Chalabi and the Israelis

From this old article in Yediot Aharonot it looks like Chalabi played the Israelis for "suckers" as well.  pl

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"Saddam's "Successor" Made Secret Visit to Israel
Smadar Peri
Intelligence Correspondent, Yediot Aharonot

On Tuesday afternoon, in a dramatic interruption of the news, Al Jazeera broadcast a panicky item from Baghdad on the arrest of Ahmed Chalabi, president of the umbrella organization of Iraqi exiles. "Chalabi, the Pentagon favorite," the report said, "was arrested by American troops on charges of fraud and disturbing the civil administration."
The reaction in Israel was immediate. "We knew this moment would come," said senior intelligence officials, and didn't hide their sighs of relief. But the happiness was premature, and very quickly it turned out that the report of Chalabi's arrest was false. The Iraqi exile, who was flown to Baghdad to lead the Iraqis after Saddam's removal, was still relevant.
Three hours after the Al Jazeera report, the rival Abu Dhabi network broadcast an interview with Chalabi. "Documents from Iraqi intelligence show that the Al Jazeera reporters are agents of the previous regime," Chalabi claimed. He said that Saddam Hussein was alive and that he and the others with him were in possession of bomb belts. "Saddam will choose the most appropriate timing to carry out a large scale terror attack with many casualties."
Israeli intelligence did not fall off their chairs on hearing this. "This is Chalabi's way of drawing attention," sources said, "the Americans will soon understand whom they are dealing with." A Black Mercedes and Ties with Teheran
Ahmed Chalabi was born 56 years ago to an aristocratic Shiite family in Baghdad. He is a charismatic, secular, amazingly skillful and impatient, a computer, math and financial wizard. He left Iraq in 1956 when his family fled in fear of the regime, completed his studies at the prestigious MIT in the US and was among the founders of the Bank of Petra in Jordan, from where he fled after he was indicted for embezzlement. He was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment in absentia. Chalabi argued in his defense that this was an Iraqi conspiracy and over the years managed to forge connections to powerful people in the US. He heads the National Iraqi Congress, the umbrella organization of large opposition groups.
For many years mystery shrouded the reasons the Americans regarded Chalabi so warmly. This was explained by his charisma, his ability to impress and links to powerful people, but the real reason was never made public, until today. Chalabi, so it transpires, was pushed into the Americans' arms by Israeli intelligence.
Chalabi's Israeli link took place 13 years ago. KZ, a Defense Ministry official, revealed details of his first meeting with Chalabi in London this week. "Chalabi immediately projected Middle Eastern warmth. He is very intelligent and surprised me with his great knowledge about us. He knew each of the components of our political gallery, the ministers, the influential MKs, IDF Intelligence and Mossad heads. He also knew about Israel's open and covert relations in the Arab world. Our talk quickly got down to the future relations between Iraq and Jerusalem, after Saddam's fall. Even back then he insisted on drawing up a new political map of the Middle East and announced that Iraq would hoist the banner of democracy."
Chalabi told the Defense Ministry official, KZ, that in Baghdad he had attended the prestigious private school of "Madame Adel," a Jewish woman, and was closely acquainted with the Jewish community. "He was familiar with our customs. When he made his first visit to Israel, we took him on a tour of the Babylon Heritage Center and for meetings with Iraqi Jews. When he saw they retain their customs from Iraq, I saw it was hard for him to contain his emotion."
Maj. Gen. (reserves) Danny Rothschild, who headed the IDF Intelligence research branch, received Chalabi's telephone numbers in London in 1990 and went to meet him in secret. Only very rarely was IDF Intelligence able to make links to a senior Iraqi exile who displayed such great quantities of good will. They discussed Israel's efforts to get information on the fate of the IDF POWs and MIAs.
"Chalabi promised us that he could use his contacts in Teheran to check out the Ron Arad matter," Rothschild recounts. "I remember that Chalabi's son came to meet me at the airport and picked me up in his black, fancy Mercedes. The license plate said RPG 7. How did he maintain secrecy when he went around with such ostentatious signs? Gradually I realized that this was an important component in the image Chalabi was trying to project."
Rothschild and Chalabi met in the sumptuous office of the Iraqi exile in western London and spoke for long hours about the future of the region. Rothschild remembers that he wrote a classified report. The information on the Israeli MIAs and POWs, which Chalabi promised through his contacts in Teheran, never materialized, neither in Rothschild's next two meetings with Chalabi.
This did not prevent Israeli security officials from recommending Chalabi to the American administration and connecting him to senior advisers in the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA. As a result of the recommendations, James Woolsley, the former CIA director, gave him his patronage.

Open File on Petra
In 1992, Chalabi declared the establishment of the National Iraqi Congress in London and tried to enlist the American administration into preparing for an operation to topple Saddam. He gathered around him dozens of young people who had fled Iraq and persuaded them to work voluntarily for a "free Iraq." Israelis who visited the offices of the National Congress were shown the horrors of Saddam's regime and the organization's desire to take immediate revenge against Iraq.
At the same time, reports came in from Jordan, painting an entirely different picture of Chalabi. In 1989, after the Bank of Petra, the third largest in the kingdom, declared bankruptcy, Chalabi fled to Kurdistan in the back of a truck. USD 20 million, all of the bank's deposits, disappeared along with him. The Jordanians never forgave him. Last week, in three interviews by King Abdullah, he made it very clear: "The Petra file against Chalabi is still open." King Abdullah also had a sweeping message to the American administration: "I suggest you examine very carefully banks in Geneva, London and Beirut. Chalabi was not only involved in such affairs in Jordan. In all of these places charges were filed against him for financial wrongdoing."
Four weeks ago, when Chalabi showed up in Nassiriya in southern Iraq after 45 years in exile and promised a "new Iraq," a strong message was conveyed from Amman to the Bush administration. "If Chalabi, with your help, fulfills his dream, and is given a central role in Iraq, this will immediately cast a heavy shadow on Jordan-Iraq relations." The Jordanians also reminded the Americans that Jordan is the country closest to Iraq and any move taken on one side of the border will immediately effect, either positively or negatively, the other.
The Jordanian royal family also watched with concern the involvement of Israeli security officials in opening the gates of the Pentagon in Washington for Chalabi. The Jordanians even warned the CIA against this "crook with the charismatic smooth image." But the American espionage agencies had their own considerations. "Iraq is closed, Chalabi gives us important intelligence information from Baghdad," senior CIA officials said.
But not everyone in the top American echelons had the same reaction. Loud voices were heard in the White House and in the State Department over the years against building up Chalabi's status in the Pentagon. Here too, with a certain delay, the Mossad and the IDF Intelligence marked him as a " dangerous fraud." Former Mossad director Shabtai Shavit says: "I didn't bother getting acquainted with Chalabi;" while more recent former Mossad director Ephraim Halevy makes a face when Chalabi's name is mentioned. "This man has no chance," Halevy says, "It's a waste of time."
A senior security establishment official ("don't write my name, why should I get in trouble with Secretary Rumsfeld, who gets a report about every word we say here about a Iraq") is willing to reveal, "Despite the pressure put on us, I absolutely refused to meet Chalabi."
Question: Why?
"Because I don't get involved with gangsters. People like him shouldn't be our friends."
Question: And if Chalabi is eventually the next leader of Iraq?
"I have been following him for years. Even if his dream comes true and he manages to get himself a role in Baghdad, he'll be murdered in a month. He won't survive. We shouldn't rely on him." Passport Not Stamped in Baghdad
The secret meetings in London led Chalabi to a string of discrete visits in Tel Aviv. "He came mainly to acquire an impression from up close who are the Israelis and what the State of Israel like," says KZ, who waited for Chalabi at the exit of the El Al plane at Ben-Gurion Airport, who made sure his passport was not stamped and who lodged him under a false name in a five-star Tel Aviv hotel.
The family file collected by intelligence agencies on Chalabi and his wife describe them as "exiles deluxe." The wife, Leila, is from a respected family in Lebanon, her father was the Lebanese foreign minister. Chalabi's daughter Tamara, a communications student, was also party to his father's activities.
"Chalabi did not make concrete requests of us," said a senior security establishment official. "Even after he was unable to get the administration's consent in to train Iraqi exiles in American army camps, he knew, with his honed senses, that Israeli fingerprints on him would be mark against him in Iraq."
Another senior security establishment source says: "Chalabi's and other Iraqi exiles' efforts to get close to us gave me the chills. I immediately remembered our entanglement with the Phalanges in Lebanon. The more we helped them, the greater their appetite grew, and in the end we were trampled."
In one of his visits to Israel, Chalabi was hosted in the office of the defense minister at the time, Yitzhak Mordechai. Chalabi, it turned out, had come to ask for Israeli aid in Congress in Washington, to persuade the administration of President Clinton to fund activity of the exiles' National Congress, to train hundreds of volunteers in army bases, prior to a strike to topple the Saddam regime. At the end of these efforts, with the help of his Israeli friends and the Jewish lobby in Washington, Chalabi managed to get USD four million. In Washington he met with then minister Natan Sharansky, former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and impressed them with his plans for molding Iraq into a democratic country . . . This appeared in Yediot Aharonot on May 2, 2003"

http://israelvisit.co.il/cgi-bin/friendly.pl?url=May-06-03!XXX

Comments

[Cold War Zoomie]

I'm surprised at how the last few posts about Chalabi rely on the press and journalists so much. During my time as a minuscule cog in the machine, it became obvious pretty quickly that what was on the tellie one night didn't match up with what was happening on the ops floor the day before. That's the nature of the beast.

Hmmmm. Why the increase in "chatter" about this guy now?

[Montag]

Chalabi met with Sharansky and Netanyahu? No doubt they were planning a comeback as the new Three Stooges.

[W. Patrick Lang]

CWZ

My experience is quite different. open source material is often more useful than the classified if you have the wit to arrive at the "net" result.

As for Chalabi, he interests me. That is reason enough. pl

[swerv21]

Seems like the only reliably inferable knowledge from this material is that Chalabi had quite a few fingers in quite a few pies.

If you drew a set diagram for Israeli, Iranian and U.S. thinking on Iraq pre-war, then Chalabi would be sitting right where the circles overlapped. . .

[jr786]

This article is from May, 2003. On another thread, several posters pointed out that Chalabi's previous machinations, duplicity and treachery were 'common knowledge' by the late 1990's and naturally up through the 2004 elections.

So how did he get himself appointed deputy minister of oil and later Minister, a post he held through part of 2006? At which point nobody could still be under any illusions about him. Any public US objections to this?

[anna missed]

Isn't Chalabi still in control of the de-Baathification commission? And has outlived the reconciliation drive authored by Khalilzad -- and oft repeated "Benchmark" extraordinare demanded in Washington.

Who needs middle east oil when these folks have discovered the ship of state runs perfectly well on bullshit!

[Cold War Zoomie]

Col Lang,

I'll definitely defer to your experience. All mine is on the other side of the Potomac. I don't want to know what's happening over on your side - life's easier that way!

[arbogast]

The U.S. is being bled white financially and militarily.

There is very evidently a clique that believes that this can be done safely and, in fact, that it will strengthen their cause.

I think, Colonel Lang, that you put your finger on the truth when you point out that it is conceivable that there are "others" out there who realize that bleeding the U.S. white will result in the fall of the U.S.

Has the U.S. ever been weaker militarily than it is now?

Has the U.S ever been weaker financially than it is now?

If you read the Wall Street Journal and listen to Dick Cheney, the answer is that it is stronger that it has ever been.

Chalabi is very definitely a sign that, just possibly, WSJ and Dick Cheney have it backwards.

[W. Patrick Lang]

plp et all

Try to get your minds around this idea, "that the Iranians may have used Chalabi and the neocons to put us in the position are now in fighing the various Sunni and secular Shia insurgent groups for the benefit of the Shia and Iran."

Does that mean we should go to war with Iran? No, not unless we can't handle the thought that we may have been "outplayed." pl

[arbogast]

Oh, Colonel, I completely agree. Totally agree. Going to "war" with Iran now would be one of the greatest blunders in Western history.

Interestingly, I think there are thinking Israeli's who realize that what the Israeli Air Force did to Lebanon was a war crime, and not a very productive war crime either.

I guess what the clique believes is that the US and Israel don't have to please anyone, they can do what they like.

They shall shortly see how much of what they like they can do.

And even those lunatic bastards realize that all the money on Wall Street cannot sell conscription to the American public.

[rhymes with truck] them.

[johnieB]

That's the general sense I'm drawing from these illuminating discussions. I also found, in my own very modest experience at the lowest level, Open Source materials to be useful; as the Colonel notes, it's in the read.

[backsdrummer]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/world/events/1998/worldcup/scoreboards/1998/06/21/recap.iran.united_states.html

I guess this isn't really related except as a metaphor, but all this talk about being outplayed by Iran keeps reminding me of the 1998 World Cup.

The Americans squandered several good chances to score. Iran took full advantage of their limited scoring opportunities, and scored just before half-time.

The Americans didn't really get into the game until the second half. Iran stayed composed and managed to hold off the USA's attempts to tie the game. As the game wound down, the US threw caution to the wind, and Iran scored again on an opportunistic goal. A very late US goal was too little, too late, and Iran ended up winning 2-1. The US was eliminated from that World Cup as a result.

[Montag]

Col. Lang, you seem to be saying that once having dug ourselves into a deep hole--regardless of the details of how and why--Job One is to stop digging.

[taters]

Thank you for this Col. I find information on the honcho of the Gucci Guerillas particularly insightful.
It's an absolute shame Judy Miller and Michael Gordon didn't/wouldn't research this guy.
Also, the recollection that you shared with us when you sat next to him and others in the hotel lobby and listened in - was a most excellent and interesting read.

[pbrownlee]

Wounded vanity and an entrenched inability to deal with error of any kind can be powerful engines for further imbecilic activity.

See Mencken, Twain and Bierce passim.

[Cloned Poster]

Does that mean we should go to war with Iran? No, not unless we can't handle the thought that we may have been "outplayed." pl

Outplayed? Beaten outta the park more like and bleeding in the endfield. In a game that the Sunni Arabs started.

[FB Ali]

Colonel

As an outside observer (and a believer in Occam's Razor) it appears to me that a more likely scenario is :

· Chalabi was playing everyone (the US administration, the neocons, the Iranians, the Israelis, various European intelligence services) with the aim of getting the US to attack Iraq, overthrow Saddam and instal him instead.

· In the process he was telling everyone whatever they wanted to hear, and making whatever promises would entice them into supporting him. What he would have actually done had he come into power is a totally open question – obviously he would have had to double-cross one side or the other, probably the one from whom he feared the least blowback.

· The current entanglement of the US into fighting the Sunnis in Iraq is the doing of the Kurd and Shia leadership in Iraq, in which Chalabi plays a minor role (though he is probably trying to convince the Iranians that it is much bigger). However, here Iran is actively working with the Iraqi Shia to prolong this for as long as possible (they probably also wield considerable influence on Talibani and Barzani).

· Iran and/or Chalabi only appear to be so diabolically clever because this US administration has proven to be idiotic beyond belief. However, this doesn’t apply to the US “military-industrial” complex; unending war (irrespective of who the enemy is) suits them fine.

[Chris M]

Try to get your minds around this idea, "that the Iranians may have used Chalabi and the neocons to put us in the position are now in fighing the various Sunni and secular Shia insurgent groups for the benefit of the Shia and Iran."

Another question that could be asked is, "Has anybody been using the Iranians?"

[RB]

I'm not sure that I entirely buy into the argument that the US has been "played"—in part because I'm not sure the Iranians find 150,000 US troops in Iraq a reassuring prospect, even if they are fighting predominately Sunni jihadists and ex-Ba'thists to keep a pro-Iranian Shiite government in power.

That having been said, I don't doubt that Iran has made major gains, both in terms of regime change in Baghdad, further damaging the American "brand" in the ME, and by bleeding the US on the ground in Iraq (and possibly deterring it more broadly).

Chalabi? I was always a strong critic, ever since my VISA card in Jordan stopped working for a while because of the collapse of Petra Bank ;) It has always stunned me that he was so successful in diverting attention from this, and his family's involvement in banking scandals in Switzerland and Lebanon.

Was he an Iranian "asset?" Perhaps the Iranians think so. I don't doubt he would offer them what they wanted in exchange for support, although ultimately I think he's a charismatic, opportunistic free agent. (I'm dubious about some of the compromised COMINT story, by the way--although I won't get into why. If it were true, the real question would be who in the USG was revealing to Chalabi what Iranian traffic the NSA and allies might, or might not, be listening to...)

Fianlly--and the real reason for the post--it all raises interesting questions about who (in the often highly divided Iranian government) was seeking what? The Supreme Leader? Then President Khatemi? The MOIS or IRGC? Iranian bureaucratic politics and turf battles are often an eerie echo of Washington's, complete with realist-pragmatists and ideologues.

[W. Patrick Lang]

taters

I need to find that post. ?? pl

[W. Patrick Lang]

All

Nobody is saying that Chalabi or Iranian manipulation of the US was the sole cause of the disaster.

What is being said is that he/them were a major cause. pl

[W. Patrick Lang]

JohnieB

It is absolutely "in the read." pl

[W. Patrick Lang]

For the Canadian Academic fellah

I think the Iranians are quited happy to have our force next door doing what they want done.

They know we are going to leave. pl

[Don Schmeling]

All this discussion about Chalabi is mentally stimulating, but let's not forget that he was bit actor in the grand production of "America goes to Kick Butt"

There had already been documentaries about Chalabi's shady past, but neither the American President or public cared.

Remember; the UN inspector Hans Blix was telling the world he could find no weapons of mass destruction.

Go to Original (http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1345303,00.html)

Hans Blix: War Planned 'Long in Advance'
News24.com
Wednesday 9 April 2003
Madrid - The invasion of Iraq was planned a long time in advance, and the United States and Britain are not primarily concerned with finding any banned weapons of mass destruction, the chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, said in an interview on Wednesday.
"There is evidence that this war was planned well in advance. Sometimes this raises doubts about their attitude to the (weapons) inspections," Blix told Spanish daily El Pais.
"I now believe that finding weapons of mass destruction has been relegated, I would say, to fourth place, which is why the United States and Britain are now waging war on Iraq.
Today the main aim is to change the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein," he said, according to the Spanish text of the interview.

Most of the world felt the same way, and the US's old allies, (Old Europe, Canada), told the President so.

One shouldn't even get close to thinking that Chalabi tricked anyone. His stories just happened to be what the White House wanted to hear.

And one shouldn't forget that the US public was happy to knock some heads together to avenge 9/11, and wasn't very worried about who's heads it was.

[swerv21]

colonel:

random suggestion. unrelated to post.

maybe you could get someone to volunteer and organize a 'retreat' for your readership. everyone could together in some inn in the shenandoah, drink bourbon all weekend, trade notes and war stories.

it would be like lebowskifest, but for sst readers.