...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Thursday, May 27, 2004
      ( 1:37 PM )
 
It Gets Worse - Again.

So we all know that the neocons who set up shop in this administration had as their goal to invade Iraq and set in motion their great Plan for World Domination. We know that they used only the word of Ahmed Chalabi, an "exile" from Iraq (and bank robber who stole millions in Jordan and is still wanted), and his minions as their intelligence for creating their reason for war. Those who dared to challenge the intelligence like Ambassador Wilson faced treasonous actions by the White House (the outing of his wife as a secret CIA officer) that go unpunished. Of course the entire Iraq debacle continues to slide into chaos and reveal horrendous misjudgments and actions taken by these same neocon leaders. NOW we find out that Chalabi, the vaunted Friend of George who appeared at the States of the Union addresses, who has collected a monthly check of over $300,000 of US taxpayer money over the last year, is a double agent for Iran. And the FBI is now investigating those very same neocons for espionage. (this is a Salon article, so you'll need a day pass if you're not registered).

At a well-appointed conservative think tank in downtown Washington and across the Potomac River at the Pentagon, FBI agents have begun paying quiet calls on prominent neoconservatives, who are being interviewed in an investigation of potential espionage, according to intelligence sources. Who gave Ahmed Chalabi classified information about the plans of the U.S. government and military?

The Iraqi neocon favorite, tipped to lead his liberated country post-invasion, has been identified by the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency as an Iranian double agent, passing secrets to that citadel of the "axis of evil" for decades. All the while the neocons cosseted, promoted and arranged for more than $30 million in Pentagon payments to the George Washington manqué of Iraq. In return, he fed them a steady diet of disinformation, and in the run-up to the war he sent various exiles to nine nations' intelligence agencies to spread falsehoods about weapons of mass destruction. If the administration had wanted other material to provide a rationale for invasion, no doubt that would have been fabricated. Either Chalabi perpetrated the greatest con since the Trojan horse or he was the agent of influence for the most successful intelligence operation conducted by Iran, or both.

[...]

The fallout from the Chalabi affair has also implicated the nation's newspaper of record, the New York Times, which published on Wednesday an apology for running numerous stories containing disinformation that emanated from Chalabi and those in the Bush administration funneling his fabrications. The Washington Post, which published editorials and several columnists trumpeting Chalabi's talking points, has yet to acknowledge the extent to which it was deceived.

Washington, which was just weeks ago in the grip of neoconservative orthodoxy and absolute belief in Bush's inevitability and righteousness, is now in the throes of agonizing events and being ripped apart by investigations. Things fall apart; all that was hidden is revealed; all sacred exposed as profane: the military, loyal and lumbering, betrayed and embittered; the general in the field, Lt. Gen. Sanchez, disgraced and cashiered; and the most respected retired generals training their artillery on those who have ill-used the troops, still dying in the field; the intelligence agencies, a nautilus of chambers, abused and angry, its retired operatives plying their craft with the press corps, seeping dangerous truths; the press, hesitatingly and wobbly, investigating its own falsehoods; the neocons, publicly redoubling their passionate intensity, defending their hero and deceiver Chalabi, privately squabbling, anxiously awaiting the footsteps of FBI agents; Colin Powell, once the most acclaimed man in America, embarked on an endless quest to restore his reputation, damaged above all by his failure of nerve; everyone in the line of fire motioning toward the chain of command, spiraling upward and sideways, until the finger pointing in a phalanx is directed at the hollow crown. (mama's emphasis)

WOW. How are the GOP talking heads going to explain away this one? Part of me wants to gloat "I told you so" because I (and you too, probably) knew that Chalabi was a total fraud. And yet there is no triumphalism in this particular truth being finally shown the light of day. Though it is a relief it's finally out there and that there is actually some investigation going on - it is a terrible, terrible tragedy that the erstwhile world domination dreams of a few have killed, maimed, endangered, robbed and defrauded so many.

Oh, and if you're looking for more into the whole NY Times apology and Judith Miller (whore of Babylon - literally), check out this one by James Moore.

One might have hoped that American journalists would have been at least as skeptical as the State Department before they burned their reputations on Chalabi's pyre of lies. But even the most seasoned of correspondents and the most august of publications, including the Times and the Washington Post, appear to have been as deftly used by Chalabi as were the CIA, the Department of Defense and the Bush administration.

Digby has the best comments on this. This entire house of cards must fall - it's built on nothing but the ashes of dead soldiers and the lies of mighty men. The entire nation and indeed, the entire world, has been betrayed by the leadership of this country. Not one of them should get a pass - not one of them should be ignored in our quest for the truth and for justice.

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