New biography of shadowy Iraq figure Chalabi recalls ties to McCain

RAW STORY

Ahmed Chalabi, former deputy prime minister of Iraq, is the subject of a new biography that reportedly reveals some shocking new examples of Chalabi's scandalous role in US foreign policy.

Considered by some to be a neo-con "darling," Chalabi is best known for his role in pushing questionable evidence in the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq, including since-debunked claims dealing with biological weapons laboratories from the Iraqi defector code-named "Curveball."

RAW STORY has covered other events in Chalabi's colorful past as war cheerleader, including his re-entry into US policy-making in 2006 when it was reported that he had taken over a role as broker between the US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Iranian officials. In early 2007, RAW STORY also reported that Chalabi was moving into a new role as part of the so-called "surge" in Iraq.

Among the revelations disclosed in the biography by Emmy award-winning journalist Aram Roston, The Man Who Pushed America to War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures and Obsessions of Ahmad Chalabi, are that Chalabi "helped arrange meetings with the Iraqi oil minister for American oilmen like Bush fundraiser Albert Huddleston."

Chalabi also reportedly "misled a team of reporters from ABC News and British publications by arranging interviews with 'Saddam's Mistress,' Parisoula Lampsos, who peddled countless lies about a meeting between Hussein and Osama Bin Laden" and was initially backed by Sen. John McCain, "one of the first patrons of Chalabi's grand-sounding International Committee for a Free Iraq when it was founded in 1991."

Regarding McCain, Roston adds that he was "Chalabi's favored candidate in the 2000 election since Chalabi knew that he would be able to free up the $97 million in military aid plus millions pushed through in Congress and earmarked for Chalabi's exile group, the Iraqi National Congress."

The funds were held up, however, by the Clinton administration's State Department, Roston writes.

More on the Chalabi biography can be read at this link.