Who is Ahmed Chalabi?

Now we are being told that Ahmed Chalabi is back in favor in Washington DC and he is a front-runner to be prime minister of Iraq. How many lives does this cat have?

I had heard little tid-bits of his Jordanian embezzling days on the radio, but have heard very little since. Following is a brief summary of the past exploits of Dick Cheney's buddy.

"In 1992, Mr Chalabi was tried in his absence and sentenced by a Jordanian court to 22 years' jail on 31 charges of embezzlement, theft, misuse of depositor funds and currency speculation.

By the time of its crash, Petra was the third-largest bank in Jordan, and the poverty stricken Jordanian government was forced to pay out $200m to depositors who would otherwise have lost their savings, and to avert a possible collapse of the country's entire banking system." (see link in title for full story)

Hasn't Jordan been a long-term and steadfast ally of the United States? Why isn't Jordan asking us to return this convict?

Didn't US troops and Iraqi police raid Chalabi's ompound last summer? Didn't an Iraqi judge issue an arrest warrant for him and his nephew?

From Aljazeera, Monday 09 August 2004, "Ahmad Chalabi - the Pentagon's number one ally before Iraq's invasion - has continued his fall from grace in dramatic style after Baghdad issued a warrant for his arrest.

But the Iraqi politician, who fled Iraq in 1958 to return in 2003 as a potential national leader, vowed on Sunday to fight what he called the "outrageous" charges.

Specific accusations made by Judge Zuhair al-Maliki include counterfeiting and financial irregularities. His nephew, Salim Chalabi - head of the Iraqi tribunal trying Saddam Hussein - is also to be arrested over the murder of the director general of the finance ministry, Haitham Fadil."

I searched around the web for awhile, but did not find any reference the Ahmad Chalabi's release. This is one slippery character.

Who is this Chalabi dude and why does he hold such sway with Cheney and the PNAC? Is it simply because he tells them what they want to hear? Is he only in it for the money or does he enjoy the thrill of playing the game? Why is Chalabi so chummy with Iran? Is he an Iranian spy, an American spy, or a spy for whoever wins? Does Cheney and company know who they are playing with?


QuestionItNow Blogs