Chalabi betrayed US code-breaking success

[winterbadger]

from the BBC

A former ally of the US in Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi, told Iran that Washington had cracked codes used by Tehran's spy network, US media reports say.

(snip)

Mr Chalabi was once seen by the White House as a possible Iraqi leader, but the relationship has soured badly.

One can understand why.

Comments

Curiouser and Curiouser

[robbysmom.livejournal.com]

yes, and the New York Times print edition says they knew this information last week, but were asked to hold onto it until now(ish). Online, it;s front page, too, here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/02/politics/02CHAL.html?hp

WaPo cites the Times in its online article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8464-2004Jun2.html


Also, the online edition has this, implicating Chalabi (not for the first time) in some "bad intelligence":

"Mr. Powell's assertion about the mobile labs was one of the most dramatic elements of his presentation to the United Nations, which was intended to make public the Bush administration's best case for invading Iraq. For days before this speech, Mr. Powell sat in a conference room at the C.I.A., examining the sources of information for each accusation that he planned to make."

"But intelligence officials now say that serious doubts have arisen about the three other sources as well. Curveball had provided his information to German intelligence officials and may have been a relative of an aide to Mr. Chalabi, according to American intelligence officials. That source, described in the C.I.A. white paper as having provided "the majority of our information on Iraq's mobile program," was never interviewed by American intelligence officials before the war, an American government official said Tuesday, and the German government had developed doubts about his information last May. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/02/politics/02inte.html?pagewanted=2