This article originally provided by The Guardian
Chalabi 'Boasted of Iranian Spy Link'
Julian Borger
The Guardian
Wednesday 26 May 2004
Iraqi accused by CIA made claim in 1997, says
former inspector.
Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi leader
accused by the CIA of passing US secrets to Tehran, claimed
to have close links with Iranian intelligence seven years
ago, according to a former UN weapons inspector.
Scott Ritter, who before the war
insisted that Saddam Hussein did not have significant
weapons stocks, made the claim to Andrew Cockburn, a
Washington-based journalist and the author of a biography of
the ousted Iraqi dictator.
"When I met [Mr Chalabi] in
December 1997 he said he had tremendous connections with
Iranian intelligence," Mr Ritter said, according to an
article by Mr Cockburn published today in the Guardian.
"He said that some of his best intelligence came from
the Iranians and offered to set up a meeting for me with the
head of Iranian intelligence."
Mr Chalabi has repeatedly denied
passing secrets to the Iranians and has denounced the
allegations made by US intelligence officials as a CIA
"smear".
He also denied providing false
information about weapons of mass destruction to the US.
He said he only put the CIA in
touch with three defectors, who were believed to have had
critical information. The FBI and US intelligence agencies
are re-examining information provided by or channelled
through Mr Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, to determine
whether the decision to go to war in Iraq was influenced by
Iran.
Mr Ritter told the Guardian he
stood by his allegation. He said he never made the trip to
Iran because the CIA refused permission.
Meanwhile, both Democratic and
Republican senators have called for an investigation into
the alleged links between Mr Chalabi and Iranian
intelligence.
US intelligence officials have
said they have hard evidence that Mr Chalabi passed US
secrets to Tehran, and that his intelligence chief, Aras
Karim Habib, was an Iranian agent. Mr Habib is being sought
by Iraqi police, and according to one American press report
is now in Tehran.
"This is a very, very
serious charge," Senator Chuck Hagel, a moderate
Republican from Nebraska, told CNN. "There is no way
the Senate intelligence committee is not going to be in
this."
The Pentagon defends the INC's
intelligence input. An official said yesterday: "We
should point out that the INC has provided valuable
intelligence that has saved coalition lives and has provided
great quantities of documents from Saddam's regime that are
of great value."
Mr Chalabi has offered to travel
to Washington to deny the allegations and make his case
directly to Congress.
Richard Perle, a former adviser
to the Pentagon, and one of the INC's most outspoken backers
in the capital, said he did not believe the CIA's
allegations against Mr Chalabi.
"I believe they have been
hostile to Ahmad Chalabi for a long time and are not to be
trusted on this and I think they are seeking to transfer
responsibility for their own intelligence failures to
others," Mr Perle told BBC Radio 4's Today programme
yesterday.
According to US intelligence
sources, the FBI has opened an investigation into the leak
of secret information to the INC from within the
administration.
A Pentagon official said
yesterday he was not aware of any investigation.
Patrick Lang, former head of the
Middle East desk at the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA),
said the agency was re-examining prewar intelligence
provided by the INC in the light of the CIA's findings of a
link with Iranian intelligence.
"The people investigating
this aren't sure yet, but the investigation is under way,
and the DIA are looking through its documents and realising
they've been had," Mr Lang said.
"If it turns out to be true,
it was certainly a genius operation. [The Iranians] created
an anti-Saddam opposition to get rid of him, and they got us
to pay for it."
A Pentagon official confirmed
that a "reassessment process" was under way, but
refused to give details.
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