Posted on 05/23/2004 5:35:38 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
Edited on 05/23/2004 5:56:00 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran acknowledged Sunday it had a strong dialogue with embattled Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, but rejected accusations that he passed classified intelligence to Iran.
Chalabi's long-standing contacts with Iran have left some in the U.S. government suspicious about his intentions. Chalabi has denied allegations he handed over sensitive information to Iran about the U.S. occupation.
His home and offices were raided by Iraqi police backed by American soldiers on Friday, and Chalabi is now mbroiled in a public battle with the U.S.-run occupation authority. He has become a harsh critic of Washington's Iraq policies.
"We had continuous and permanent dialogue with Chalabi and other members of the Iraqi Governing Council," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said at a press conference. "But spying charges are unfounded and baseless. It's not true at all."
"We didn't receive any confidential information from Chalabi or any other member of the Iraqi Governing Council," Asefi said.
American allegations against Chalabi, he said, were an attempt to shift attention from the scandal surrounding the abuse of Iraqi prisoners and Washington's increasing problems in Iraq.
"To overshadow its increasing problems in Iraq and get rid of pressures resulting from the prisoner abuse scandal ... the U.S. is making false accusations," Asefi said.
"In the past months, Americans have said many lies and failed to come up with evidence for their allegations," he said, apparently referring to U.S. accusations that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction, a charge Washington failed to prove.
Asefi also said that Iran has sent a "warning" message to the United States through the Swiss Embassy concerning Washington's actions in Iraq. In the absence of formal diplomatic relations between the two countries, Switzerland looks after American interests in Iran.
"The message is one of warning," Asefi said without providing any details. He was responding to a question about whether Iran had sent a message to the United States to protest its policy in neighboring Iraq including damage to Shiite holy shrines there.
Chalabi once was being groomed by the United States as a possible successor to Saddam. However, the U.S. State Department did not share the Pentagon's enthusiasm for him, and Chalabi became a liability after no significant weapons of mass destruction were found in post-war Iraq.
Such weapons were cited by the United States and Britain as the primary justification for the Iraq war, and Chalabi's network of Iraqi exiles in the Iraqi National Congress had provided the Bush administration intelligence reports of their existence.
On Saturday, a senior Iraqi official alleged that Chalabi's security chief, Araz Habib, was wanted by Iraqi and coalition authorities for alleged links to Iran's intelligence service.
Habib, a Shiite Kurd, was being sought under an arrest warrant because "he has relations with the Iranian government" and "works for the Iranian intelligence," the official said in Baghdad on condition of anonymity. Chalabi has defended his aide.
Iran maintains close ties with a variety of Iraqi groups, including Iraq's largest Shiite Muslim group, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq, and the two powerful Kurdish groups controlling northern Iraq, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
All three groups, whose leaders sit in the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, have offices in Tehran. Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress is believed to have had an office in Tehran until last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.tbo.com ...
Be sure to go to the link for more info.
We have to excerpt from this source.
The lack of formatting is due to FR's auto excerpt program.
Looks like the Iraq/Iran/Insurgent triad has been broken up.
One of the "former U.S. intelligence officials" who frequently feeds the media with false allegations about Chalabi actually has a name. He is Pat Lang, a former DIA Middle East analyst, who sometimes appears on air as a CBS News consultant Lang is also a man linked to Lyndon LaRouche's Organization.
As far as Iran, who'd believe any of their denials?
And I was gonna rail on you too. :)
We like paragraphs, so.....
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran acknowledged Sunday it had a strong dialogue with embattled Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, but rejected accusations that he passed classified intelligence to Iran.
Chalabi's long-standing contacts with Iran have left some in the U.S. government suspicious about his intentions. Chalabi has denied allegations he handed over sensitive information to Iran about the U.S. occupation.
His home and offices were raided by Iraqi police backed by American soldiers on Friday, and Chalabi is now mbroiled in a public battle with the U.S.-run occupation authority. He has become a harsh critic of Washington's Iraq policies.
It appears that these allegations are not false.
• Chalabi responds May 20: Ahmad Chalabi, speaking at a Baghdad news conference, discusses the raid on his residence and Iraqi National Congress offices.
"We didn't receive any confidential information from Chalabi or any other member of the Iraqi Governing Council," Asefi said.
American allegations against Chalabi, he said, were an attempt to shift attention from the scandal surrounding the abuse of Iraqi prisoners and Washington's increasing problems in Iraq.
"To overshadow its increasing problems in Iraq and get rid of pressures resulting from the prisoner abuse scandal ... the U.S. is making false accusations," Asefi said.
"In the past months, Americans have said many lies and failed to come up with evidence for their allegations," he said, apparently referring to U.S. accusations that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction, a charge Washington failed to prove.
I like paragraphs too. However, I'm not willing to argue with FR's auto excerpting program.
Hopefully others like you will post a few paragraphs along the way.
I don't have a link and have asked the freeper who posted this to provide one.
From WorldNetDaily.com:
One of the "former U.S. intelligence officials" who frequently feeds the media with false allegations about Chalabi actually has a name. He is Pat Lang, a former DIA Middle East analyst, who sometimes appears on air as a CBS News consultant.
Lang was quoted by Washington Post reporter Robin Wright in her front-page story on the raids that appeared yesterday, disparaging the intelligence Chalabi's group had provided the United States before the war.
"Now it's demonstrable that [Chalabi] told the U.S. government a lot of things that were not true," Lang said.
In citing Lang as an expert on Iraq, neither CBS nor the Washington Post ever has mentioned that Lang has registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for an Arab government.
"How can somebody working for an Arab government parade about as a neutral analyst?" asks Rubin.
Chalabi never has denied his many visits to Iran or his meeting with high-level Iranian government officials. Before the U.S.-led invasion, Chalabi and top INC officials had to travel through Iran to reach Iraq because Turkey had closed its borders to INC operatives.
"Actually, if truth be told, I think Ahmed has actually used the Iranians for our benefit," a key Chalabi supporter tells Insight.
Chalabi appears to have been instrumental in getting the Iranian government to drop its support for radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, several sources say.
Now who can argue with that :)
Case closed.
Iran since they bought out Jimmy Carter two decades ago has been at the bottom or top of most Islamofascist violence in the middle east and probably the world.
The mass murdering mullahs of Iran need a severe regime change like the top 200 suddenly stop wasting oxygen.
Interesting stuff for your Free Iran ping list.
Oh well then, I guess that's that. I'm sure they wouldn't lie about it. Afterall, the Iranians are every bit as trustworthy as the Iraqis.
The mass murdering Mullahs in Control of Iran should be the poster boys for World Champion Liars.
when did we start having to excerpt AP stories?
I believe Iran as much as I believe x42.
Great comparison.
Because it is an MSNBC/AP story. I didn't know that until I tried to post the whole story.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.