Ahmed Chalabi
AHMED CHALABI
Mr. DURBIN. The last issue, which is one that is topical, relates to a man by the name of Ahmed Chalabi. What a fascinating man he is. Ahmed Chalabi is an Iraqi exile, now back in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. What an interesting history this man has.
In 1992, Ahmed Chalabi was convicted of bank fraud and embezzlement of over $230 million for a bank he was running in Jordan. To escape the sentence of 22 years in prison, he fled to London and then to the United States, and certainly that wasn't the last we heard of him. He created something called the Iraqi National Congress, which ingratiated itself with the Bush administration to the point where the Bush administration paid to Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress $39 million. Then Mr. Chalabi gave us misleading information about the situation in Iraq, saying there were mobile biological weapons labs, which turned out to be false, information from a source named ``Curveball,'' of all things, one of most discredited sources of intelligence we have ever had who happened to be the brother of one of Chalabi's aides. It turned out that the information he was feeding us all along about Iraq, by and large, was false.
Mr. Chalabi was unrepentant when he was confronted with this. From the London Daily Telegraph, in an article on February 19, 2004, I quote:
Mr. Chalabi, by far the most effective anti-Saddam lobbyist in Washington, shrugged off charges that he deliberately misled U.S. Intelligence. ``We are heroes in error,'' he told the Telegraph in Baghdad.
He goes on to say:
As far as we're concerned, we've been entirely successful. That tyrant Saddam [Hussein] is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important. The Bush administration is looking for a scapegoat. We're ready to fall on our swords if he wants.
That was not the end of the story. Now that he has misled the Americans into invading Iraq, now that he has us in a position where our American forces are there, he is trying to build up his political fortunes. In May of last year, Iraqi security forces raided his home for documents, accusing him of passing American secrets to the Iranians and endangering American troops and security. He is currently under active investigation.
You might expect this man would be in hiding. He is not. He is in Washington. He is not being served with a subpoena. He is being served lunch. Do you know whom he has visited with in the last week, this man under active investigation? Vice President Cheney is one; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; the National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley; the Treasury Secretary, John Snow. And he is under active investigation by the FBI for having sold American secrets to the Iranians.
I don't understand this. It seems to me that if this man is suspected of endangering our troops, he should be called in for questioning, if not more. Instead, he is being called in for a cup of coffee and a cookie. That is what this administration thinks is playing straight with Iraq.
The American people know better. I am glad yesterday, by a vote of 79 to 19, we told this administration their policies in Iraq have to change.
It is long overdue for the Vice President of the United States to hold a press conference and answer questions. It is long overdue for him to speak truth to the American people, to be candid about the misuse of intelligence leading to the invasion of Iraq, to be candid about his role in disclosing the identity of Valerie Plame to Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, to be candid about his role in terms of meeting with oil company executives to create this Energy bill, and to be honest about his relationship with Ahmed Chalabi. The American people deserve straightforward, honest answers.
I yield the floor.
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