Chalabigate
"Weapons of Mass Deception"
2005-11-07
Top Secret: Status Of Chalabi Inquiry
Few Signs of Progress Emerge in FBI Case
Involving a Possible Leak of U.S. Intelligence
By SCOT J. PALTROW
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
As Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi arrives this week in Washington for talks, there is little sign of progress in a federal investigation of allegations that he once leaked U.S. intelligence secrets to Iran.
More than 17 months after then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice publicly promised a full criminal inquiry, the Federal Bureau of Investigation hasn't interviewed Mr. Chalabi himself or many current and former U.S. government officials thought likely to have information related to the matter, according to lawyers for several of these individuals and others close to the case.
The investigation of Mr. Chalabi, who had been a confidant of senior Defense Department officials before the war in Iraq, remains in the hands of the FBI, with little active interest from local federal prosecutors or the Justice Department, these people said. There also has been no grand-jury involvement in the case.
The investigation centers on allegations that one or more U.S. officials in early 2004 leaked intelligence to Mr. Chalabi, including the fact that the U.S. had broken a crucial Iranian code, and that Mr. Chalabi in turn had passed the information to the Baghdad station chief of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The assertions about Mr. Chalabi's involvement came after U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted a cable from the station chief back home to Iran, detailing what the chief claimed was a conversation with Mr. Chalabi about the broken code.
Former intelligence officials said such a leak could have caused serious damage to U.S. national security. The broken code had enabled U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor covert cable traffic among Iranian operatives around the world. The encrypted cable traffic was a main source of information on Iranian operations inside Iraq. The leak also threatened U.S. efforts to monitor any Iranian steps to develop nuclear weapons. And there was concern that the disclosure could prompt other countries to upgrade their encryption, making it more difficult for the U.S. to spy on them.
Mr. Chalabi has strongly denied the allegations. He once was a close Bush administration ally and a key proponent of the Iraqi invasion, though he has more recently appeared to fall from American favor. Before the war, during his long period as a prominent Iraqi exile, he also cultivated close ties to the government in Iran, which was his ally in opposing former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Just this weekend, Mr. Chalabi made a trip to Tehran to visit Iranian government leaders.
The handling of the Chalabi investigation so far stands in contrast to the aggressive inquiry conducted by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald into the leaking of intelligence agent Valerie Plame's name, which led to the indictment of I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff.
Questions about the progress of the Chalabi investigation also follow the FBI's disclosure last week that it had closed an investigation into forged documents purporting to show Iraq had sought uranium ore from Niger. The Niger claim set off an intense intelligence debate, which was at the center of the leaking of the intelligence agent's identity.
Whitley Bruner, a former longtime undercover Central Intelligence Agency official in the Middle East who has followed Mr. Chalabi's career closely since 1991, said that, in contrast to Mr. Fitzgerald's investigation, the zChalabi leak inquiry "just sort of disappeared."
FBI spokesman John Miller strongly denied that the Chalabi investigation has languished. "This is currently an open investigation and an active investigation," he said, adding that "numerous current and former government employees have been interviewed."
Mr. Miller said that, because the investigation is an active one, he couldn't discuss specific individuals nor comment on how the inquiry is being conducted. A Justice Deptartment spokesman declined to comment.
Mr. Chalabi's lawyer, Boston attorney John J.E. Markham II, said neither the FBI nor Justice Department ever responded to an offer to have Mr. Chalabi come to Washington to answer law-enforcement questions and aid in the investigation. Mr. Markham made available a copy of a letter he said he had sent on June 2, 2004, to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller. It categorically denied that Mr. Chalabi had leaked any U.S. intelligence. And it stated "Dr. Chalabi is willing and ready to come to Washington, D.C. to be interviewed fully by law-enforcement agents on this subject and to answer all questions on this subject fully and without reservation."
Mr. Markham, a former federal prosecutor, said that, ordinarily in a leak investigation, "the first thing you would do would be to get the tippee," the person to whom the information was leaked, "in there and say 'Who talked to you?' " But, he said, "That never happened."
The FBI's Mr. Miller said he wouldn't comment on Mr. Chalabi but said the FBI , in general, interviews witnesses when an investigation indicates it is best to do so, not necessarily at the beginning of an inquiry. He added, "The fact that this person or that person has or hasn't been interviewed yet is just not material to whether there's an active investigation."
One likely focus of FBI inquiries would be a small group of people in the Pentagon and White House who had frequent contact with Mr. Chalabi and also probably knew the closely guarded secret of the broken code. Interviews indicate that many of these individuals haven't been questioned by the FBI.
Among the officials with whom Mr. Chalabi at one time had close ties, for instance, was Douglas J. Feith, who until earlier this year was an undersecretary of defense and headed the Pentagon's powerful office of policy and planning. In an interview, Mr. Feith said he has never been questioned by the FBI or federal prosecutors in connection with the investigation and that if others had been, he was unaware of it.
Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said in an emailed response to questions that he had no knowledge of the FBI or federal prosecutors having questioned current or former Defense Department officials. "I don't know anything about a [Department of Justice] investigation in this matter," Mr. Di Rita said.
Mr. Chalabi had been considered a trusted ally by influential figures within the administration, but last spring those ties appeared to have ruptured. On May 20 of last year, Iraqi police backed by U.S. troops raided Mr. Chalabi's headquarters, searching for evidence of corruption and leaked American intelligence.
Since then, however, the Bush administration has become more open to dealing with Mr. Chalabi again, spurred on by his rise in the current Iraqi government, the possibility that he might become prime minister and his current control over, among other things, Iraqi oil production.
Mr. Chalabi's visit to Washington this week is his first since the leak allegations. He is scheduled to meet with Treasury Secretary John Snow and with Ms. Rice, now secretary of state. He also is to give a speech to the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
Senate Democrats have been pressing for an investigation into the role Mr. Chalabi played in drumming up support for a war to depose Mr. Hussein. They also are critical of Mr. Chalabi because of alleged corruption; in 1992, he was convicted in absentia by a Jordanian court of having embezzled $288 million from a bank at which he was managing director. He has strongly denied the corruption allegations.
Spokesmen for both Mr. Snow and Ms. Rice said they were meeting with Mr. Chalabi, despite past events, because he is a powerful government figure in Iraq. State Department Iraq adviser James Jeffery said Mr. Chalabi "is deputy prime minister of a critically important country at a critically important time, he was democratically elected, and it's on that basis that we see him."
Write to Scot J. Paltrow at scot.paltrow@wsj.com
Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reprinted for fair use educational purposes only.
This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Involving a Possible Leak of U.S. Intelligence
By SCOT J. PALTROW
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
As Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi arrives this week in Washington for talks, there is little sign of progress in a federal investigation of allegations that he once leaked U.S. intelligence secrets to Iran.
More than 17 months after then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice publicly promised a full criminal inquiry, the Federal Bureau of Investigation hasn't interviewed Mr. Chalabi himself or many current and former U.S. government officials thought likely to have information related to the matter, according to lawyers for several of these individuals and others close to the case.
The investigation of Mr. Chalabi, who had been a confidant of senior Defense Department officials before the war in Iraq, remains in the hands of the FBI, with little active interest from local federal prosecutors or the Justice Department, these people said. There also has been no grand-jury involvement in the case.
The investigation centers on allegations that one or more U.S. officials in early 2004 leaked intelligence to Mr. Chalabi, including the fact that the U.S. had broken a crucial Iranian code, and that Mr. Chalabi in turn had passed the information to the Baghdad station chief of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The assertions about Mr. Chalabi's involvement came after U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted a cable from the station chief back home to Iran, detailing what the chief claimed was a conversation with Mr. Chalabi about the broken code.
Former intelligence officials said such a leak could have caused serious damage to U.S. national security. The broken code had enabled U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor covert cable traffic among Iranian operatives around the world. The encrypted cable traffic was a main source of information on Iranian operations inside Iraq. The leak also threatened U.S. efforts to monitor any Iranian steps to develop nuclear weapons. And there was concern that the disclosure could prompt other countries to upgrade their encryption, making it more difficult for the U.S. to spy on them.
Mr. Chalabi has strongly denied the allegations. He once was a close Bush administration ally and a key proponent of the Iraqi invasion, though he has more recently appeared to fall from American favor. Before the war, during his long period as a prominent Iraqi exile, he also cultivated close ties to the government in Iran, which was his ally in opposing former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Just this weekend, Mr. Chalabi made a trip to Tehran to visit Iranian government leaders.
The handling of the Chalabi investigation so far stands in contrast to the aggressive inquiry conducted by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald into the leaking of intelligence agent Valerie Plame's name, which led to the indictment of I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff.
Questions about the progress of the Chalabi investigation also follow the FBI's disclosure last week that it had closed an investigation into forged documents purporting to show Iraq had sought uranium ore from Niger. The Niger claim set off an intense intelligence debate, which was at the center of the leaking of the intelligence agent's identity.
Whitley Bruner, a former longtime undercover Central Intelligence Agency official in the Middle East who has followed Mr. Chalabi's career closely since 1991, said that, in contrast to Mr. Fitzgerald's investigation, the zChalabi leak inquiry "just sort of disappeared."
FBI spokesman John Miller strongly denied that the Chalabi investigation has languished. "This is currently an open investigation and an active investigation," he said, adding that "numerous current and former government employees have been interviewed."
Mr. Miller said that, because the investigation is an active one, he couldn't discuss specific individuals nor comment on how the inquiry is being conducted. A Justice Deptartment spokesman declined to comment.
Mr. Chalabi's lawyer, Boston attorney John J.E. Markham II, said neither the FBI nor Justice Department ever responded to an offer to have Mr. Chalabi come to Washington to answer law-enforcement questions and aid in the investigation. Mr. Markham made available a copy of a letter he said he had sent on June 2, 2004, to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller. It categorically denied that Mr. Chalabi had leaked any U.S. intelligence. And it stated "Dr. Chalabi is willing and ready to come to Washington, D.C. to be interviewed fully by law-enforcement agents on this subject and to answer all questions on this subject fully and without reservation."
Mr. Markham, a former federal prosecutor, said that, ordinarily in a leak investigation, "the first thing you would do would be to get the tippee," the person to whom the information was leaked, "in there and say 'Who talked to you?' " But, he said, "That never happened."
The FBI's Mr. Miller said he wouldn't comment on Mr. Chalabi but said the FBI , in general, interviews witnesses when an investigation indicates it is best to do so, not necessarily at the beginning of an inquiry. He added, "The fact that this person or that person has or hasn't been interviewed yet is just not material to whether there's an active investigation."
One likely focus of FBI inquiries would be a small group of people in the Pentagon and White House who had frequent contact with Mr. Chalabi and also probably knew the closely guarded secret of the broken code. Interviews indicate that many of these individuals haven't been questioned by the FBI.
Among the officials with whom Mr. Chalabi at one time had close ties, for instance, was Douglas J. Feith, who until earlier this year was an undersecretary of defense and headed the Pentagon's powerful office of policy and planning. In an interview, Mr. Feith said he has never been questioned by the FBI or federal prosecutors in connection with the investigation and that if others had been, he was unaware of it.
Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said in an emailed response to questions that he had no knowledge of the FBI or federal prosecutors having questioned current or former Defense Department officials. "I don't know anything about a [Department of Justice] investigation in this matter," Mr. Di Rita said.
Mr. Chalabi had been considered a trusted ally by influential figures within the administration, but last spring those ties appeared to have ruptured. On May 20 of last year, Iraqi police backed by U.S. troops raided Mr. Chalabi's headquarters, searching for evidence of corruption and leaked American intelligence.
Since then, however, the Bush administration has become more open to dealing with Mr. Chalabi again, spurred on by his rise in the current Iraqi government, the possibility that he might become prime minister and his current control over, among other things, Iraqi oil production.
Mr. Chalabi's visit to Washington this week is his first since the leak allegations. He is scheduled to meet with Treasury Secretary John Snow and with Ms. Rice, now secretary of state. He also is to give a speech to the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
Senate Democrats have been pressing for an investigation into the role Mr. Chalabi played in drumming up support for a war to depose Mr. Hussein. They also are critical of Mr. Chalabi because of alleged corruption; in 1992, he was convicted in absentia by a Jordanian court of having embezzled $288 million from a bank at which he was managing director. He has strongly denied the corruption allegations.
Spokesmen for both Mr. Snow and Ms. Rice said they were meeting with Mr. Chalabi, despite past events, because he is a powerful government figure in Iraq. State Department Iraq adviser James Jeffery said Mr. Chalabi "is deputy prime minister of a critically important country at a critically important time, he was democratically elected, and it's on that basis that we see him."
Write to Scot J. Paltrow at scot.paltrow@wsj.com
Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reprinted for fair use educational purposes only.
This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Milton Frihetsson, 12:38
