60 Minutes Interview with Ahmed Chalabi

60 Minutes | 3/07/04 | Leslie Stahl

[MichaelMooronic]

Iraq asset document listing Osama bin Laden

[MichaelMooronic]

Sorry if this has already been posted, but what is this supposed document listing Iraqi assets that contains Osama bin Laden? Leslie stated it is authentic and then stated that the document did not describe what the relationship was or something to that effect. Was this part of Hussein's and Laden's humanitarian outreach initiative?

[rhombus]

More details please?

[pitinkie]

From CBS..

“There are connections to al Qaeda. There are documents. There are documents linking Osama bin Laden to Saddam Hussein's intelligence service. They exist. And they are in the hands of the United States government,” says Chalabi, who showed 60 Minutes one of the documents.

One document, which Chalabi says is noted “Top Secret,” is dated on March 28, 1992. Chalabi says it’s a document written by Iraq’s secret intelligence service, the Mukhabarat, listing scores of its agents in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

“On Page 14 of this document it says here, ‘The Saudi Osama bin Laden,’" says Chalabi. “Agents whom they have re-contacted by 1992 ... this is his name.”

“How so you know it's an authentic document? How do you know it's real,” asked Stahl. “The people who initialed the document before it goes on: one, two three, four signatures. We know who these people are. It's very difficult for anyone to forge the document,” says Chalabi. “You check it. You have the piece of paper in your hand. You check it.”

---

60 Minutes checked it out with the defense intelligence agency, which believes the document is authentic – but of little significance. Why? It doesn’t spell out what the relationship with Osama bin Laden was, or what he did, if anything, for the Iraqis.

[MichaelMooronic]

Leslie was pressing Chalabi about his claims being discredited (bioweapons lab particularly although the reporting by Stahl was lame at best) and then asked about AQ - Iraq links. Chalabi pulled out a document from the Iraqi intelligence services supposedly listing known Iraq assets and OBL was listed in the Saudi section. The document was from 1992.

[McGavin999]

I think the Bush administration has all kinds of proof of all kinds of things. They're waiting to release it until they have most of these creeps rounded up.

[laconic]

I didn't see the need for the Iraq war, but I also get irritated at the one-sided coverage of it. The purported "former" CIA analyst they interviewed now works at the Haim Saban Institute on the Mideast (he certainly did not look like he'd been very senior at the agency and who knows what he really did, perhaps the waterboy). And as I recall, Haim Saban is a huge contributor to the Clintons and the Democratic Party. Did anyone hear a disclaimer from 60 Minutes?

[GeronL]

Chalabi will become the most listened talk radio show host in Iraq. With one Koran tied behind his back and with talent on consignment from Allah...

[Lessismore]

“On Page 14 of this document it says here, ‘The Saudi Osama bin Laden,’" says Chalabi. “Agents whom they have re-contacted by 1992 ... this is his name.”

In 1992, was Osama Bin Laden still a CIA asset?

[pitinkie]

I dont know about that.

[Jabba the Nutt]

Less, everyone has the right to their own opinion, but no one has a right to his own facts. Get your facts straight, Osama Bin Laden was never a CIA asset. If you have proof otherwise, spill the falafel.

[Valin]

One document, which Chalabi says is noted “Top Secret,” is dated on March 28, 1992. Chalabi says it’s a document written by Iraq’s secret intelligence service, the Mukhabarat, listing scores of its agents in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

“On Page 14 of this document it says here, ‘The Saudi Osama bin Laden,’" says Chalabi. “Agents whom they have re-contacted by 1992 ... this is his name.”

Bin Laden never recieved any funding from thr CIA. (if that's what you were referring to).

[Eagle of Liberty]

The name of that analyst is Ken Pollack. Pollack works for Saban Center for Middle East Policy and as a CNN Analyst. The Saban Center for Middle East Policy is run through the Brookings Institution. You will never guess who is on the Brookings Institution Board of Active Trustees, Teresa Heinz among others. What a crock of Media Bias!!