So Chalabi's in town, eh? Doesn't he usually stop by and visit his old friends when he's here? Rummy, Joe Lieberman, Richard Perle, Poppy Bush, et al...
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/10/ahmed-chalabi-wmd-were-marginal-to-iraq-invasion/63919/
Watch the full video of this session
Former Iraqi leader Ahmed Chalabi, who served as President of the Governing Council of Iraq immediately after the U.S. invasion he helped organize, said at the Washington Ideas Forum that he still feels the 2003 invasion was worthwhile.
"Getting rid of Saddam was certainly justified," he told Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn in their conversation at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. He said of his famously influential support for the war, "We were concerned about Saddam's oppression." He added when Quinn asked about the alleged weapons of mass destruction that never materialized, "The weapons of mass destruction was to our view a marginal issue."
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Quinn also noted that Chalabi has been besieged by accusations that he is an Iranian agent sent to Washington to facilitate the removal of Saddam Hussein, then Iran's worst enemy. Chalabi denied the charge when Quinn, laughing at the question, asked him if he worked for Iran. However, when Quinn pushed for Chalabi to denounce Iran's behavior, he replied, "My relationship with the Iranians is close and they are our neighbors." He said he wanted to avoid conflict and promote cooperation between Iran and Iraq. Chalabi resisted when Quinn prodded him to criticize Iran, pushing against her suggestion that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a "crazy person." He responded, "I don't think he's a crazy person. I think he's a smart man." Chalabi deflected Quinn's criticism of Ahmadinejad's recent accusation at the United Nations General Assembly that the U.S. caused Sept. 11, a view that Chalabi called "nonsense" but "prevalent in the region."
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