House Subcommittee Chairman Says He Would Not
Be Surprised if Chalabi Gave Information to Iran
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB1PPNMVFE.html
WASHINGTON (AP) - The chairman of the House
subcommittee on national security said Thursday he
would not be surprised if Ahmad Chalabi, a deputy
Iraqi prime minister, gave Iran information that the
U.S. would prefer to be withheld.
After an hourlong private meeting with Chalabi and other
Iraqi officials, Rep. Christopher Shays said in an
interview, "My take on it is he works overtime to have
a relationship with whoever he can."
As a result, Shays, R-Conn., said, "I wouldn't be surprised
if he told Iranians facts, issues, whatever, we did not want
them to know in order to develop a relationship."
In a speech Thursday to the Senate, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy,
D-Mass., said Chalabi was the Pentagon's favorite Iraqi
dissenter in prewar Iraq and that Chalabi was proud of
a false link promoted by the Bush administration between
the al-Qaida terror network and Saddam Hussein.
An opponent of the war from the outset, Kennedy said,
"150,000 American troops are bogged down in a quagmire
in Iraq because the Bush administration misrepresented
and distorted the intelligence to justify a war that
America never should have fought."
On Wednesday, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said he had
written Shays to say that if allegations that Chalabi
leaked intelligence to Iran were true, Chalabi
"has betrayed U.S. interests, caused incalculable damage
to our national security and contributed to the death of
more than 2,000 troops."
Waxman urged Shays to cancel the scheduled private briefing
with Chalabi and instead hold a public hearing in which
Chalabi would testify under oath.
Shays said Waxman's request was "totally off-base."
"I was looking for a nonpartisan discussion that would
help me understand better how I could help get our
troops out sooner and win this war," Shays said.
Besides, he said, Chalabi "would have just said no."
"Some day he may be the next prime minister of Iraq,
so it seems to me you want to start a relationship,"
Shays said.
The administration is giving Chalabi broad and high-profile
access.
He met Wednesday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and Stephen Hadley, the president's national security adviser.
Chalabi also is to meet on Monday with Vice President
***** Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.
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Bush, Condi Rice, Rumsfeld and Cheney are dining
with Chalabi this week as he roams freely through
our nation's capital.
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