Tenet: Cheney Staffers Idolized Chalabi ‘Like Schoolgirls With Their First Crush’
Tenet: Cheney Staffers Idolized Chalabi ‘Like Schoolgirls With Their First Crush’
In his new book, former CIA Director George Tenet reveals that Vice President Cheney and Pentagon officials pressed for the installation of an Iraqi government led by Ahmed Chalabi, an exile who provided bad information on Iraq’s supposed weapons programs.
Tenet says Cheney and company broke with the recommendations of the State Department, CIA, and the National Security Council, who “favored a more inclusive and transparent approach, in which Iraqis representing the many tribes, sects, and interest groups in the country would be brought together to consult and put together some sort of rough constituent assembly that might then select an advisory council and a group of ministers to govern the country.” Tenet writes:
Rather than risking an open-ended political process that Americans could influence but not control, they wanted to be able to limit the Iraqis’ power and handpick those Iraqis who would participate. … You had the impression that some Office of the Vice President and DOD reps were writing Chalabi’s name over and over again in their notes, like schoolgirls with their first crush.
The plan never was implemented, according to Tenet, because the administration couldn’t reach a consensus on Chalabi. Yet Tenet highlights the episode as deeply revelatory of how neoconservatives planned to “help Iraq achieve democracy and freedom“:
The vice president himself summed up the dilemma: The choice, he said, was between “control and legitimacy.” [Undersecretary of Defense] Doug Feith clearly stated his belief that it would not be necessary for the Iraqi exiles to legitimize themselves: “We can legitimize them,” he said, through our economic assistance and the good governance the U.S. would provide. They never understood that, fundamentally, political control depends on the consent of the governed.
Tenet wrote that by early 2004 President Bush asked Condoleezza Rice at a White House meeting to stop using Chalabi for intelligence. “I want Chalabi off the payroll,” Tenet quotes Bush as saying. In a subsequent meeting, the Defense Intelligence Agency said it was paying Chalabi’s organization $350,000 a month to provide information. “Somehow the president’s direction to pull the plug on the arrangement continued to be ignored,” Tenet wrote. Today, Chalabi oversees the implementation of the escalation strategy on the Iraqi end.
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38 Responses to “Tenet: Cheney Staffers Idolized Chalabi ‘Like Schoolgirls With Their First Crush’”
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Of course Cheney and his cronies idolized Chalabi. Chalabi is a criminal who was dead wrong on his Iraq predictions and who profited greatly from the war. Birds of a feather . . .
April 30th, 2007 at 10:06 amAhhhh. The “Tales of the Keystone Kops” continue to be written. There are really no explosive revelations in Tenet’s book. It is merely a confirmation of the obvious — GDumbya’s administration is incompetent and dysfunctional. And we are all paying the price for it.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:07 ami watched tenet’s display on sunday. i rescind my offer of immunity.
he dodged every question and blamed others.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:07 amcheney and chalabi are both criminals war profiteers and self serving traitors of course they love one another.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:14 amThings would have gone so much better if they could have installed Chalabi as the puppet head of the government. Then we could have taken Iraq’s oil whenever we wanted to because we would have owned the Iraqi government. And what a democracy that would have been.
The arrogance of these people is breathtaking. Are you mad yet. It’s time to take action. Call or write your representatives and let them know what you think. And do it often until they finally hear you.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:16 am10-1992 The Rendon Group creates INC, Ahmed Chalabi named as leader
April 30th, 2007 at 10:21 am11-1993 Chalabi presents Clinton administration with war plan entitled “The End Game”
03-1995 Failed attempt by Chalabi and INC to overthrow Saddam
01-17-2001 Chalabi already in touch with incoming members of Bush administration
12-2001 Joint Chiefs ask staff for counterproposal to Chalabi’s plan
12-11-2001 Cheney: Saddam Hussein presents a threat to the US, will work with the INC and Ahmed Chalabi
Oh Ahmed……..
-Republican/Neo-con School Girl Admiration Society,
-Perlie, Wolfie, Boltie, Billy Bennet, Dickie C. and the rest.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:29 am“They” never did understand and “they” never will. Look what these neo-cons have done in their own country. This cabal’s hubris knows no bounds. This past November it cost the Republicans political control. We, the governed, must continue to reject neo-con corruption, views, values and policies.
AF
April 30th, 2007 at 10:30 amThe stupidity of the Bush team is breathtaking, and exceeded only by the stupidity of their supporters.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:33 amChalabi is completely corrupt thug, like Cheney himself, so no wonder Dick likes him.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:37 amI don’t think so, VerbalKint at 9. I think they’ve got everything they wanted, despite the outlandishness of the entire scenario at the outset. They’ve overcome tremendous odds: by the time their lies were recognized by most of Americans, they’ve got themselves positioned so they can ignore their will and just run out the clock, raking in the cash by the pallets-full in the process.
I can understand the tendency to think them stupid, of course, but I’ve come to recognize that there’s a flaw in that reasoning. To think them stupid relies on assuming they care what Americans think and would take action to garner their favor. They have no interest whatsoever what anyone else thinks except their cadre of insider cronies. You’ve heard them say over and over: “screw the polls.” That’s saying “screw America.”
They have no compassion, they have no sense of humanity, they have no sense of decency or morality, but one thing they’re not short on is brains. Don’t let the dazed gaze of the dipsh!t at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue fool you.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:48 amGood Morning all,..My only comment for this thread is…Damn, this guy is ugly, sure glad I’m not married to him, sneaky and evil like a snake…..Blessings
April 30th, 2007 at 10:49 amChalabi is also a bamk robber wanted in Jordon BIG TIME
April 30th, 2007 at 10:49 amTwo words: shiny suits.
Anybody with a shred of sense in their body took one look at Ahmed Chalabi and realized he was a playa.
BTW, for the very best in Chalabi-mancrush action, check out National Review magazine from about 1998-2003. He’s the George Washington of Iraq, doncha know, and it’s only those partisan Democrats in the CIA (!) who refuse to acknowledge his greatness.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:52 amEvery day since he was secretly spirited into Iraq by the US military just over a week ago, Ahmad Chalabi, the man favoured by the Pentagon to succeed Saddam Hussein, has been holding court with local dignitaries in Nassiriya.
But allegations of financial impropriety linger over Mr Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, the most important of which concern a $200m (£127m) banking scandal in Jordan.
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.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:52 amhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/ Iraq/ Story/ 0,2763,936304,00.html
Chalabi the bank robber 200 million he stole
April 30th, 2007 at 10:53 amOOOOOHHH…
I’m swoooooning..
;)
April 30th, 2007 at 10:54 amChalabi is also a double agent working for Iran. Since Dick worked with a Iranian spy, then that charge should be added to Kucinich’s impeachment list for Cheney.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:54 amooohhh. good point Jay….
April 30th, 2007 at 11:05 amThis is sick.
Dear Mr Tenet,
All this would have been so useful — FIVE YEARS AGO.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:06 amIran security chief Larijani meets Maliki in Baghdad
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iran’s top national security official Ali Larijani has arrived in Baghdad, on a previously unannounced three-day visit and opened talks with senior Iraqi officials, state television reported Sunday.
GUESS WHAT MALIKI IS ALSO PROBABLY AN IRANIAN AGENT
April 30th, 2007 at 11:09 amIf it’s any consolatin, Jay, Chalabi is problably scamming the Iranians, too.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:10 amThis is sick.
Dear Mr Tenet,
All this would have been so useful — FIVE YEARS AGO.
Comment by Zooey — April 30, 2007 @ 11:06 am
Good morning, Zooey. I only watched minutes of a Tenet interview but could figure out he is one evil, smarmy guy. Obviously his motivation was NOT to be useful to the American people just like any good neocon.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:15 amnow, up front, i want to pledge i mean no disrespect to homosexuals…
but, am i alone in wondering if this chalabi is a closeted gay?
his manerisms are so telling… could explain even more the infatuation…
please - i mean no harm… not that it matters… just an observation…
but these folks are so confounding… so hypocritical…
out to mowe now…
April 30th, 2007 at 11:26 amObviously his motivation was NOT to be useful to the American people just like any good neocon.
Comment by Shane
Absolutely. These wankers keep coming out with their damned books, and while it’s good to be able to fill in some blanks here and there, my primary thought is WHERE WERE YOU WHEN WE NEEDED YOU!?
The Almighty Dollar is the only guide these people have.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:41 amIf Tenet was the least bit honest he would have made these criticisms public much earlier, as soon as he resigned, and he would do it freely, not in return for a fat book deal. But this creep is just trying to save his own reptilian skin, and I get the feeling he would sell his own mother to the enemy to do it.
Sorry, reptiles, I shouldn’t have slandered you so.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:42 amBut this creep is just trying to save his own reptilian skin, and I get the feeling he would sell his own mother to the enemy to do it.
Comment by VerbalKint — April 30, 2007 @ 11:42 am
It would be fun to think he knows of war crime charges being filed and is trying to save himself from prosecution. Just dreaming though.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:47 amwhere Democratic politicians also lying about WMDs? where they?
“Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime … He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation … And now he is miscalculating America’s response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction … So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real…”
- Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003 | Source
“I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force — if necessary — to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security.”
- Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002 | Source
“One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line.”
- President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998 | Source
“If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program.”
- President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998 | Source
“We must stop Saddam from ever again jeopardizing the stability and security of his neighbors with weapons of mass destruction.”
- Madeline Albright, Feb 1, 1998 | Source
“He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983.”
- Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998 | Source
“[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq’s refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs.”
Letter to President Clinton.
- (D) Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, others, Oct. 9, 1998 | Source
“Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process.”
- Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998 | Source
“Hussein has … chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies.”
- Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999 | Source
“We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the mandate of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction and th! e means of delivering them.”
- Sen. Carl Levin (D, MI), Sept. 19, 2002 | Source
“We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country.”
- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002 | Source
“Iraq’s search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power.”
- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002 | Source
“We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction.”
- Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002 | Source
“The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Intelligence reports indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons…”
- Sen. Robert Byrd (D, WV), Oct. 3, 2002 | Source
“There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years … We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction.”
- Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, WV), Oct 10, 2002 | Source
“In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members … It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons.”
- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002 | Source
“We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction.”
April 30th, 2007 at 12:29 pm- Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL), Dec. 8, 2002 | Source
I figured it out. All of these people are having a competition to find out just who can be the most corrupt person on the planet and Chalabi is inching ahead, so the rest of them admire his ability to out corrupt the other corrupt people.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:33 pm‘The vice president himself summed up the dilemma: The choice, he said, was between “control and legitimacy.†[Undersecretary of Defense] Doug Feith clearly stated his belief that it would not be necessary for the Bush administration to legitimize itself: “We can legitimize ourselves,†he said, through our economic assistance and the good governance the U.S. would provide to (Bush’s) corporate backers. They never understood that, fundamentally, political control depends on the consent of the governed, and the governed can only be kept hypnotized for so long.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:41 pm“They have no compassion, they have no sense of humanity, they have no sense of decency or morality, but one thing they’re not short on is brains.”
Cheney, Perle, Kristol, PNAC, etc. aren’t dumb. However Bush/Condi/Gonzales and every clown Bush has appointed to run something are dumb as a box of hair ON TOP of the sociopathy.
April 30th, 2007 at 1:06 pmSaddam Hussein did have WMDs…in 1998, before Operation Desert Fox. No, the Democrats accurately describing his arsenal in 1998 were not lying, they were telling the truth.
As for the 2002 quotes, they were stating the truth to the best of their knowledge, based on the phoney, dishonest intelligence they were receiving. Once again, not lying.
So no, not a single one of those Democrats was lying in 1998, but telling the truth. Nor were they lying in 2002, but speaking after being misinformed.
I can remember when refuting Iraq War True Believers was at least slightly challenging, Valium Needer, but it’s been a long, long time.
April 30th, 2007 at 1:07 pmBut America has this bad habit of picking losers to be the opposition in exile. The INC was never the popular ex-pat organization. But the really important exiles were too liberal and independent for the CIA.
And what about that clown Allawi. He was the administrations fallback guy. During the election he was reduced to a fringe candidate and he was pelted with shoes at one campaign stop. And whatever became of that rumor that when he was interim PM he executed six captured insurgents to show the police how tough he was? Was that ever investigated?
April 30th, 2007 at 1:21 pmHow amusing those Dem quotes are! But note the narrow range of timeline. These reflect the Curveball tainted evidence of this lying administration. And you don’t say what the objective of the Dems were? Or quote their cautionary statements, do you?
The call at the time was for a return of UN weapons inspectors. The UN Weapons Inspectors returned and were doing their job until Bush said he just couldn’t wait any longer –even though Blix and ElBaradei said things were going smoothly and no WMD had been found. Saddam even agreed to let the inspectors destroy a bunch of his mid-range missles. My how bad he was to show up Bush that way!
The trolls seem to love to distract, distort, and disgust. I note they didn’t quote Obama on the war. I guess they didn’t want to give him any good press. And the trolls still hate France & Germany, even though they were right and the trolls were wrong.
April 30th, 2007 at 1:30 pm—-
Cheney Staffers Idolized Chalabi ‘Like Schoolgirls With Their First Crush’
—-
Must be his devilish looks and creepy smile. Those traits would certainly appeal to this crowd.
- Tom
April 30th, 2007 at 1:54 pmThey never understood that, fundamentally, political control depends on the consent of the governed.
What I find absolutely interesting is the neo-con’s view of government, democracy, and the people: In their view, consent by the governed is not a precondition for democracy, and a government’s legitimacy can be bought with favors.
For them, democracy does not emanate from the people, but somehow “trickles down” from above. Popular expectations are not taken into account when setting public policy, but managed by the government. It’s incredible that people who proclaim to want a small government, actually want a huge bureaucracy -not to handle affairs of state, but to control the population, whether through propaganda or brute force.
Knowing all this, I still find it amazing that anyone believes the Bush administration is actually committed to anything resembling democracy in Iraq. Or in the US, for that matter.
But I bet the Bush cultists and loyalists would be quite comfortable with such an arrangement, as they get rabid when anyone dares criticise their Dear (mis)Leader.
April 30th, 2007 at 2:34 pmChalabi=the neocons wet dream cum true!
April 30th, 2007 at 7:51 pmIran may have a plan for peace in Iraq, and Chalabi may have been an instrument of that plan.
We’re assigning blame for our invasion and debating withdrawal because the insurgents have succeeded in killing enough US troops and disrupting our puppet government to make the country a fiery hell instead of a model democracy. If the US had been greeted as liberators, and a compliant, unified government had taken power flawlessly, as Ahmed Chalabi had whispered into Dick Cheney’s ear, there would be no talk of leaving Iraq and Republicans would be stronger than ever.
May 6th, 2007 at 3:06 pmHere’s where it gets interesting (Patience please, this leads up to showing why Iraq may be more peaceful after US troops leave): During the ten years prior to our invasion of Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi became Dick Cheney’s good buddy, while Chalabi systematically convinced and seduced intelligence agencies all over Europe, (and Cheney) through his Iraqi National Congress, and other proxies (like Curveball) and like-minded Iraqi exiles, to fan the flames of war. The war could only have been started by Cheney’s relentless determination, his disregard or contempt for all other branches of government, the CIA, the State Dept. or the American people, and Chalabi’s essential phoney intelligence Cheney needed to feed to the media and congress to make it happen.
Now look at Chalabi’s Shiite background, his extensive ties to Iranian intelligence agencies and his family ties to Iran.
Now note how Iran needed to destroy their mortal enemy, Saddam Hussein, and take power in Iraq, and how immediately after US troops marched into Bahgdad Iranian-trained teams took power throughout southern Iraq, and how Iranian currency and language are used today in most of Shiite Iraq, and how Iran and Iraq signed military cooperation agreements over a year ago, and how Iran is sponsoring a shadow government ready to take power in Iraq, as reported on CNN.
Now let’s itemize the ways American military power, economic strength, diplomatic credibility, national security and sense of community have suffered as a result of our invasion of Iraq, to the point that invading Iran is no longer a feasible option.
By connecting the dots, you would almost think Chalabi was working to further the interests of Iran the whole time, and Cheney was a gullible fool for believing him. One might conclude that Chalabi pulled off a hoax of epic proportions. Plus, he got a seat 3 feet behind Laura Bush at the infamous 2003 State of the Union address. Ya gotta admire his chutzpah.
That realization, if understood by the majority of Americans, would probably end the war almost immediately, and get Cheney impeached within days.
Meantime, US troops are consistently bloodied every day, and more and more we debate whether we should leave. It probably will get worse and we will leave, because the truth on the ground is driving this debate, and it is not under our control, and never really was.
AS for what will happen after we leave, the Iranian-backed government will probably take full power, enforce some kind of agreements with Sunnis and Kurds and neighboring states, and the violence will gradually subside, while the people of Iraq begin to rebuild their country.