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-- Chalabi Reportedly Told Iran That U.S. Had Code
Chalabi Reportedly Told Iran That U.S. Had Code
Chalabi Reportedly Told Iran That U.S. Had Code
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/02/politics/02CHAL.html
WASHINGTON, June 1 � Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi leader and former ally of the Bush administration, disclosed to an Iranian official that the United States had broken the secret communications code of Iran's intelligence service, betraying one of Washington's most valuable sources of information about Iran, according to United States intelligence officials.
The general charge that Mr. Chalabi provided Iran with critical American intelligence secrets was widely reported last month... The Bush administration, citing national security concerns, asked The New York Times and other news organizations not to publish details of the case. The Times agreed to hold off publication of some specific information that top intelligence officials said would compromise a vital, continuing intelligence operation. The administration withdrew its request on Tuesday, saying information about the code-breaking was starting to appear in news accounts.
...American officials said that about six weeks ago, Mr. Chalabi told the Baghdad station chief of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security that the United States was reading the communications traffic of the Iranian spy service, one of the most sophisticated in the Middle East.
According to American officials, the Iranian official in Baghdad, possibly not believing Mr. Chalabi's account, sent a cable to Tehran detailing his conversation with Mr. Chalabi, using the broken code. That encrypted cable, intercepted and read by the United States, tipped off American officials to the fact that Mr. Chalabi had betrayed the code-breaking operation, the American officials said.
American officials reported that in the cable to Tehran, the Iranian official recounted how Mr. Chalabi had said that one of "them" � a reference to an American � had revealed the code-breaking operation, the officials said. The Iranian reported that Mr. Chalabi said the American was drunk.
The Iranians sent what American intelligence regarded as a test message, which mentioned a cache of weapons inside Iraq, believing that if the code had been broken, United States military forces would be quickly dispatched to the specified site. But there was no such action.
The account of Mr. Chalabi's actions has been confirmed by several senior American officials, who said the leak contributed to the White House decision to break with him.
It could not be learned exactly how the United States broke the code. But intelligence sources said that in the past, the United States has broken into the embassies of foreign governments, including those of Iran, to steal information, including codes.
The F.B.I. has opened an espionage investigation seeking to determine exactly what information Mr. Chalabi turned over to the Iranians as well as who told Mr. Chalabi that the Iranian code had been broken, government officials said. The inquiry, still in an early phase, is focused on a very small number of people who were close to Mr. Chalabi and also had access to the highly restricted information about the Iran code. Some of the people the F.B.I. expects to interview are civilians at the Pentagon who were among Mr. Chalabi's strongest supporters and served as his main point of contact with the government, the officials said. So far, no one has been accused of any wrongdoing.
...American officials said the leak about the Iranian codes was a serious loss because the Iranian intelligence service's highly encrypted cable traffic was a crucial source of information, supplying Washington with information about Iranian operations inside Iraq, where Tehran's agents have become increasingly active. It also helped the United States keep track of Iranian intelligence operations around the world.
Until last month, the Iraqi National Congress had a lucrative contract with the Defense Intelligence Agency to provide information about Iraq. Before the United States invasion last year, the group arranged for Iraqi defectors to provide the Pentagon with information about Saddam Hussein's government, particularly evidence purporting to show that Baghdad had active programs to develop weapons of mass destruction. Today, the American intelligence community believes that much of the information passed by the defectors was either wrong or fabricated.
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Not a good time to be a Pentagon neoconservative with access to highly classified information, I'd imagine...
Chalabi has got to be the greatest neo-con fuckup to date.
All I can say is Bush shoulda listened to Powell a little bit closer.
God I love it when the stink finally comes out. Take a load of these new apples:
| quote: |
| Details Emerge on Stint by Chalabi Niece at 'NY Times' By E&P Staff Published: June 01, 2004 NEW YORK During the five months that Iraqi exile leader Ahmad Chalabi's niece, Sarah Khalil, worked for The New York Times in 2003, the reporter who hired her, Patrick Tyler, published nine pieces that mentioned her now-disgraced uncle, according to an article published today by The New Yorker. During this time, she also personally helped Chalabi get across the border from Kuwait into southern Iraq. The Times fired Khalil on May 20, 2003, when word of her employment reached New York. According to the article by Jane Mayer, "two months before the invasion began, the chief correspondent for the Times, Patrick E. Tyler, who was in charge of overseeing the paper's war coverage, hired Chalabi's niece, Sarah Khalil, to be the paper's office manager in Kuwait. Chalabi had long been a source for Tyler. Chalabi's daughter Tamara, who was in Kuwait at the time, told me that Khalil helped her father's efforts while she was working for the Times. "In early April 2003, Chalabi was stranded in the desert shortly after U.S. forces airlifted him and several hundred followers into southern Iraq, leaving them without adequate water, food, or transportation. Once again, the assistance of the U.S. military had backfired. Chalabi used a satellite phone to call Khalil for help. According to Tamara, Khalil commandeered money from I.N.C. funds and rounded up a convoy of S.U.V.s, which she herself led across the border into Iraq." Tyler told Mayer he didn't know about Khalil helping her uncle get into southern Iraq. He said that Khalil had a background in journalism, and that Chalabi hadn't been a factor in the war when he hired her -- something of a stretch, given that fellow reporter Judith Miller has identified him as the prime source for her biggest scoops. "We were covering a war, not Chalabi," Tyler told Mayer. When asked by Mayer about Khalil's rescue of Chalabi, William Schmidt, an associate managing editor of the Times, said, "The Times is not aware of any such story, or whether it happened. If so, it was out of bounds." http://www.editorandpublisher.com/e...t_id=1000522848 |
talk about going out on a sour note.
I like the new guy over Chalabi anyway 
Its interesting how people are branding "Chalabi" the neo-con choice though...
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Yoepus talk about going out on a sour note. I like the new guy over Chalabi anyway Its interesting how people are branding "Chalabi" the neo-con choice though... |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Yoepus Its interesting how people are branding "Chalabi" the neo-con choice though... |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by igottaknow You mean the same way Wolfowits has been unfairly branded a neo-con |
Ejecting Chalabi was a good decision. Don't need the baggage when you're trying to be fair in all things concerned.
The CIA, or certain elements within the CIA, have seemingly declared war on the neocons.
My money is on the CIA.
Oh man, this is rich - Bush pulls a "Chalabi who?" during his press conference:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/rele...20040601-2.html
Excerpt:
| quote: |
| Q: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Chalabi is an Iraqi leader that's fallen out of favor within your administration. I'm wondering if you feel that he provided any false information, or are you particularly -- THE PRESIDENT: Chalabi? Q: Yes, with Chalabi. THE PRESIDENT: My meetings with him were very brief. I mean, I think I met with him at the State of the Union and just kind of working through the rope line, and he might have come with a group of leaders. But I haven't had any extensive conversations with him. Mr. Brahimi made the decision on Chalabi, not the United States. Mr. Brahimi was the person that put together the group. And I haven't spoken to him or anybody on the ground as to why Chalabi wasn't taken. In terms of information -- Q: I guess I'm asking, do you feel like he misled your administration, in terms of what the expectations were going to be going into Iraq? THE PRESIDENT: I don't remember anybody walking into my office saying, Chalabi says this is the way it's going to be in Iraq. |
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