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This is insane.
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US Proposed Iraqi Ruler a Convicted Felon

by: Erik P Sorensen
4/16/2003
Ahmad Chalabi is the darling of the neoconservatives. He is the anointed leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the CIA construction designed to cabal together Iraqi expatriates and considered to be a leading candidate to be imposed as the US selected leader of Iraq. Chalabi is MIT educated and has not resided in Iraq since 1958. And he is a former Jordanian banker convicted of embezzlement and misappropriation of funds. Chalabi hailed from one of the wealthiest families in Baghdad which was exiled after the rise to power of the Sunni dominated Ba?ath Party. Chalabi is a Shi?a. His was educated at MIT and the University of Chicago and then taught at the American University in Beirut Lebanon.

Chalabi?s family is genuinely the aristocracy of Iraq. A relative is Fadhil Chalabi who has more than 30 years of direct involvement in the oil industry, including holding the positions of Deputy Secretary of OPEC (Acting Secretary General 1983-1988) and Under Secretary of Oil at the Iraqi Ministry of Petroleum. Fadhil is now the Executive Director of the Centre for Global Energy Studies.

In 1978 Ahmad co-founded Petra Bank in Amman Jordan using his and his family?s fortune to fund the endeavor. During the 1980?s his financial institution came under governmental scrutiny for its allegedly funding Iran and impeding Iraq from gaining funds during the Iran/Iraq war.

In 1989 Petra bank collapsed and Chalabi fled the country when it was clear that he would be tried for embezzlement. The collapse reportedly cost the Jordanian government over $300 million and Chalabi was tried and convicted in absentia when he refused to return to Jordan and face trial in 1992. He was convicted of 31 counts of embezzlement, theft, misuse of depositor funds and other crimes and was sentenced to 22 years in prison and fined over $230 million...

Former Jordanian Central Bank Governor Said Nabulsi offered a scathing account of Chalabi?s financial dealings in Jordan in a 2002 interview with, of all publications, the Washington Times.

"I asked all Jordanian banks to deposit 30 percent of their hard currency holdings with the Central Bank. Of the 20 banks solicited, only Petra was unable to transfer anything, yet it had $200 million on its books. I then conducted a full examination of Petra's books and concluded they had been cooked and that Ahmad Chalabi was the master cook who had been in collusion with his auditors.

"Civil court actions followed as the liquidation agency attempted to recover some of the losses. The total loss climbed to $500 million, of which $300 million was paid to depositors by the Central Bank at the direction of King Hussein. Another $200 million was obtained from the liquidation of assets,? said Nabulsi.

A fugitive in the US Chalabi found haven in the US in the aftermath of the first Iraq war. He offered his services to the US to consolidate the opposition to Saddam to topple the regime. The with financial and logistical support of the CIA and more than $10 million of his own and his family's money, Chalabi's INC created an open political opposition movement in northern Iraq from 1993-1996.

Inside Iraq, where the two main Kurdish parties and the main Shi'ite opposition group helped set up an alliance to counter his INC, Kurdish leaders say Chalabi has virtually no support.

Still, the US Congress voted to pledge $97 million to back the INC after Chalabi's pro-Western politics and polished delivery attracted support from conservatives in the Bush administration, notably at the Pentagon, and the powerful U.S. oil lobby.

The INC use of these funds has been questioned as well; there have been allegations that Chalabi may have mismanaged these funds as well.

Upon his recent return to the Kurdish held sectors of northern Iraq, Chalabi?s reception was chilly.

"He was here for a while and he owes a lot of people a lot of money," said Khaled Ismail Amad, a former driver for the congress who says he's owed $6,250.

Many cases against Chalabi are pending at Kurdish courts according to government officials and Govand Baban, an attorney who filed most of the cases. Baban estimated the total damages at about $6 million.

Baban suggested Chalabi's conduct was unbecoming of a future leader of Iraq.

"The person who will be the leader of Iraq has to have ethics," he says. "Ahmad Chalabi's group abused people."

The mixed reviews of Chalabi?s leadership ability extend into the Bush administration. There have been numerous reports that Colin Powell and the State Department have deep reservations about the INC?s ability to coalesce the disparate Iraqi groups during US military occupation. However, the Defense Department, notably Paul Wolfowitz, has been a primary defender.

Wolfowitz has long argued that Chalabi is able and could be more effective with greater US backing. But Powell and his policy under-secretary, Richard Haas, maintain that the INC is hopelessly divided along ideological and tribal lines.

Haas has told colleagues that the Pentagon is trying to "force Chalabi down our throats".

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