[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11427]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          THE CHALABI DEBACLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STRICKLAND. Madam Speaker, I stand here today beside this 
picture. On the right is President George W. Bush and on the left of 
the picture is a man by the name of Chalabi, Mr. Chalabi. We have heard 
a lot about Chalabi in recent days. The President, apparently, 
indicated recently that he did not know him well, that he may have met 
him at a rope line. But the fact is that Mr. Chalabi was in this 
Chamber as the honored guest of the President of the United States, 
seated right up there near the President's wife, Laura Bush. He was 
applauded by those gathered in this Chamber.
  We now know that Mr. Chalabi, who we have reason to believe was paid 
some $40 million by this government, until just recently, those 
payments were finally, belatedly, cut off, but Mr. Chalabi was supposed 
to be providing intelligence to this administration. He is especially, 
apparently, close to Vice President Cheney and to others within this 
administration.

                              {time}  1545

  Based in part on intelligence data that came from Mr. Chalabi, this 
administration made a decision to go to war. Think about that. What 
have we learned in recent days about Mr. Chalabi. Well, according to 
news reports, not only was the information that he gave us distorted, 
false, and in some cases apparently made up; but we now have news 
reports, credible news reports that Mr. Chalabi was cooperating with 
one of the axis of evil nations, that nation being Iran.
  According to news reports, this government had broken the code that 
enabled us to intercept communications from the nation of Iran and that 
Mr. Chalabi told Iran that our government had in fact broken their 
code. News reports say that Mr. Chalabi further informed the Iranian 
Government that he received that information from someone within the 
United States Government who was drunk at the time.
  If these reports are accurate, it means that our troops and our 
national security have been placed at greater risk because this 
administration put its confidence in this man. Not only did we give him 
our national resources in terms of about $40 million, not only was he 
invited to the State of the Union, allowed to sit near the First Lady 
and receive the adulation of this body, not only was he given these 
millions of dollars in this recognition, but we depended upon the 
information coming from this man; and now it appears that our national 
security may have been compromised.
  Mr. Speaker, there needs to be a thorough investigation of what has 
happened here. We need to find out if our young men and women have been 
put in harm's way because of the actions of this man; and the President 
needs to explain to us why he now indicates he knows little about Mr. 
Chalabi, when he is here in this picture, he was invited to this 
Chamber for the State of the Union address, and this government 
invested more than $40 million into this man.
  This is something that cries out for explanation and investigation, 
and it is my hope that the President will accept the responsibility of 
making sure that the news reports of the last few hours are thoroughly 
investigated, that all those responsible for the possible leaks 
regarding national security issues are identified and are thoroughly, 
utterly, totally discredited.

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