leaking of sensitive classified information that has 
irreparably damaged the national security of the United States. No, I 
am not talking about Scooter Libby or Karl Rove, though their 
involvement in outing a female CIA agent to silence her husband's 
criticisms of the President's Iraq policy deserves closer scrutiny.
  No, I am talking about another shadowy character and administration 
ally, someone whose deception played a large role in leading the United 
States into war in Iraq. I am talking about Ahmad Chalabi. Mr. Chalabi 
is the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq's newly constituted government. 
But Mr. Chalabi also is a convicted bank swindler who, we now know, fed 
the Bush administration false intelligence about Saddam's weapons of 
mass destruction and capabilities and Iraq's ties to terrorism.
  Many Americans remember Mr. Chalabi as a man who convinced Vice 
President Cheney that the United States would be greeted as a great 
liberator in Iraq. Some have even said it was Mr. Chalabi who promoted 
the false story about Iraq's attempted purchase of nuclear material in 
Niger. Chalabi fed false stories about Iraq's weapons capabilities to 
New York Times reporter Judith Miller, a story that the Times was later 
forced to publicly discount.
  Mr. Chalabi, who supplied information to the White House Iraq working 
group, a mysterious cabal, as Colin Powell's former chief of staff 
recently said, that hijacked U.S. foreign policy and hyped the case for 
war in Iraq. The bottom line is that Mr. Chalabi played a central role 
in the orchestrated deception leading to the invasion of Iraq.
  After the administration discovered that Mr. Chalabi provided false 
intelligence, instead of investigating, the Department of Defense 
attempted to prop Mr. Chalabi up as a candidate of choice in the post-
war Iraq.
  Keep in mind what Mr. Chalabi did next. He was suspected of leaking 
classified information about U.S. intelligence capabilities to Iran. He 
was suspected of telling the Iranians that we had broken the code by 
which we were learning information about their activities.
  Seventeen months ago, then National Security Adviser Rice promised an 
FBI inquiry into who leaked information to Iran. Seventeen months ago, 
and yet nothing has happened. Despite the fact that Mr. Chalabi was a 
prime suspect, the FBI has never interviewed him. In fact, the Wall 
Street Journal quotes the FBI as having said they have little active 
interest in this matter. Little active interest in a person who is 
leaking intelligence material to Iran in the middle of the war in Iraq?
  Just this week the administration invited this criminal to meet with 
the Secretary of State and maybe even Vice President Cheney in the West 
Wing to discuss his candidacy for the Iraq presidency in this 
December's election. I would be curious to learn from the President 
what role granting a U.S. entry visa to a man suspected of spying for 
Iran plays in the administration's terrorism strategy.
  Mr. Chalabi's actions are an insult to every American, especially 
those serving in our Nation's Armed Forces, and his high-level visit to 
the United States is an additional affront. Chalabi's crimes cannot go 
unanswered. He belongs in jail for his misdeeds. Instead, he gets a 
White House photo-op.
  As the Senate concludes its investigation into the administration's 
use of false and misleading intelligence to make the case for war, no 
such inquiry would be complete without Mr. Chalabi's testimony under 
oath. While he is sashaying around the streets of Washington, D.C., the 
Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee may 
want to issue a subpoena for his presence. He has offered to testify, 
but no intelligence agency of the United States has interviewed him, 
nor has the FBI, as we learned today.
  He should be detained in this country until he gives that testimony. 
I know I speak for all Americans when I say that our idea of democracy 
is not propping up a bank swindler, kidnapper and extortionist whose 
lies and deceptions contributed to the 14,000 U.S. soldiers injured and 
over 2,000 killed in action and is an intractable quagmire with no end 
in sight. Americans deserve the truth about the Bush administration's 
manipulation of intelligence to justify this tragic war.
  Calling the cops to arrest Mr. Chalabi, while he is here, so he can 
be interrogated, would be a good beginning to understand how extensive 
the manipulation, how false the evidence was, that caused the President 
to take us to war and which was championed by the Vice President and 
the President and the cabal to try to justify to the American citizens 
the reason for this war.
  Mr. Speaker, call the cops. Mr. Chalabi should not be allowed to run 
free on the streets of this Nation's capital.

            [From The Wall Street Journal, November 7, 2005]

                 Top Secret: Status of Chalabi Inquiry

                          (By Scot J. Paltrow)

       As Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi arrives this 
     week in Washington for talks, there is little sign of 
     progress in a Federal investigation of allegations that he 
     once leaked U.S. intelligence secrets to Iran.
       More than 17 months after then-National Security Adviser 
     Condoleezza Rice publicly promised a full criminal inquiry, 
     the Federal

[[Page H9937]]

     Bureau of Investigation hasn't interviewed Mr. Chalabi 
     himself or many current and former U.S. government officials 
     thought likely to have information related to the matter, 
     according to lawyers for several of these individuals and 
     others close to the case.
       The investigation of Mr. Chalabi, who had been a confidant 
     of senior Defense Department officials before the war in 
     Iraq, remains in the hands of the FBI, with little active 
     interest from local federal prosecutors or the Justice 
     Department, these people said. There also has been no grand-
     jury involvement in the case.
       The investigation centers on allegations that one or more 
     U.S. officials in early 2004 leaked intelligence to Mr. 
     Chalabi, including the fact that the U.S. had broken a 
     crucial Iranian code, and that Mr. Chalabi in turn had passed 
     the information to the Baghdad station chief of Iran's 
     Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The assertions about 
     Mr. Chalabi's involvement came after U.S. intelligence 
     agencies intercepted a cable from the station chief back home 
     to Iran, detailing what the chief claimed was a conversation 
     with Mr. Chalabi about the broken code.
       Former intelligence officials said such a leak could have 
     caused serious damage to U.S. national security. The broken 
     code had enabled U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor covert 
     cable traffic among Iranian operatives around the world. The 
     encrypted cable traffic was a main source of information on 
     Iranian operations inside Iraq. The leak also threatened U.S. 
     efforts to monitor any Iranian steps to develop nuclear 
     weapons. And there was concern that the disclosure could 
     prompt other countries to upgrade their encryption, making it 
     more difficult for the U.S. to spy on them.
       Mr. Chalabi has strongly denied the allegations. He once 
     was a close Bush administration ally and a key proponent of 
     the Iraqi invasion, though he has more recently appeared to 
     fall from American favor. Before the war, during his long 
     period as a prominent Iraqi exile, he also cultivated close 
     ties to the government in Iran, which was his ally in 
     opposing former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Just this 
     weekend, Mr. Chalabi made a trip to Tehran to visit Iranian 
     government leaders.
       The handling of the Chalabi investigation so far stands in 
     contrast to the aggressive inquiry conducted by special 
     counsel Patrick Fitzgerald into the leaking of intelligence 
     agent Valerie Plame's name, which led to the indictment of I. 
     Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff.
       Questions about the progress of the Chalabi investigation 
     also follow the FBI's disclosure last week that it had closed 
     an investigation into forged documents purporting to show 
     Iraq had sought uranium ore from Niger. The Niger claim set 
     off an intense intelligence debate, which was at the center 
     of the leaking of the intelligence agent's identity.
       Whitley Bruner, a former longtime undercover Central 
     Intelligence Agency official in the Middle East who has 
     followed Mr. Chalabi's career closely since 1991, said that, 
     in contrast to Mr. Fitzgerald's investigation, the Chalabi 
     leak inquiry ``just sort of disappeared.''
       FBI spokesman John Miller strongly denied that the Chalabi 
     investigation has languished. ``This is currently an open 
     investigation and an active investigation,'' he said, adding 
     that ``numerous current and former government employees have 
     been interviewed.''
       Mr. Miller said that, because the investigation is an 
     active one, he couldn't discuss specific individuals nor 
     comment on how the inquiry is being conducted. A Justice 
     Department spokesman declined to comment.
       Mr. Chalabi's lawyer, Boston attorney John J.E. Markham II, 
     said neither the FBI nor Justice Department ever responded to 
     an offer to have Mr. Chalabi come to Washington to answer law 
     enforcement questions and aid in the investigation. Mr. 
     Markham made available a copy of a letter he said he had sent 
     on June 2, 2004, to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and 
     FBI Director Robert Mueller. It categorically denied that Mr. 
     Chalabi had leaked any U.S. intelligence. And it stated ``Dr. 
     Chalabi is willing and ready to come to Washington, D.C. to 
     be interviewed fully by law-enforcement agents on this 
     subject and to answer all questions on this subject fully and 
     without reservation.''
       Mr. Markham, a former Federal prosecutor, said that, 
     ordinarily in a leak investigation, ``the first thing you 
     would do would be to get the tippee,'' the person to whom the 
     information was leaked, ``in there and say `Who talked to 
     you?' '' But, he said, ``That never happened.''
       The FBI's Mr. Miller said he wouldn't comment on Mr. 
     Chalabi but said the FBI, in general, interviews witnesses 
     when an investigation indicates it is best to do so, not 
     necessarily at the beginning of an inquiry. He added, ``The 
     fact that this person or that person has or hasn't been 
     interviewed yet is just not material to whether there's an 
     active investigation.''
       One likely focus of FBI inquiries would be a small group of 
     people in the Pentagon and White House who had frequent 
     contact with Mr. Chalabi and also probably knew the closely 
     guarded secret of the broken code. Interviews indicate that 
     many of these individuals haven't been questioned by the FBI.
       Among the officials with whom Mr. Chalabi at one time had 
     close ties, for instance, was Douglas J. Feith, who until 
     earlier this year was an undersecretary of defense and headed 
     the Pentagon's powerful office of policy and planning. In an 
     interview, Mr. Feith said he has never been questioned by the 
     FBI or federal prosecutors in connection with the 
     investigation and that if others had been, he was unaware of 
     it.
       Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald 
     Rumsfeld, said in an emailed response to questions that he 
     had no knowledge of the FBI or federal prosecutors having 
     questioned current or former Defense Department officials. 
     ``I don't know anything about a [Department of Justice] 
     investigation in this matter,'' Mr. Di Rita said.
       Mr. Chalabi had been considered a trusted ally by 
     influential figures within the administration, but last 
     spring those ties appeared to have ruptured. On May 20 of 
     last year, Iraqi police backed by U.S. troops raided Mr. 
     Chalabi's headquarters, searching for evidence of corruption 
     and leaked American intelligence.
       Since then, however, the Bush administration has become 
     more open to dealing with Mr. Chalabi again, spurred on by 
     his rise in the current Iraqi government, the possibility 
     that he might become prime minister and his current control 
     over, among other things, Iraqi oil production.
       Mr. Chalabi's visit to Washington this week is his first 
     since the leak allegations. He is scheduled to meet with 
     Treasury Secretary John Snow and with Ms. Rice, now secretary 
     of state. He also is to give a speech to the conservative 
     American Enterprise Institute.
       Senate Democrats have been pressing for an investigation 
     into the role Mr. Chalabi played in drumming up support for a 
     war to depose Mr. Hussein. They also are critical of Mr. 
     Chalabi because of alleged corruption; in 1992, he was 
     convicted in absentia by a Jordanian court of having 
     embezzled $288 million from a bank at which he was managing 
     director. He has strongly denied the corruption allegations.
       Spokesmen for both Mr. Snow and Ms. Rice said they were 
     meeting with Mr. Chalabi, despite past events, because he is 
     a powerful government figure in Iraq. State Department Iraq 
     adviser James Jeffery said Mr. Chalabi ``is deputy prime 
     minister of a critically important country at a critically 
     important time, he was democratically elected, and it's on 
     that basis that we see him.''

     

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