-----Original Message-----
From: Luke Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2004 4:45 PM
To: Subject: chalabi


"Chalabi said the CIA knew defectors can be biased and that even the press was saying "'defectors have an ax to grind, don't believe them."'
"Now you're telling me that despite all this public evidence, the United States government took our word without checking out the people?" Chalabi said incredulously ."

i cant work out what is going on with chalabi. it was only last week he was bragging about being a 'hero in error' for misleading the ciaq, and now he is taunting them, complaining that "he is tired of being blamed" - calling them stoopid and gullible & says "I want to be asked to testify in the United States Senate in the Intelligence Committee." - and he gets a slot on the sunday teeve to make his point, with the detail leaked days in advance... an interested observer mite ask why chalabi is giving interviews at a time when it mite be considered that he shuold be focussing his energy on getting the constitution signed... (i wonder where the interview was conducted)

we also had that situation a while back where 43 met with the king of jordan but hadnt been briefed that chalabi was wanted in jordan for crimes that would make martha blush - at best it was an egregious error, but somehow seemed too weird to be an accident. of course, gwb shoulda known in advance that chalabi was a crim anyways, but at an absolute minimum it shoulda been in his breifing notes for the meeting - its difficult to imagine how this was omitted accidentally... i havent a clue who or why or when or wtf its abuot.

and chalabi of course is famous for feeding judymiller, and the much scarier laurie mylroie.

praps its all just part of the same msg that kay made - 'dont blame the cadmin, it was the cia's fault' - if so, then either tenet is involved in the plan, and is waiting till he can absorb most of the blame before falling on his sword, or alternatively there is a massive shit fite going on - where it stops, nobody knows...

i cant see tenet allowing himself to get pushed onto the sword - either he has decided that he will and is waiting for the best moment to do it (pre-election?) or alternatively he has decided not to jump, in which case the cadmin shuold prolly expect some blowback from him if they keep pushing. tenet presumably knows too much about 911 to be pushed around. actually most of the attacks seem to be directed at 'the cia', not at tenet specifically - although perle recently specifically called for tenets hed.

interestingly, tenet previosuly appeared to fall on his sword about some other issue, before changing his mind and giving the sword to someone else for some harikiri fun. i cant even remember which issue that was about - there are so many - was it the plamegame? so many crimes, so little time... un-comitting harikiri requires some real talent. praps tenet was happy to do it and then they realised that the public really didnt give a shit, and they figured they could keep that powder dry till another time. alternatively, one mite consider drawing the *unlikely* parallel between tenet changing his mind and chavez changing his mind, and aristide changing his mind, and that odd kidnapping in russia - who knows.

in any case, the chalabi thing all looks a lil 'controlled' - i dont know what to infer from it all - one thing's for sure - theres prolly a reason.