Chalabi as Master Manipulator
Don't miss Jane Mayer's article, The Manipulator, in the New Yorker. By chronicling Chalabi and his supporters throughout the years, Mayer demonstrates how Ahmed Chalabi manipulated the Bush Administration.
Between 1992 and the raid on Chalabi’s home, the U.S. government funnelled more than a hundred million dollars to the Iraqi National Congress. The current Bush Administration gave Chalabi’s group at least thirty-nine million dollars. Exactly what the I.N.C. provided in exchange for these sums has yet to be fully explained..... Vincent Cannistraro, a former C.I.A. counter-terrorism specialist who now consults for the government, told me, “With Chalabi, we paid to fool ourselves. It’s horrible. In other times, it might be funny. But a lot of people are dead as a result of this. It’s reprehensible.”
Mayer delves into the role of Francis Brooke, Chalabi's "unofficial lobbyist in Washington" and the Rendon Group:
Brooke, who is a devout Christian, has brought an evangelical ardor to the cause of defeating Saddam. “I do have a religious motivation for doing what I do,” Brooke said. “I see Iraq as our neighbor. And the Bible says, When your neighbor is in a ditch, God means for you to help him.”
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