Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > The Academy > Tilted Politics


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 06-04-2004, 08:58 PM   #1 (permalink)
Dubya
 
Location: VA
Have we been duped into Iraq by the Iranians?

This has been bugging me for several days now, this idea that Ahmed Chalabi and his cohorts in the INC manipulated the US, in particular Cheney, Wolfowitz, and Feith on the road to war. Now there is the distinct possibility that he is and has been for some time an Iranian agent. I could almost tip my hat to the well-played game by the Iranians, only it is not a game, and hundreds of Americans and thousands of Iraqis are dead as a result.

I'm trying to stay open-minded about it, but the growing weight of evidence (phony testimony by defectors paid by the INC, etc) is leading me to some disturbing as hell conclusions.

Here's a piece (long) from the New Yorker about Chalabi, and the Machiavellian plot he's been executing for the last 10 years, found here:

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040607fa_fact1

An excerpt:

Quote:
Ahmad Chalabi, the wealthy Iraqi Shiite who spent more than a decade working for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, prides himself on his understanding of the United States and its history. “I know quite a lot about it,” he told me not long ago. It was after midnight in Baghdad, but he was still in his office in the new headquarters of the Iraqi National Congress, the exile opposition group that Chalabi helped found in 1992. As a young man, he said, he spent several years in America, earning an undergraduate and a master’s degree in mathematics from M.I.T., and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Chicago. Chalabi began studying the uses of power in American politics, and the subject developed into a lifelong interest. One episode in American history particularly fascinated him, he said. “I followed very closely how Roosevelt, who abhorred the Nazis, at a time when isolationist sentiment was paramount in the United States, managed adroitly to persuade the American people to go to war. I studied it with a great deal of respect; we learned a lot from it. The Lend-Lease program committed Roosevelt to enter on Britain’s side—so we had the Iraq Liberation Act, which committed the American people for the liberation against Saddam.” The act, which Congress passed in 1998, made “regime change” in Iraq an official priority of the U.S. government; Chalabi had lobbied tirelessly for the legislation.

Three days after our conversation, Chalabi’s Baghdad home was raided at gunpoint by Iraqi police, who were supported by American troops. His offices were also searched. Chalabi had sensed that a confrontation with the Bush Administration was imminent. As he put it, “It’s customary when great events happen that the U.S. punishes its friends and rewards its enemies.” For years, he had been America’s staunchest Iraqi ally, and he had helped the Bush Administration make its case against Saddam, in part by disseminating the notion that the Baathist regime had maintained stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons, and was poised to become a nuclear power. Although Chalabi developed enemies at the C.I.A. who disputed his intelligence data and questioned his ethics, he forged a close bond with Vice-President Dick Cheney and many of the top civilians at the Pentagon, such as Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Under-Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, and Under-Secretary of Defense William J. Luti. Yet now that the occupation of Iraq appeared to be headed toward disaster, he said, many in the Administration had united in making him the scapegoat. As Chalabi saw it, he had understood America too well, and had been too successful in influencing its foreign policy. “There is a smear campaign that says I am responsible for the liberation of Iraq,” he said. Then he added with a chuckle, “But how bad is that?”

Between 1992 and the raid on Chalabi’s home, the U.S. government funnelled more than a hundred million dollars to the Iraqi National Congress. The current Bush Administration gave Chalabi’s group at least thirty-nine million dollars. Exactly what the I.N.C. provided in exchange for these sums has yet to be fully explained. Chalabi defined his role simply. “I clarified the picture,” he said. His many critics, however, believe that he distorted it. Diplomatic and intelligence officials accuse him of exaggerating the security threat that Iraq posed to the U.S.; supplying defectors who offered misleading or bogus testimony about Saddam’s efforts to acquire nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons; promoting questionable stories connecting Saddam to Al Qaeda; and overestimating the ease with which Saddam could be replaced with a Western-style democracy.

Vincent Cannistraro, a former C.I.A. counter-terrorism specialist who now consults for the government, told me, “With Chalabi, we paid to fool ourselves. It’s horrible. In other times, it might be funny. But a lot of people are dead as a result of this. It’s reprehensible.”
__________________
"In Iraq, no doubt about it, it's tough. It's hard work. It's incredibly hard. It's - and it's hard work. I understand how hard it is. I get the casualty reports every day. I see on the TV screens how hard it is. But it's necessary work. We're making progress. It is hard work."

Last edited by Sparhawk; 06-04-2004 at 10:33 PM..
Sparhawk is offline  
Old 06-04-2004, 10:16 PM   #2 (permalink)
Cherry-pickin' devil's advocate
 
Location: Los Angeles
I think it is certainly possible... a nation as Iran that is anti-Iraqi would find its ways to get Iraq turned away.

That reminds me of the thing about WMDs - regardless of whether or not they were there by the time of the war, Saddam when he did have them may have used them to keep Iran away. Thus, there is the entire issue of if Saddam didn't have em, he could have used em to bluff to keep neighboring enemies away.

It's certainly possible
Zeld2.0 is offline  
Old 06-04-2004, 11:34 PM   #3 (permalink)
The Original Emo Gangsta
 
Location: Sixth Floor, Texas School Book Depository
I knew there had to be some loophole where we Americans could come out clean on the other end after the shit storm was over.
__________________
"So you're Chekov, huh? Well, this here's McCoy. Find a Spock, we got us an away team."
KillerYoda is offline  
Old 06-05-2004, 01:23 AM   #4 (permalink)
Addict
 
Location: Oh God, the rain!
I think we were manipulated in going to Gulf war 1.0.
Asuka{eve} is offline  
Old 06-05-2004, 01:56 AM   #5 (permalink)
Insane
 
Quote:
Originally posted by Asuka{eve}
I think we were manipulated in going to Gulf war 1.0.
Well, of course we were.
hammer4all is offline  
Old 06-05-2004, 08:12 PM   #6 (permalink)
MSD
The sky calls to us ...
 
MSD's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: CT
Politics is a messy business, isn't it? The second you turn your head, the guy who was shaking your hand has his hand in your pocket or a kinfe in your back. This situation and the (un)intelligence that led up to it is turning out to be so chaotic that we may not have enough fingers to point at the responsible parties.
MSD is offline  
Old 06-05-2004, 11:06 PM   #7 (permalink)
Dubya
 
Location: VA
I just can't stomach the idea that we were played. By the friggin Iranians. If I was at all objective, I would say it would be appropriate irony for all the manipulation we've done to their country in the last 50 years, but I'm not, so I'm pissed off instead.
__________________
"In Iraq, no doubt about it, it's tough. It's hard work. It's incredibly hard. It's - and it's hard work. I understand how hard it is. I get the casualty reports every day. I see on the TV screens how hard it is. But it's necessary work. We're making progress. It is hard work."
Sparhawk is offline  
Old 06-05-2004, 11:21 PM   #8 (permalink)
who?
 
phredgreen's Avatar
 
Location: the phoenix metro
while it seems clear (by that report, at least) that Chalabi was pulling strings to get what he wanted, it still remains unclear exactly why he was playing the games he played.

Quote:
as seen here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...st/3772575.stm

Chalabi denies leaking US secrets
Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi has denied reports he warned Iran that US spies had cracked its secret codes.
Sources in Washington have indicated an investigation is under way to check if US agents may have revealed the information to the politician.

Mr Chalabi - who was backed by the US administration until recently - described the reports as "stupid from every aspect".

Iran has denied the reports, which Mr Chalabi's allies suggest are a smear campaign ahead of the Iraq handover.

"Where would I get this from?" Mr Chalabi asked in an interview for AP news agency which he gave during a visit to the Iraqi city of Najaf.

"I have no such information."

As US officials confirmed that an FBI investigation was under way, the New York Times reported that civilian Pentagon employees were being tested with lie detectors.

"It's my understanding they're looking into every aspect of how it occurred, who is responsible and what the implications are," said Senator Mark Dayton, after a hearing on the issue.

If the story is true, he said, it would be "a major, major, very major breach of security".

'Absurd'

According to US media reports, Mr Chalabi told Iran's chief spy in Baghdad in April that the US was reading the Iranian intelligence service's communications traffic.

US intelligence is said to have discovered the alleged betrayal when it read a cable which the Iranian station chief had sent to his superiors in Iran detailing the conversation with Mr Chalabi.

Richard Perle, a former Pentagon adviser and one of Mr Chalabi's strongest backers, told AP he thought the idea that Iran's top spy in Iraq would use a compromised communications channel was inconceivable.

"The idea that the Iranians, having been informed that their codes were broken, would then use their broken codes back to Iran is absurd," he said.

Funds stopped

Iran has had public contacts with Mr Chalabi, who like most Iranians is a Shia Muslim, but denies reports of any leak.

"Iran had no special intelligence contacts or activities with Chalabi and we don't have now," said Supreme National Security Council Secretary Hassan Rowhani.

Correspondents note that news of the leak broke after the Bush administration cut funding for Mr Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress group, citing concerns about the value of intelligence it had supplied.
so he says bullocks, and the only people who are accusing him of anything to do with the iranians at this point are the media. the united states government has shitcanned him, but haven't said why. i think this speculation is just that and will remain so until we get some kind of offical report action coming down from the CIA or FBI or another of those (increasingly) disreputable three-letter acronyms.
__________________
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
- Thomas Paine
phredgreen is offline  
 

Tags
duped, iranians, iraq

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 04:34 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360