Pentagon Plans to Stop Funding Iraq's Chalabi
By Arshad Mohammed
(Reuters)
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon plans to stop funding Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile it once hoped might help lead Iraq but whose intelligence reports and motives were doubted elsewhere in Washington, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
The officials, who asked not to be named, said the Pentagon would stop giving Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress roughly $340,000 a month as of June 30, when the United States plans to give some authority to a still unnamed interim government.
U.S. officials have for weeks said the U.S. government was debating cutting off the INC, saying they had questions about the intelligence it provided as well as about whether Chalabi was motivated chiefly by a desire for power.
The Pentagon, however, defended the INC's information and a U.S. defense official echoed that, saying: "They have provided decent information, especially in regards to force protection issues and the whereabouts of folks (Iraqi fugitives)."
Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi National Council, has pressed recently for full Iraq control over the country's security forces and criticized some U.S. actions.
INC spokesman Entifadh Qanbar declined comment on the funds or on intelligence the group may have provided, saying "I cannot talk about this confidential issue ... INC personnel are risking their lives every day in Iraq to save American lives."
Qanbar also demanded the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency stop funding any Iraqi groups after the June 30 hand-over.
"Iraq is a strategic ally to the United States of America and it would be inappropriate and unacceptable that the U.S. intelligence agencies fund anybody inside Iraq," he said. "We expect the CIA to cease funding to any of their groups or individuals inside Iraq after sovereignty."
One U.S. official, who asked not to be named and who said he was not directly briefed on the Pentagon's decision to stop funding, speculated that the funds were being cut off because "we weren't getting what we were paying for."
Pentagon Favorite
A Defense official painted the decision as tied to the June 30 handover. "It has run its course, with the turnover of the government," the official said, adding that a formal announcement was expected in Baghdad later on Tuesday.
An exile who lived abroad for more than four decades, Chalabi has been a favorite of the Pentagon, which flew him into Iraq as the U.S.-led invasion was winding up last year to give him a head start to establish a political base.
But Chalabi has had many critics in the U.S. government, notably at the CIA, which suspected his group may have been penetrated by Saddam Hussein's agents before the war and which questioned the intelligence information it provided.
The State Department also had its doubts and resented the Pentagon's support for Chalabi. State Department officials questioned whether he could emerge as a national leader because he had lived outside the country for so long.
In its prewar role, Chalabi's INC directed numerous Iraqi defectors to the U.S. government to provide intelligence that critics now say was largely spun to prod the United States into taking action against Baghdad.
Included in the questionable intelligence was information about purported biological weapons labs, the source of which was described by U.S. officials as a fabricator promoted by Chalabi's group.
No stockpiles of banned unconventional weapons have been found in Iraq. (Additional reporting by Charles Aldinger and Will Dunham)
By Arshad Mohammed
(Reuters)
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon plans to stop funding Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile it once hoped might help lead Iraq but whose intelligence reports and motives were doubted elsewhere in Washington, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
The officials, who asked not to be named, said the Pentagon would stop giving Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress roughly $340,000 a month as of June 30, when the United States plans to give some authority to a still unnamed interim government.
U.S. officials have for weeks said the U.S. government was debating cutting off the INC, saying they had questions about the intelligence it provided as well as about whether Chalabi was motivated chiefly by a desire for power.
The Pentagon, however, defended the INC's information and a U.S. defense official echoed that, saying: "They have provided decent information, especially in regards to force protection issues and the whereabouts of folks (Iraqi fugitives)."
Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi National Council, has pressed recently for full Iraq control over the country's security forces and criticized some U.S. actions.
INC spokesman Entifadh Qanbar declined comment on the funds or on intelligence the group may have provided, saying "I cannot talk about this confidential issue ... INC personnel are risking their lives every day in Iraq to save American lives."
Qanbar also demanded the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency stop funding any Iraqi groups after the June 30 hand-over.
"Iraq is a strategic ally to the United States of America and it would be inappropriate and unacceptable that the U.S. intelligence agencies fund anybody inside Iraq," he said. "We expect the CIA to cease funding to any of their groups or individuals inside Iraq after sovereignty."
One U.S. official, who asked not to be named and who said he was not directly briefed on the Pentagon's decision to stop funding, speculated that the funds were being cut off because "we weren't getting what we were paying for."
Pentagon Favorite
A Defense official painted the decision as tied to the June 30 handover. "It has run its course, with the turnover of the government," the official said, adding that a formal announcement was expected in Baghdad later on Tuesday.
An exile who lived abroad for more than four decades, Chalabi has been a favorite of the Pentagon, which flew him into Iraq as the U.S.-led invasion was winding up last year to give him a head start to establish a political base.
But Chalabi has had many critics in the U.S. government, notably at the CIA, which suspected his group may have been penetrated by Saddam Hussein's agents before the war and which questioned the intelligence information it provided.
The State Department also had its doubts and resented the Pentagon's support for Chalabi. State Department officials questioned whether he could emerge as a national leader because he had lived outside the country for so long.
In its prewar role, Chalabi's INC directed numerous Iraqi defectors to the U.S. government to provide intelligence that critics now say was largely spun to prod the United States into taking action against Baghdad.
Included in the questionable intelligence was information about purported biological weapons labs, the source of which was described by U.S. officials as a fabricator promoted by Chalabi's group.
No stockpiles of banned unconventional weapons have been found in Iraq. (Additional reporting by Charles Aldinger and Will Dunham)
