Joel Mowbray seems to be on a mission to rehabilitate Ahmed Chalabi. His latest article pins the blame for Ahmed Chalabi's downfall squarely where it belongs; on the State Department and the CIA.
He makes fun of the idea that Ahmed Chalabi passed on diplomatic codes to the Iranians. Apparently Mr. Mowbray has a hard time believing that the Iranian spy service would send a message in the broken code. Gosh that does sound a little suspicious.
Reporting by the New York Times, however, makes it clear that the Iranians didn't necessarily believe Mr. Chalabi initially. "According to American officials, the Iranian official in Baghdad, possibly not believing Mr. Chalabi's account, sent a cable to Tehran detailing his conversation with Mr. Chalabi, using the broken code." They article goes on to report that they sent a dummy message to see if the American's would respond.
But of course, the issue here isn't what Mr. Chalabi may or may not have done. The issue is how the CIA and State Department betrayed him. After all, when the CIA was casting doubts on reports of Saddams weapons of mass destruction, Ahmed Chalabi was one of those promoting them. When the State Department was suggesting that holding Iraq might prove more difficult than we initially realized, Ahmed Chalabi was out there saying that the Iraqis would welcome us as liberators and it would be smooth sailing.
So naturally we must place the blame where it belongs; on the CIA and State Department. They, by there lack of faith in our bold plan have caused it to fail.
By the way, if you didn't catch This Modern World this week, you might want to.
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