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Washington elite bring Chalabi in from the cold

By Julian Borger in Washington

11/08/05 "The Guardian" -- -- Ahmed Chalabi comes in from the cold today, arriving in Washington to meet senior Bush administration officials for the first time in two years - despite lingering allegations that the Iraqi politician provided bogus pre-war intelligence, and a continuing investigation into whether he passed US secrets to Iran.

The investigation began 17 months ago, after US intelligence officials alleged that he or his aides had informed Tehran that Washington had broken Iran's spy codes. Iraqi forces, backed by US troops, raided Mr Chalabi's offices in May last year, and the Baghdad authorities issued an arrest warrant for his security chief, Araz Habib, accusing him of being an Iranian agent.

Mr Chalabi and his organisation, the Iraqi National Congress, denied all the charges and claimed that the CIA was out to smear him. At the time Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser, promised a criminal investigation into the charges, but it appears to have made little progress. Mr Chalabi, now Iraq's deputy prime minister, has offered to give evidence, but, his lawyer has said, the FBI failed to respond; nor have his closest supporters in the Pentagon been questioned. After a few months as a fugitive, Mr Habib is reported to have returned to Baghdad.
The FBI insisted yesterday that the investigation continued. Its spokesman, John Miller, was not available for comment, but he told the Wall Street Journal: "This is currently an open investigation and an active investigation." However, it has not prevented Mr Chalabi's rehabilitation in Washington, days after he broke with a Shia alliance to form his own party to fight the December elections in Iraq.

He is due to meet Ms Rice at the state department tomorrow, and John Snow, the treasury secretary, today. He is also expected to see Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, and possibly the vice-president, Dick Cheney. With the Iraqi election so close, President Bush will not meet Mr Chalabi or any other Iraqis. Many Iraqi officials have visited Washington in recent months; Mr Chalabi would be treated the same and meet "appropriate counterparts," said Frederick Jones, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

The national assembly to be elected in December is charged with appointing a four-year government and can change the constitution passed last month.

Mr Chalabi's return has outraged critics of the Iraq war, who point out that significant elements of the discredited US case for invading were provided by defectors with links to the INC, who made claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction that later proved baseless. Steven Clemons, the head of the New America Foundation thinktank, said: "Chalabi's re-entry into Washington circles should be painful and embarrassing for him and his entourage."

Mr Chalabi is repositioning himself in Iraqi politics in anticipation of the December 15 elections. He has withdrawn from the Shia Iraqi United Alliance and recruited his own list of candidates, presenting himself as a secular liberal. However, he has maintained links with the Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, while reinforcing his claim to be a bridge between Iraq and Iran by visiting Tehran before his US trip. Mr Chalabi told the New York Times that he had warned Iranian leaders against meddling in Iraqi affairs. However, Iranian and Arab press reports quoted him as saying Iran was playing "a very positive and constructive role in the formation of the Iraqi government".

In Iraq yesterday five members of the 75th Ranger Regiment were charged with kicking and punching detainees, the US military said. Earlier, President Bush said his administration did not torture anyone, answering questions on reports of secret US prisons in east Europe.

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

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