Michael Ledeen has been watching the torrent of criticism and innuendo directed at Ahmad Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress, and sees both rampant CYA and apparent utter disregard by the Washington establishment for the biggest risk: Iran.
[This story is] about the failure of the intelligence community to do its job properly, and the fear that they may be held to account. By now everybody knows that the IC failed to appreciate the significance of al Qaeda, failed to see 9/11 coming, failed to develop reliable information about Iraq, whether it be about internal political realities (those failed coups, remember?), or the WMD facts, from their existence to their location, and so forth. The spooks must be wondering if some political or budgetary axe is hovering over them, and so they need a scapegoat. They picked Chalabi, a man they have always disliked, ever since he exposed one of their coup plots as amateur night. So now they say that they really knew better all along, but they were "duped" by the diabolical genius Chalabi.Posted by Alan at May 28, 2004 12:37 PMOh really? If Chalabi's handful of defectors hornswoggled the entire U.S. intelligence community, then why are we spending tens of billions of dollars on it each and every fiscal year? What happened, the polygraphs had some moisture? They are now even trying to blame him for the "mobile labs" story. Good luck with that one. Among their sources were foreign intelligence services and their own human recruits.
Finally, if Chalabi is so unreliable why is it that General Myers praised INC intelligence for saving American lives? Is he a dupe, too? Doesn't he know what's happening on the battlefield?
In my view, the worst of the dupes are those who refuse to see what is in front of our collective nose. Somehow, despite a torrent of evidence, this administration refuses to recognize that Iran was, and is, the greatest menace to us, the greatest sponsor of the terror network, and either in possession of atomic bombs or soon to have them. Even if Chalabi turns out to be a master spy, he cannot be blamed for this enormous intelligence and policy failure. Yet we still have no Iran policy. And the nuclear clock continues to tick in Tehran.
Faster, please.