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CHALABI PROFILE: Ahmed Chalabi is the neocon-connected head of the Iraqi exiles who provided much of the information for US intelligence that is now considered to be bogus, and has recently come close to acknowledging that he had provided disinformation — but, Chalabi says that the "ends justified the means" (a universally discredited utilitarian rationale)

Chalabi is (or was) a member of the new Iraqi provisional council and is (or was) poised to be a major player in the new Iraq.

Chalabai now says his information about Saddam Hussein's weapons -- even if discredited -- achieved the aim of persuading the United States to topple the dictator.

Chalabi and his London-based exile group, the Iraqi National Congress, for years provided a conduit for Iraqi defectors who were debriefed by U.S. intelligence agents.

Now many American officials blame Chalabi for providing what turned out to be self-serving, false, or wildly exaggerated intelligence, about Iraq's WMD.

During an interview late Feb, Mr. Chalabi, who is also considered one of the most effective anti-Saddam lobbyists in Washington, shrugged off charges that he had deliberately misled U.S. intelligence.

"We are heroes in error," he said in Baghdad. "As far as we're concerned, we've been entirely successful." Apparently Chalabi's achieved his goals.

Chalabi was interviewd by Leslie Stahl on CBS' 60 Minutes several weeks ago where it was revealed that the US was still paying Chalabi $300,000 per month. No word on how this cash cow is divided up among the "interested" parties.

Self-interested Chalabi and his Iraqi exiles were capable of presenting any kind of disinformation in order to get their chief enemy Saddam removed — to enable them to cash in as the new ruling elite of Iraq.

There was, in some US quarters, skepticism about information from a group like Chalabi's with a cash-and-carry interest in toppling Saddam's regime.

""Rushing to judgment and cutting off this relationship could have unintended consequences," one Pentagon official said."

"But the CIA and State Department are pushing the claim that Chalabi is playing a double game with Iran's fundamentalist ayatollahs, Newsweek said."

I do not dispute "Chalabi" may very well have character flaws. HOwever, any finger pointing that comes from the State Department after they did nothing to put an end to that UN "Oil for rotten Food" program scam, hardly gives them credibility to have a say about "Chalabi".