Lover's spat

[Supreme_Warlord]

Original article here

U.S. Troops Raid Chalabi's House in Iraq

Thursday May 20, 2004 3:01 PM

By HAMZA HENDAWI

Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police raided the residence of Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi on Thursday, and aides accused the Americans of holding guns to his head and bullying him over his criticism of plans for next month's transfer of sovereignty.

There was no comment from U.S. authorities, but American officials here have complained privately that Chalabi - a longtime Pentagon favorite - is interfering with a U.S. investigation into allegations that Saddam Hussein's regime skimmed millions in oil revenues during the U.N.-run oil-for-food program.

A Chalabi aide, Haidar Musawi, accused the Americans of trying to pressure Chalabi, who has become openly critical of U.S. plans for how much power to transfer to the Iraqis on June 30.

``The aim is to put political pressure,'' Musawi told The Associated Press. ``Why is this happening at a time when the government is being formed?''

He said the Americans also raided other offices of Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress.

Salem Chalabi, nephew of Ahmad Chalabi and head of the Iraqi war crimes tribunal, said his uncle told him by telephone that Iraqi and American authorities ``entered his home and put the guns to his head in a very humiliating way that reminds everyone of the conduct of the former regime.''

The younger Chalabi said the reason for the raid was unclear but ``they must be afraid of his political movement.''

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. Aides said documents and computers were seized without warrants.

Musawi said the U.S.-Iraqi force surrounded the residence about 10:30 a.m. while Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council was inside. They told Chalabi's aides that they wanted to search the house for Iraqi National Congress officials wanted by the authorities.

The aides agreed to let one unarmed Iraqi policeman inside to look around.

``The Iraqi police were very embarrassed and said that they (the Americans) ordered them to come and that they didn't know it was Chalabi's house,'' Musawi said. ``The INC is ready to have any impartial and judicial body investigate any accusation against it. There are American parties who have a list of Iraqi personalities that they want arrested to put pressure on the Iraqi political force.''

Abdul Kareem Abbas, an INC official, said Chalabi's entourage objected to the raid but ``we couldn't because they came with U.S. troops.''

``They came this morning, entered the office of Dr. Ahmad Chalabi and said that they were looking for people,'' said Abbas. He said they wanted to make arrests.

Another official, Qaisar Wotwot, said the operation was linked to Chalabi's recent comments demanding full Iraqi control of oil revenues and security after the June 30 transfer of power.

``It's a provocative operation, designed to force Dr. Chalabi to change his political stance,'' he said.

For years, Chalabi's INC had received hundreds of thousands of dollars every month from the Pentagon, in part for intelligence passed along by exiles about Saddam's purported weapons of mass destruction.

Chalabi has come under criticism since large stockpiles of such weapons were never found. Chalabi, a former banker and longtime Iraqi exile, was convicted of fraud in absentia in Jordan in 1992 in a banking scandal and sentenced to 22 years in jail. He has repeatedly denied the charges.

Chalabi has complained recently about U.S. plans to retain control of Iraqi security forces and maintain widespread influence over political institutions after power is transferred from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority to an Iraqi interim administration at the end of June.

Musawi said Chalabi ``had been clear on rejecting incomplete sovereignty ... and against having the security portfolio remain in the hands of those who have proved their failure.''

However, U.S. and coalition officials have recently accused him of undermining the investigation into the oil-for-food program. The U.S.-backed investigation has collected more than 20,000 files from Saddam's old regime and hired an American accounting firm Ernst & Young to conduct the review.

Chalabi has launched his own investigation, saying an independent probe will have more credibility. Chalabi took an early lead in exposing alleged abuses of the oil-for-food program and has been trying to force the coalition to give him the $5 million in Iraqi funds set aside for the probe to pay for his effort. The move was strongly resisted by the U.S. governor of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer.

Chalabi's backers have hired a different firm, KPMG, to do its audit, but they want Bremer's administration to pay the bill from the Iraqi funds it controls. The money comes from a fund of mostly seized Saddam assets and Iraqi oil sales.

The United Nations is conducting a third investigation led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.

I guess the neocons' preferred gigolo is no longer pleasuring and satisfying them.

[Aaron]

Nice to see that the USA is still employing their Saddamesque tactics. If they really want the Iraqi's to see them as liberators they've got to start doing things with warrents and due process.

[MKSheppard]

Erm........

Updated: 5:58 p.m. ET May 20, 2004

May 20 - The raid came as a shock to many: U.S. soldiers breaking into the home and offices of Ahmad Chalabi, the exile whom Pentagon hawks once saw as Iraq’s future leader. Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress promptly put its spin machine into overdrive. This was all about politics, the INC said—the souring of Chalabi’s reputation in Washington and his resistance to a United Nations-led plan for Iraqi sovereignty that would cut out the Iraq Governing Council, of which Chalabi is a member. "It's a provocative operation, designed to force Dr. Chalabi to change his political stance," fumed Chalabi aide Qaisar Wotwot.

In fact, sources close to the investigation tell NEWSWEEK that Thursday’s raid stems from a long-running probe by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq into financial corruption and criminal charges linked to the INC and its alleged efforts to profit illegally from Iraq’s reconstruction. Among the documents police were searching for relate to charges that INC officials profited from the introduction of a new currency. According to an official with the Coalition Provisional Authority, an INC-affiliated company was placed in charge of destroying the old currency, but “a lot of money was coming out again into circulation instead of being burned. Some of it had signs of partial burning.” The currency handover was supposed to be a one-to-one exchange, he said, “but we got a lot less in old money then we gave out.”

Among the felony counts already filed are theft of government property, theft of government money, misrepresentation and abuse of power, he said. Some of the other charges are connected to the INC’s seizure of government-owned homes and cars, especially through the group’s effective control of the Ministry of Finance, the CPA official said.

The CCCI is also investigating whether INC officials, including Chalabi and his intelligence chief, Aras Habib, misused the Baath Party files they seized upon being helped into Iraq early by the U.S. military. Chalabi ultimately became head of the De-Baathification Committee, and U.S. officials believe that some Iraqis have been threatened with blackmail by being identified as Baath Party members if they declined to do the INC’s bidding, the CPA official said. “Just recently we learned of a situation where a senior official in the Ministry of Science and Technology refused to sign off on a contract brought in by the INC. He felt it was overpriced or that there was something else wrong with it. Because he refused, the minister and the De-Baathification Committee included his name on the list [of Baath Party] members, and they sent a letter saying you’re a Baathist and you’ll be eliminated.” The official also said about 1 billion dinars allocated for de-Baathification has mysteriously disappeared.

While the investigation is largely Iraqi-run, the CPA official admitted that the Iraqis until now have lacked the enforcement capacity: in fact, a warrant for Habib’s arrest was issued more than two weeks ago, he said. “But the Iraqi police were scared to go after such a high-profile target,” he told NEWSWEEK. Only U.S. troops could bring it off. As a result, the timing of the raid may have been politically motivated. CPA administrator L. Paul Bremer III is said to have grown increasingly disgusted with Chalabi’s behavior in recent months, officials said. And Bremer is keen to distance the CPA from Chalabi before the June 30 handover. “This is a wakeup call to the INC that you’re not above the law,” said one U.S. official. It may also signal the beginning of the end for Ahmad Chalabi."

© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.

[MKSheppard]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5024660/site/newsweek/

Link there