Teflon Ahmad visists pals in D.C.

[Black Dog]

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, once embraced and then shunned by the Bush administration, held talks with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday but the Pentagon did not allow television cameras to record the event.

He also held a private meeting at the White House with Vice President    Dick Cheney after his 45 minutes of talks with Rumsfeld, but Cheney's office would not provide details.

We're talking about a convicted con-artist who fed the U.S. much of the now-discredited WMD "intelligence", a guy who told Pentagon leaders that Iraqis would peacefully welcome U.S. forces as liberators, and who is under investigation for passing secrets to Iran. But even after all that, he still gets to rub shoulders with Big Time and Rummy. I had no idea that this administration could be so forgiving. Who knows? Maybe there will come a time where we'll see a replay of this touching scene.

[theloniusfleabag]

Dear Black Dog,

Here is an interesting bit...

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/...18-3c9da35b.htm

Mr. Wolfowitz went on to challenge charges that the Iraqi National Congress had provided the United States with faulty intelligence that led it into the war.

/// WOLFOWITZ ACT ///

There has been some very valuable intelligence that has been gathered through that process that has been very important to our forces, but we will seek to obtain that in the future through normal intelligence channels.

/// END ACT ///

There have also been suggestions that Mr. Chalabi's group may have misused U-S funds.

But a Pentagon spokesman said audits of payments made by the Defense Department do not suggest any unauthorized expenditures.

Mr. Chalabi is a member of Iraq's interim governing council. After years in exile, he was flown into the country last year by the Pentagon along with a group of supporters. (SIGNED)

Former Deputy Defence Secretary Wolfowitz thought that Cahalbi had 'misused funds', from the US, and in return for those funds, they seem to have gotten 'faulty intelligence' (that they used to justify the invasion). Now, Wolfowitz is head of the World Bank...I believe it was Toro who suggested the World Bank was full of 'competent, dedicated people'...but dedicated to what?

[Black Dog]

Bump!

Chalabi claims election fraud in wake of defeat

Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi appears to have suffered a humiliating defeat at the recent Iraq polls, according to the uncertified preliminary results.

The news comes just a month after Chalabi had conducted a tour of Washington in an effort to patch up his tattered image in America. Paperwork shows that in November Chalabi’s Washington representative hired a powerful D.C. lobbying firm.

The election results in Iraq may present Chalabi’s ardent U.S. supporters with a quandary: Chalabi, as well as other losing candidates, is alleging fraud in the election, even though the Bush administration hailed the vote as a historic step for democracy in Iraq.

[legamus]

the reactions to the election results by g.w. & co. should be interesting.

[Black Dog]

Oil's well that ends well for Ahmed.

Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum has been temporarily released from his post amid a dispute over the government's petrol pricing policy.

He is to be replaced for 30 days by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi