CIA to Investigate Chalabi. Considering this is the guy the USGov got all of their pre-Iraq-Attack WMD info from, perhaps they should have done this sooner????
This is a good idea, however, considering the next news bite, I hope it's not because Chalabi is their source, again!
U.S. Says Iran Hiding Nuke Bomb Program from UN. Hopefully, the USGov will do a little more homework before they go and bomb the crap out of Tehran.
From Reuters and Yahoo News:
CIA to Investigate Chalabi, U.S. Officials Say
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA (news - web sites) will investigate whether former Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi leaked U.S. secrets and the FBI (news - web sites) is seeking to learn who may have passed him sensitive information on Iran's spy service, U.S. officials and lawmakers said on Wednesday.
The government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Chalabi was alleged to have told Iran that the United States had broken secret communication codes used by Tehran's spy service.
On Capitol Hill, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) told U.S. lawmakers that CIA Director George Tenet would be conducting an inquiry. She did not elaborate, lawmakers said after the closed briefing.
The FBI is conducting an intelligence investigation to determine who provided classified information to Chalabi and whether that person was authorized to provide the information, a source familiar with the investigation said.
The allegation was that 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.
The New York Times reported the allegations against Chalabi, reporting on Wednesday that the Bush administration had asked it and other news organizations to delay publication of the specifics, citing national security concerns.
But the administration withdrew the request on Tuesday, The Times said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, traveling with President Bush (news - web sites) in Colorado, declined to comment.
"We are not going to get into anything that would be related to intelligence matters," he said.
On NBC's "Today Show," Rice said, "I actually can't comment on this story.... I am sure if there is anything there, it will be investigated."
Later, briefing U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Rice said an investigation involving the CIA would be conducted.
"She explained that there will be an investigation and we'll see to what extent the DCI, the director of Central Intelligence, through their investigation, what information they ultimately come up with," said Rep. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, after the meeting.
Menendez said Rice also said "there is a commitment - because the question was raised - as to pursuing all of the facts to understand to the extent that our national security was affected by Chalabi."
Rep. Deborah Pryce, an Ohio Republican, said, "She said there is still much to be learned."
The CIA had no immediate comment.
The revelations about Chalabi emerged a day after Bush distanced himself from the one-time top U.S. ally.
In the Rose Garden to praise newly announced Iraqi leaders, Bush said he had had little personal contact with Chalabi and that decisions on whether to include him or not in the new Iraqi interim government were made by the U.N. envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi.
Chalabi, a former Pentagon (news - web sites) favorite once seen as a potential national leader, had urged U.S. officials to invade Iraq (news - web sites) as head of the exile group, the Iraqi National Congress.
Citing doubts about the intelligence the INC provided, the Pentagon now has cut off the group's $340,000 a month stipend, while Chalabi himself has publicly butted heads with the U.S. government and accused the CIA of smearing him.
Rice acknowledged on Tuesday the U.S. relationship with Chalabi had soured.
"It has not been an easy relationship of late. I think that you can see that," she said.
Instead of choosing Chalabi for a top political post in post-war Iraq, the Iraqi Governing Council chose Iyad Allawi as prime minister and tribal chief Ghazi Yawar as president in consultation with Brahimi.
Copyright © 2004 Reuters Limited
From Reuters.com:
U.S. Says Iran Hiding Nuke Bomb Program from UN
Wed Jun 2, 2004 01:43 PM ET
VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday that Iran continues to cover up a nuclear weapons program and that the latest report by the U.N. atomic watchdog had only made this more apparent.
"I think that this persistent refusal to fully cooperate (with U.N. inspectors) fits a long-term pattern of denial and deception that can only be designed to mask Iran's military nuclear program," the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in Vienna, Kenneth Brill, told reporters.
The United States accuses Iran of running a secret nuclear weapons program that is parallel to its declared atomic energy program. Iran denies this, insisting its ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Tuesday in a confidential report on Iran, obtained by Reuters, there were two major issues it must resolve. First is the origin of enriched uranium traces found at sites in Iran, which some diplomats on the IAEA board say had raised concerns Iran was secretly enriching uranium for use in weapons.
The second is Iran's centrifuge program, especially its interest in advanced P2 enrichment centrifuges capable of making bomb-grade uranium. The report said Iran had admitted importing P2 parts and may have had interest in parts for thousands of centrifuges -- contrary to what it had previously said.
"Unanswered questions continue to be the hallmark of Iranian cooperation with the (IAEA)," Brill said.
"The more the IAEA digs, the more problems it finds. It is equally clear that the IAEA is not buying Iranian explanations on the key questions and that the list of outstanding issues is larger than it was in March," he said.
The IAEA issued its last report on Iran in March. One of the most controversial issues in that report was the discovery of previously undeclared research on the P2 centrifuges.
The IAEA board begins meeting on June 14 to discuss the new report on Iran. The United States is expected to push hard for a resolution condemning Iran's less-than-total cooperation, though it is unlikely to push for a report to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, Western diplomats said.
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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