1115.org

In the months leading up to the Iraq invasion, one of the administration’s greatest allies was Ahmed Chalabi, head of the U.S.-financed Iraqi National Congress. We have written about Chalabi before, calling him “as crooked as they come” in response to his faulty Iraq intelligence, self-serving statements and fraud convictions. Yet at the time it seemed like only an act of God would stop Chalabi from becoming the U.S.-sanctioned leader of post-Saddam Iraq.

Well, praise Allah. Relations between the United States and Chalabi have been souring over the past few weeks, culminating with yesterday’s raid on Chalabi’s home and offices by Iraqi police and American troops. And what did they find?

from CBS News:

Senior U.S. officials told 60 Minutes Correspondent Lesley Stahl that they have evidence Chalabi has been passing highly-classified U.S. intelligence to Iran.

The evidence shows that Chalabi personally gave Iranian intelligence officers information so sensitive that if revealed it could, quote, “get Americans killed.” The evidence is said to be “rock solid.”

Whoops. It’s comforting to know that the people running this country can be so easily suckered by the likes of Chalabi, who was able to con us into starting a war for his own benefit…and then double-crossed us at the first opportunity. Considering his sordid history, you would think that people wouldn’t be so willing to take his story at face value. But the administration wanted so badly to believe in stories of mobile biological weapons labs and blissful, flower-tossing Iraquis that they completely ignored the warning signs.

It’s a mistake that we will be paying for in both money and lives.