More pushback? Maybe. Or maybe just the perspective of someone who believed the CIA would do well to meet with some Iranian spooks as well. This from Reuel Gerecht, a former Middle East expert at the agency, now at AEI and a frequent contributor to the Weekly Standard. He's reacting to an email I sent him asking about the allegations by US intelligence officials in the CBS report I mention below, that Chalabi met with a "nefarious" character from the "dark side" of Iran's intelligence service, an individual who is known to plot operations against the United States, and never reported it to his US contacts.

Laura, This info all sounds deeply, deeply dubioius. The specifics of an Iranian intel meeting with Chalabi are, however, likely. The Iranian [Chief of Station] COS in Baghdad I think met with Chalabi on occasion--and he certainly met other Iranians on a regular basis--as do MANY Iraqis, including such folks as Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim of SCIRI and Ibrahim Jafari of the Da'wa, on whom the CPA has often been dependent for communication with Sistani. And last I checked, Chalabi is not an employee of the USG and therefore not required to run to Mr. Bremer or the CIA COS in Baghdad and say, "I just met an Iranian." If he were not meeting with a whole variety of Iranians--especially the "dark force" guys in Intel and the Guards Corps, he would be an idiot, and certainly not the type of fellow you would want on the Governing Council. Best, Reuel >>

Was Chalabi required to tell his American sponsors about his meetings with Iranian intelligence officials? Does it just look bad that he met with a particularly nasty sort and kept it from his administration friends? Does it look especially not good combined with the fact of the INC until recently getting $340,00 a month from the Pentagon to provide intelligence to the DIA, and his intelligence chief Aras Habib Karim apparently going on the lam to Iran? After passing off some apparently very limited distribution US intelligence to someone in Tehran?

I hope we understand the real story soon enough.

Meantime, the Prospect's Matt Yglesias chronicles the ties between Chalabi and certain administration officials, one of whom recently told Newsweek magazine he was never really that close with Chalabi:

The press stories would have him as my brother. I met him a few times. He was very smart, very articulate.

Ahmad who?

Posted by Laura at May 25, 2004 05:11 PM