'Drunk' American Blabs To Chalabi? | CBS

[Ediacara]

'Drunk' American Blabs To Chalabi?

NEW YORK, June 2, 2004


Ahmad Chalabi (Photo: AP / CBS)


U.S. troops outside Chalabi's home during May 20 raid.
(Photo: AP)

(CBS) FBI counter-intelligence agents are focusing on the highest levels of the Pentagon in their search for who told former Iraqi ally Ahmad Chalabi one of the nation's best kept secrets -- only to see Chalabi turn right around and share it with Iranian intelligence agents, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

Several news organizations, including CBS, The New York Times and Los Angeles Times learned of the alleged betrayal weeks ago. But the agencies agreed to withhold reporting it until now because of U.S. attempts to shore up the intelligence losses.

Chalabi was once held in high enough esteem to sit behind first lady Laura Bush during the state of the union address. He is alleged to have met in Baghdad with a top Iranian agent and disclosed to him that the U.S. had cracked Iran's secret codes and was eavesdropping on all Iranian intelligence messages.

More at CBS

[Just Me]

1. CBS is totally kicking butt!!!

WOW!!!!

:bounce:

[Sub Atomic]

2. 'Drunk' American?

You mean Bush?

[DemoTex]

20. Cheney

Big EtOh abuser.

On edit: Former neighbor (8 blocks away) in Highland Park. I used to see Dick and Lynn at the Highland Park Village Starbucks. He was obviously a big drinker.

[Dover]

3. A DRUNK? Well look no further than the oval office. Too easy.

eom

[ChompySnack]

4. Ding Ding Ding

Any guesses why shrub is looking into getting a lawyer? Not for Plame, it's for the Chalabi incident.

[Ediacara]

5. Maybe for both?

Plame, Chalabi, and Enron are all hitting the fan right now....

Even if Bush is completely innocent and all the leaking and manipulating and lying was his underlings fault, he needs to be talking to someone because he IS going to be subpoenaed.

[qwertyMike]

7. He's f**ked up everything else in his life

Just another episode.

He should commit hari-kari and and the misery

[Old and In the Way]

10. Thing is, can Dad fix things?

I wonder if Dimson has been talking with Daddy and Jim Baker to help make this bad stuff go away?

[yardwork]

22. The president is never innocent.

The buck stops at the top. Bush* constantly avoids taking responsibility for things that happen on his watch. It makes no difference whether he blabbed something himself or somebody under him did so - it's his responsibility.

As Calimary said on the Plame thread, the president is responsible for appointing all these people who go out and do his bidding. The president sets the tone for the administration. The president is the moral authority.

Elect a stupid evil chimp as president - get a stupid evil government. Simple as that.

[Ediacara]

24. I agree

I'm just saying, even if he knows nothing (which I highly doubt), he's going to be subpoenaed.

[sampsonblk]

6. A drunk?? Did he also have a pretzel in his hand? - nt

nt

[Beaverhausen]

8. Do you think anyone will care?

About this and the other stories breaking today?

I mean, after all, the Scott Peterson trial started. :eyes:

[Just Me]

9. This really is a GRRRRREAT story!!!

"U.S. intelligence officials" have been dropping an awful lot of scoops lately. And, the Pentagon via Wolfie, is quoted as continuing to praise Chalabi for his assistance in warring against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, had no substantive ties to the terrorists involved with 9/11 and posed a miniscule (if any) threat whatsoever against the USA.

[maddezmom]

11. HOOWWWWLLL...the Wolfman could be going down.

[Just Me]

17. I have to wonder whether "they" found an email by Chalabi,...

,...to be leaking this? If it is in an email or some other "hard" evidence,...someone(s) is in such deep caa caa!!!

[Fleshdancer]

12. So did the informant have a scraped up chin and nose???

hmmmm, let's see:

drunk 'till the age of 40

no AA or therapy to help with addiction

video of him at wedding after his 40th b-day high as a kite

supposedly chokes on pretzel and gets a bruised cheek

supposedly falls on bike due to moist soil (even though Crawford recieived no precipitation the week prior to the accident) and screws up his face

Have you heard him speak???

[MO_Dem]

26. Have you heard him speak??

Truly pathetic, he is! Yesterday, we were laughing about him saying how the Iraqi's were going to have free elections "neck shear"!

[colonel odis]

13. cia spooks have a long memory

and payback's a bitch, w.

[MGKrebs]

14. This has got to be among the most F*ed up wars ever.

[fishnfla]

15. "Hassbah, the US has cracked the code, take a message,

send it ASAP to the chief, make sure you send it in code! Also, please send more quality scotch!"

[0007]

16. This is the most bizarre sequence of events I've ever heard.

LOL! Now everyone refers to Chalabi as "former Iraqi ally Ahmad Chalabi" - He steals a ton of money from a Jordan bank and nothing is said about Chalabi's character.

Even Wolfowitz is covering his ass these days.

"We are getting some extremely valuable information from a whole range of Iraqi groups, including Mr. Chalabi's," said Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz."

[DoYouEverWonder]

18. Could this be the same drunked American

who blabbed Plame's identity to Novak? The same one who decided to lawyer up today?

[TheWraith]

19. It had to be Bremer.

Look at it piece by piece:

The source had to be a high ranking American to have the info in the first place.

The way that it has repeatedly been phrased, i.e. "American official" and the like, implies that it was civilian rather than military.

Chalabi hasn't been leaving Iraq, so it probably happened there.

Bremer is notorious for going to upscale Baghdad restaurants and getting utterly wasted.

Reasonable assumption: a meeting over lunch and imported liquor, a little boasting by Bremer, and bada bing, one juicy intelligence nugget for the Iranians. The REAL irony? The Iranians didn't trust Chalabi's information even enough to change their codes, let alone invade a country.

These people really have no respect for the importance and delicacy of genuinely important intelligence operations. Plame, this, probably a dozen others we know nothing about. They treat the intel network like it's their own personal toy to manipulate, damage, or turn over to Orwellian lunatics as they see fit.

[UpInArms]

21. Welcome to DU TheWraith!

Great argument for adding Bremer to the list of possibles :)

Glad to have you with us!

:hi:

[yardwork]

25. Thank you for that info, TheWraith - and welcome to DU!

Everybody involved with the Chimp appears to be a drunken immoral greedy sot. Incredible.

[Isere]

23. Blame it on the booze!

But you have to wonder if maybe, just maybe, Chalabi paid someone at the Pentagon for the info.

Smells pretty rank, either way. Smells like jail time.