SUPRISE! Chalabi Now Suspected of Multi-Million Dollar Theft

[Phaedrus]

How anyone could have bought this guy's line is beyond me (as I mentioned here, over a year ago) but apparently the U.S. is now finally figuring out that you don't put people found guilty of $340 million worth of bank fraud who then leave the country to escape incarceration, in charge of the money.

from MSNBC:

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Onetime U.S. ally Chalabi's home, offices raided

Sweep said tied to alleged theft of millions of dollars by associates

U.S Army soldiers stand guard Thursday outside the residence of Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi in Baghdad.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police on Thursday raided the residence and party offices of Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi and arrested an unknown number of his associates, completing the longtime Pentagon favorite’s fall from grace in the eyes of Washington.

At a news conference after the raids, Chalabi said that U.S. authorities were pressuring him because he has been "calling for policies to liberate the Iraqi people" when the U.S. transfers power to an interim Iraqi government next month.

But Pentagon officials told NBC News that they were acting at the behest of Iraqi authorities investigating the disappearance of millions of dollars in cash and other assets following the fall of Saddam Hussein.

As word of the raids spread early Thursday, American soldiers and armed U.S. civilians could be seen milling about Chalabi's compound in the city's fashionable Mansour district. Some people could be seen loading boxes into vehicles.
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Phaedrus

 

[jimbutorac]

Yeah, this is the guy who persuaded Cheney that we would be welcomed with open arms by the Iraqis after invasion. Like we used to say derisevly in the Corps when somebody made a similar poor decision: "good initiative, poor judgement".

 

[Phaedrus]

Couple fo follow-up pieces, both from Reuters/Yahoo! News:

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Chalabi Raid Marks U.S. Favorite's Fall from Grace

By Arshad Mohammed

WASHINGTON -- The raid on Ahmad Chalabi's headquarters in Baghdad on Thursday marks an ignominious fall for a man who helped make the U.S. case to topple Saddam Hussein but was seen as a duplicitous opportunist by U.S. diplomats and spies.

Chalabi was a guest of first lady Laura Bush four months ago at the State of the Union speech, Washington's premier political event, and a favorite of the Pentagon, which paid his Iraqi National Congress $340,000 a month for intelligence.

U.S. officials said this week they had cut off this funding, and U.S. forces and Iraqi police raided Chalabi's Baghdad home and party offices, seizing computers and files from the man once seen by the Pentagon as a potential post-Saddam leader.

U.S. officials said the raid was to gather evidence of suspected "corruption" by INC members and Chalabi was not a target. An Iraqi judge, Hassan Muathin, said it was carried out under an arrest warrant for men wanted for stealing vehicles.

But analysts said the raid seemed a political act against a man who fell from U.S. favor because of incendiary statements about allowing Baathists back into government, a long history of providing dubious intelligence, contacts with Iran that spooked Washington and a belief he was simply out for himself.
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Chalabi's INC Received at Least $33 Million -Report

By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent

WASHINGTON -- The United States paid Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress at least $33 million since March 2000, according to a congressional report made public on Thursday.

The report by the Government Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, found $33 million in funds from the State Department and did not include any funds from the Pentagon or other U.S. agencies, a congressional source told Reuters.

Chalabi, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, was once hailed by many in the Bush administration as the likely next leader of a post-Saddam Iraq.

But he has taken a fall after increasingly clashing with Washington on issues like how much power would be handed over to Iraqis when the country regains sovereignty on July 1.

U.S. officials this week said the Pentagon stopped funding the INC -- it had been giving roughly $340,000 a month -- with the final payment in May. On Thursday, U.S. troops and Iraqi police raided Chalabi's home in Baghdad and the INC offices.

The GAO report chronicles the complex and difficult relationship from March 2000 to September 2003 between the INC and State, which like the CIA, has been deeply skeptical of Chalabi and his intentions.
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One day, in some far-off futuristic world where people act like they have sense, American politicians will stop propping up and engaging the most corrupt and evil people they can. I realise that it doesn't help that honest, hard-working, productive people do not wish to take over other countries, so it is a bit of a conundrum for the State Department et al.[/] to pick and choose their pigeons.


Still. A man can dream.


Phaedrus

 

[PatPatriot]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>How anyone could have bought this guy's line is beyond me (as I mentioned here, over a year ago) but apparently the U.S. is now finally figuring out that you don't put people found guilty of $340 million worth of bank fraud who then leave the country to escape incarceration, in charge of the money.
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Sounds like the Rich pardon.