Politics > Politics-USA > Whatever happened to the espionage investigation against Bush administration proxy liar Ahmed Chalabi
| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"plonk" |
| Date: |
07 Nov 2005 06:46:44 PM |
| Object: |
Whatever happened to the espionage investigation against Bush administration proxy liar Ahmed Chalabi |
Wall Street Journal
November 7, 2005
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/chalabi-probe.html
Top Secret: Status Of Chalabi Inquiry
Few Signs of Progress Emerge in FBI Case
Involving a Possible Leak of U.S. Intelligence
By SCOT J. PALTROW
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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 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 zChalabi 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 Deptartment 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."
This article linked from: http://www.antiwar.com/
----
http://www.lp.org/
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