Rethinking the Chalabi Connection ( 6/20/04): misuse of State Dept funds?

~snip~

According to a written agreement between the INC and the State Department that was also obtained by NEWSWEEK, State Department funds were not to be used to conduct “any business associated with, or that could appear to be associated with, attempting to influence the policies of the United States Government or Congress, or propagandizing the American people.” At the request of Democratic senators Carl Levin of the Senate Armed Services Committee and presidential candidate John Kerry, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, is opening an investigation into the INC’s use of State Department money.

INC representatives have denied the group misused U.S. government funds, though they have acknowledged that some State Department funds may have been used to pay expenses of Iraqi “defectors” with stories to tell about Saddam’s WMD and alleged terror links who the INC made available to media outlets, most prominently Vanity Fair and The New York Times. Some U.S. intelligence officials say that when the same defectors were interviewed by intelligence professionals, it was determined that they had fabricated information or were coached by the INC. Information from two defectors with alleged INC connections constituted the foundation for prewar claims to the United Nations by Secretary of State Colin Powell that Saddam had built a fleet of mobile weapons labs and factories. Powell acknowledged on TV last week that these claims were probably based on poorly sourced information. Intelligence officials have acknowledged that at least one of the sources for Powell’s claim, an INC defector, had been determined by the DIA to be a “fabricator” more than six months before Powell’s U.N. address.

Provisions of the INC’s written agreement with the DIA included clauses apparently designed to ensure that the INC could not misuse U.S. government funding or coach potential intelligence sources. The agreement says that “DIA and the INC will conduct initial joint debriefings of sources.” It also says that DIA “shall … polygraph INC members who are involved in the debriefing of sources identified by the INC” and “polygraph sources surfaced by the INC.” A former senior U.S. intelligence official says, however, that these conditions were not always followed by U.S. forces and the INC in postwar Iraq.

The INC agreement with DIA also says that INC must “NOT publicize or communicate in any way with anyone any of its information collection operations … without prior written authorization from DIA.” But in a “60 Minutes” interview in early March, Chalabi flashed on TV a purported Iraqi Intelligence Service document which listed Osama bin Laden as an Iraqi intelligence contact in the early l990s (a fact well known to U.S. intelligence). Intelligence sources say this document was one of the more valuable items supplied to the DIA by the INC’s intelligence program. Asked in late March whether Chalabi had obtained prior written permission from DIA before publicizing the document on America’s most popular TV newsmagazine, a Chalabi spokesman told NEWSWEEK: “Ahmad Chalabi does not need permission from anyone.” A Defense Department spokesman said the Pentagon had no immediate response to questions about whether the INC and Chalabi complied with the provisions of its deal with the DIA.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5016031/site/newsweek/

Hossenfeffer or whoever the hell his latest partner is. He whores all over IMUS and is buddy, buddy with the Washington Insiders who were so obsessed over Whitewater and the "Blue Dress."

Trash Issikoff. I'll take it from Josh Marshall and Juan Cole figuring that Issikoff and "Hossenblum" (or whatever his name is) are only releasing what "THEY" know to counter or corroborate Cole and others who know the "real scoop."

:puke: on Issikoff! His little innuendos and bits of "insider scoop" have started to wear thin, when one can read more on the internet than Newsweek wants to admit. Still, the "average American" will believe the little "Media Whore" over those "conspiracy nutcases on the internet.

So "Spikey" and "Hossenfeffer" will keep their great jobs at "Newswreak" and everyone will think they are "breaking a new story." Whores...disgusting :nuke: