New York Sun June 17, 2004 LIEBERMAN: JURY IS STILL OUT ON CHALABI SENATOR SAYS IRAQI HAS BEEN HELPFUL TO AMERICA By DANIEL LEDEEN Special to the Sun
As the White House runs from the side of the leader of the Iraqi National Congress, Ahmad Chalabi, a Democratic senator said he is reserving judgment on the espionage charges that ended Mr. Chalabi's relationship with the Bush Administration. Senator Lieberman of Connecticut, said yesterday he is "waiting for the results of the investigation," but he recalls working with Mr. Chalabi and other INC leaders and exiles who gave valuable insight to America during their years in opposition. "I met Dr. Chalabi and others of the Iraqi National Congress," Mr. Lieberman said at a conference for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy in Washington. "It's fair to say I found them to be patriotic Iraqis. Their counsel to us was important." Mr. Lieberman was one of the authors of the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act, which authorized the Pentagon to provide a little less than $100 million for the training of Iraqi opposition fighters under the umbrella of the organization Mr. Chalabi then headed. In April, the National Security Agency intercepted a conversation between two Iranian agents discussing a recent conversation with the INC leader, in which Mr. Chalabi alerted Tehran that America had penetrated an encrypted communications channel used by the state's military. The FBI is now investigating who may have leaked the information to Mr. Chalabi, which he denies ever giving the Iranians. However, the raw intelligence was enough to lead senior Bush administration officials to begin to break ties with the Iraqi leader this spring. In May, monthly payments of $340,000 to the Information Collection Program - an intelligence program that provided the Pentagon with Iraq defectors before the war and timely information on the insurgency after - ended abruptly despite the fact that the chairman of the join chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers, credited intelligence from the program with saving American lives. Senator Lieberman was not so quick to write off Mr. Chalabi and the value of his organization to America's successful effort to depose Saddam Hussein. As one of the leading senators to support Mr. Chalabi in exile, Mr. Lieberman said he spent hours in meetings with the INC leader, whom he yesterday called "a person of strength, principle, and real commitment." Mr. Lieberman added: "The charges are serious, but I also know from the American military that Dr. Chalabi gave us some information that was important to the safety of American troops."
