Chalabi Reportedly Told Iran That U.S. Had Code | NYT

[Ediacara]

Chalabi Reportedly Told Iran That U.S. Had Code
By JAMES RISEN and DAVID JOHNSTON

Published: June 2, 2004

WASHINGTON, June 1 — Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi leader and former ally of the Bush administration, disclosed to an Iranian official that the United States had broken the secret communications code of Iran's intelligence service, betraying one of Washington's most valuable sources of information about Iran, according to United States intelligence officials.

The general charge that Mr. Chalabi provided Iran with critical American intelligence secrets was widely reported last month after the Bush administration cut off financial aid to Mr. Chalabi's organization, the Iraqi National Congress, and American and Iraqi security forces raided his Baghdad headquarters.

The Bush administration, citing national security concerns, asked The New York Times and other news organizations not to publish details of the case. The Times agreed to hold off publication of some specific information that top intelligence officials said would compromise a vital, continuing intelligence operation. The administration withdrew its request on Tuesday, saying information about the code-breaking was starting to appear in news accounts.

More at the New York Times

[LiberalFighter]

1. Whose fault is it? Chabali or Bush Admin?

[salin]

19. drunk member of the Bush admin and craven opportunist Chalabi

plenty of blame to spread around.

[KittyWampus]

2. Is Chalabi Behind Bars?

I'll read article in hard copy tomorrow... but shouldn't he be in custody awaiting a hearing?

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. He should be heading to Gitmo

but instead he'll probably make another round of the AM talk shows.

[Minstrel Boy]

8. They lock up Padilla without charge for years and carry Chalabi

on their shoulders.

[Barkley]

41. I wonder if Chalabi knows damaging info on Bushco?

May be that's why he's not in jail.

[Ilsa]

4. Who told Chalabi?

Santorum? Pickles (right before the SOTU)?

[Nlighten1]

9. Ding ding ding

We have a winner! This is the 100 billion dollar question.

[moondust]

30. INVESTIGATE NOW.

Somebody in the Bunk* administration has committed what sounds like a serious security violation. Chalabi had no need to know anything.

[democracyindanger]

5. Ah, the NYT, late as usual

Reported first in this week's New Yorker.

[pinto]

6. sooooo, is Chalabi sharing a cell with Padilla? ....eom

[k in IA]

7. and why the hell would we tell him this in the first place?

Put the "teenagers" back in charge of the country, please! Fire the "Adults"!

[struggle4progress]

15. Some braggart like Wolfowitz, eager to prove he's "in the loop"

[bpilgrim]

16. very good question

were they 'testing' they're boy? NO there are plenty of other ways to do that than risk an 'alledged' top-secret operation vital to our NS.

anyways... this question MUST be answered. or has it already been answered and i haven't heard about it yet :shrug: our krack media is probably all over it.

peace

[k in IA]

22. Well, this kinda goes along with how they showed the Saudi

Amb our war plans which were marked that they were not to be shown to foreigners. They just don't think the rules apply to them. Their arrogance has no bounds.

[bpilgrim]

23. this is bigger, if true, imo

we eventually showed all our allies our plans especially those in the region but this is an entirely different matter indeed and the question must be answered.



peace

[k in IA]

24. I agree. It is just such an incredibly stupid thing to do.

It is amazing some of the things they manage to screw up.

I always thought there was a basic level of competence on foreign policy issues that Presidents of either party would maintain because of civil servants and common sense yet these guys have made that such a naive statement I'm embarrassed to share it.

It seems candidates make statements while campaigning and then Presidents, when faced with the reality of their office, all do the same thing - not true with these guys.

Unbelievable and I'm not even talking about the idiocy of the Iraq War.

[madrchsod]

10. back in the old days

he would have been shot or put it nicely -disappeared- but since the whitehouse protected him,so "nobody" could "help" him disappear..after all you just can`t sit next to pickles without the presidents ok..can you say "high crimes and misdemeanors"?

[RamboLiberal]

11. Whoa - this is huge - imagine in WWII if someone had

leaked to the Germans or the Japanese that we had an enigma machine or broken the Japanese Naval codes. Shot at sunrise!

American officials reported that in the cable to Tehran, the Iranian official recounted how Mr. Chalabi had said that one of "them" — a reference to an American — had revealed the code-breaking operation, the officials said. The Iranian reported that Mr. Chalabi said the American had been drunk.

And who pray tell is the drunk in the drunkard's administration who told Chalabi? Who goes out drinking with Chalabi? Perle? Feith? Wolfie? Libby? Enquiring minds want to know. :evilgrin:

[UpInArms]

12. here's how and who dragged Chalabi into his willing plight

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030512fa_fact

excerpt:

There was a close personal bond, too, between Chalabi and Wolfowitz and Perle, dating back many years. Their relationship deepened after the Bush Administration took office, and Chalabi’s ties extended to others in the Administration, including Rumsfeld; Douglas Feith, the Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy; and I. Lewis Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff. For years, Chalabi has had the support of prominent members of the American Enterprise Institute and other conservatives. Chalabi had some Democratic supporters, too, including James Woolsey, the former head of the C.I.A.

<snip>

With the Pentagon’s support, Chalabi’s group worked to put defectors with compelling stories in touch with reporters in the United States and Europe. The resulting articles had dramatic accounts of advances in weapons of mass destruction or told of ties to terrorist groups. In some cases, these stories were disputed in analyses by the C.I.A. Misstatements and inconsistencies in I.N.C. defector accounts were also discovered after the final series of U.N. weapons inspections, which ended a few days before the American assault. Dr. Glen Rangwala, a lecturer in political science at Cambridge University, compiled and examined the information that had been made public and concluded that the U.N. inspections had failed to find evidence to support the defectors’ claims.

...lots at the link...

and just an aside - did anyone else know that Judith Miller (of the NYT) co-authored a book with Laurie Mylroie?

Lauri Mylroie:

Her first book, Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf, (co-authored with Judith Miller) was a number one New York Times bestseller, translated into 13 languages.

and this:

She is presently an adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and publisher of Iraq News.

She is also the author of Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein.s Unfinished War Against America (American Enterprise Institute Press, 2000). Published in paperback, as The War Against America (HarperCollins, 2001), the book was hailed by Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz: "argues powerfully"; and Richard Perle, former Assistant Secretary of Defense, "splendid and wholly convincing". J. Gilmore Childers, lead prosecutor in the World Trade Center bombing trial, described it as "work the U.S. government should have done".

[troublemaker]

13. Be very afraid

re: "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. That encrypted cable, intercepted and read by the United States, tipped off American officials to the fact that Mr. Chalabi had betrayed the code-breaking operation..."

Wow... both sides are hopeless. Our guy gets drunk and tells Chalabi, the least trustworthy man alive, that we have broken the Iranian code. Chalabi tells an Iranian spy who thens fires the information off to Tehran in the same code. Incredible.

[daleo]

25. This all seems rather suspicious

1 - U.S. mystery man tells Chalabi the Iranian code has been broken.
2 - Chalabi tells Iranian mystery man Iranian code has been broken.
3 - Iranian mystery man uses broken code to tell Iranians that Iranian code has been broken.
4 - U.S. now knows that Iran has been told that Iranian code has been broken, and Chalabi has been compromised for later.

There is plenty of scope for a John Le Carre novel here.

- the whole thing was a setup to test Chalabi, and get goods on him for later.
- the whole thing was a setup to locate a double agent (Iranian mystery man or American mystery man)
- Iranians already knew their code had been broken, and the the U.S. thought they knew the Iranians knew, so this was a test of that theory.

I would vote for the first one. Had Chalabi actually ever got to be leader of Iraq, the U.S. would have already compromised him as a spy to ensure his loyalty. Now, it is convenient way to get rid of someone who has outgrown his usefulness.

[Beetwasher]

34. Another Option

Chalabi/Iran decided it was time for this story to break and so they sent that communication knowing it would be intercepted and knowing the US would now know that Iran was aware the code was broken. They had alreay gotten what they needed from the scenario and it now served their purposes to let the US know they knew the code was broken. There could be several reasons/motivations for this.

Also, we have no way of really knowing at this point how long Iran knew the US had broken the code or for how long the US had the code to begin with. Iran could have known from the moment the US thought they boke the code (IOW, from day one) The story claims Chalabi told the Baghdad station chief six weeks ago, but for all we know, this was a set up by Iranian intel and they decided to "break" this six weeks ago but actually had the info much longer. I suspect this is the actual case. I'd be willing to bet that Iranian intel had this info since before the war and had been using it VERY effectively the whole time. A LOT of stuff might make more sense in light of this info.

[struggle4progress]

14. Oooh! So that's why * is eager to say he never talked much to Chalabi!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=595288

[T Bone]

27. yes it probably was Bush who told Chalabi !!

Why else would Bush be back-peddaling so furiously that he 'hardly knew Chalabi' and of course that all comes out immediately AFTER all this starts blowing up ! It was Bush. More treason. Typical.

But then I have noticed for a long time that Bush inserts comments in speeches that I don't think he is supposed to be doing. He hears 'background' and 'framing' types of comments while they are prepping him for stuff, and then he mixes those in inappropritely with his speeches. So -probably same thing here- they were prepping him for a meeting with Chalabi and he heard some comments about the broken code and then ,off the cuff, he drops the info on Chalabi when he does meet him-- Chalabi was probably like WTF? But, then goes and dutifully reports the slip to his Iranian masters.

My bet on how it happened.
Bush didn't mean to do it, he is just incompetent.

[Beetwasher]

33. That's Actually a VERY Astute Analysis and I Agree It's Not Unlikely

that's what happened.

[phatkatt]

42. Hmm, that would also be proof that * is still drinking!

"The Iranian reported that Mr. Chalabi said the American had been drunk."

[The_Casual_Observer]

17. "I don't know Mr Chalabi"

That is why they pushed through this interim interim government with such haste. They need to keep this guy out of the headlines, now Chalabi is irrelevant.

[salin]

20. he supported Ann Richards.. in my first campaign...

oh - that was Ken Lay... wrong criminal/close associate.

[UpInArms]

18. the Ledeen column on 5/28/04 is enough to make one puke

http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200405280920.asp

We're going to hear a lot about Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi National Congress (which he heads), and his supporters (soon to be labeled "dupes" and "fools" if not something far worse) in Washington. The FBI is said (by, among others, the notorious liar Sidney Blumenthal, who is now sliming away for Salon and the Guardian) to have opened an investigation into the source(s) of the "leak" of "highly classified information" from somebody to Chalabi. From there it is said to have arrived in the hands of the Iranians' spymaster in Baghdad, and said spymaster is purported to have sent it on to Tehran. Several, maybe even most, leading journalists in town have been told — after promising not to reveal it — that the "highly classified information" was the fact that we had broken the Iranian code and could therefore read messages between Baghdad and Tehran. And many leading journalists have also been told that the "leaker" was some "drunk" from the Coalition Provisional Authority (which makes one wonder why the FBI is snooping around Washington — if it actually is — instead of examining bar bills in Baghdad). Notice, too, that the tacit assumption here is that the Iranian spymaster used the same insecure code to tell Tehran he knew the code was insecure. Which makes him an idiot. But we know that Iranians are highly professional. Ergo he's not an idiot. Ergo the story is idiotic, if you get my drift.

Before getting any deeper in this story, I want to repeat that Chalabi is a friend, and that I don't believe he's an Iranian agent. I do believe that the INC, along with every other significant organization in Iraq, has been penetrated by the extremely skilled Iranian intelligence services, and therefore I would not be at all surprised to find one or another of his associates working with Tehran.

...more...

and if you wonder who Ledeen is, read here:

http://www.alternet.org/print.html?StoryID=15860

excerpt:

A fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, Ledeen holds a Ph.D. in History and Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin. He is a former employee of the Pentagon, the State Department and the National Security Council. As a consultant working with NSC head Robert McFarlane, he was involved in the transfer of arms to Iran during the Iran-Contra affair -- an adventure that he documented in the book "Perilous Statecraft: An Insider's Account of the Iran-Contra Affair." His most influential book is last year's "The War Against the Terror Masters: Why It Happened. Where We Are Now. How We'll Win."

Ledeen's ideas are repeated daily by such figures as Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. His views virtually define the stark departure from American foreign policy philosophy that existed before the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. He basically believes that violence in the service of the spread of democracy is America's manifest destiny. Consequently, he has become the philosophical legitimator of the American occupation of Iraq.

and on the Iranian code note - I found this:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1078208269063

Mar. 2, 2004 9:01 | Updated Mar. 2, 2004 11:19
Report: Israel broke Iranian code
By YAAKOV KATZ

A secret Israeli intelligence unit, known as Unit 8200, broke a sophisticated Iranian code enabling Israel to monitor communications, including contacts with Pakistan regarding the development of Iranian nuclear weapons, the New Yorker magazine reported on Tuesday.

"On a trip to the Middle East last month, I was told that a number of years ago the Israeli signals-intelligence agency, known as Unit 8200, broke a sophisticated Iranian code and began monitoring communications that included talk between Iran and Pakistan about Iran's burgeoning nuclear-weapons program" Investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh wrote in the article.

According to the report, Israeli intelligence has created strong ties in Iran over the year, some of which exist till today. Hersh writes that the investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.) into Iranian nuclear capability was spurred by Israeli intelligence findings which were relayed to the atomic agency via the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

...more...

[The_Casual_Observer]

21. Ergo

Ledeen is an asshole

[dusty64]

26. WTF!

Remember all the screams of "TREASON" from the rightwing about Clinton and China. Funny, I'm not hearing anything like that from them now.

[Blue_Tires]

39. lol

I remember as late as summer 2000 my RW friends were still trying to get Clinton indicted on "passing sensitive secrets on to red china"

[Snellius]

28. This story doesn't make sense.

Why would the Iranian head of intelligence in Baghdad, after being told the Americans had broken their code, then send a secret message to Iran, in the very code that had been cracked. This story is either very fishy or this spy is very foul. Anyone who knows anything about intelligence knows that knowing that your enemy has broken your code can actually be very useful, providing the other side doesn't know that you know. This was used often in WWII and during the Cold War to plant disinformation.

[Beetwasher]

37. Here's What I Think Might Explain Things

Chalabi/Iran decided it was time for this story to break and so they sent that communication knowing it would be intercepted and knowing the US would now know that Iran was aware the code was broken. They had alreay gotten what they needed from the scenario and it now served their purposes to let the US know they knew the code was broken. There could be several reasons/motivations for this.

Also, we have no way of really knowing at this point how long Iran knew the US had broken the code or for how long the US had the code to begin with. Iran could have known from the moment the US thought they boke the code (IOW, from day one) The story claims Chalabi told the Baghdad station chief six weeks ago, but for all we know, this was a set up by Iranian intel and they decided to "break" this six weeks ago but actually had the info much longer. I suspect this is the actual case. I'd be willing to bet that Iranian intel had this info since before the war and had been using it VERY effectively the whole time. A LOT of stuff might make more sense in light of this info.

[Snellius]

40. Brilliant deduction, Sherlock. The other question is ...

Someone in the government obviously decided to blow open this story, and release this story wide. It appears almost simultaneously in the NY Times, LA Times, and Wash Post. It's especially interesting that James Risen and Walter Pincus have the story, who both have good connections especially with the CIA, State Department and the Pentagon. My guess that this is another retaliatory skirmish from the CIA/State against Rummy and the neo-cons.

[Beetwasher]

44. Some Of the First People to Get the Story

would have been the CIA, since it's more than likely it was their signals groups that intercepted the message, and given the current climate, they would not hesitate for a second going directly to the press with it, bypassing the admin. Turn about is fair play. After all, the admin. has been bypassing the CIA (and dumping their failures in the CIA's lap anyway) in order to do their dirty work w/ Chalabi et al. This very well may have been news to the CIA that Iraq knew they had the codes since the admin. had been keeping them out of the loop and I'm sure they were none too happy about yet ANOTHER incredible intel failure that they will probably be blamed for by the admin.

[Snellius]

45. Yes, and question 3: Did the leaker know who told Chalabi?

Atrios has a vision on his website that may just hold a grain of truth:


Last night I had a dream that I got an 'FYI' email from Byron York of the National Review informing me that according to his sources Don Rumsfeld was the one who told Chalabi about the Iranian codes and that Rumsfeld had been declared an enemy combatant and was currently sitting in a cell in Gitmo.

http://atrios.blogspot.com/

It seems likely that whomever leaked this story to the media also has a pretty good idea who was the drunken loose-lips who blabbed to Chalabi. And they don't call Rummy, "Rummy" for nothing.

I could see where the CIA among others would be furious over the way he is trying to weasel out of responsibility for Abu Ghraib.

[Beetwasher]

47. Furious For That, Among, Oh, I Don't Know, A MILLION Other Things!

Furious is too weak a word, I'm sure...

Honestly, I wouldn't be totally sure that Chalabi actually got the information the way it's being presented in the news account. It's possible it's true that it was drunkenly blabbed to him, but it's equally possible, IMO, that that account is dis-info.

The sad and frightening truth of the matter is that the idiots in charge allowed an Iranian agent practically unfettered access to some incredibly delicate US secrets, resources and personnel. Who knows what he got his hands on and HOW he managed it. He may have been given everything by traitors, he may have been given some by traitors and managed to steal others. He may have bribed or coerced info from people. Some of those people/assets might STILL be under his influence through blackmail etc. The damage Chalabi did is probably not completely knowable. He probably has stuff even Bushco. would be surprised he got his hands on. Who knows? Only Chalabi knows and I'm sure he's keeping his secrets well guarded.

[sjgman9]

29. That traitorous SOB

I really wish he was sitting in a Jordanian jail. We cant let Iran know we cracked their code!

I trust the NSA will crack their new one fast. Still, we gotta watch the mullahs so they dont get nukes.


Damn you Chalabi

[THUNDER HANDS]

31. up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A, Start

The only secret code I remember. :)

[Beetwasher]

32. My Oh My! My Off The Cuff Analysis

Now how would Chalabi get such information?

Now, if I were Iran and I knew this, just imagine how I could play the US for suckers! And gee! Guess what?! The US was played for suckers! We removed Hussein for Iran! Thanks to these bozos, the US is doing Iran's bidding!

My off the cuff analysis:

Chalabi/Iran decided it was time for this story to break and so they sent that communication knowing it would be intercepted and knowing the US would now know that Iran was aware the code was broken. They had alreay gotten what they needed from the scenario and it now served their purposes to let the US know they knew the code was broken. There could be several reasons/motivations for this.

Also, we have no way of really knowing at this point how long Iran knew the US had broken the code or for how long the US had the code to begin with. Iran could have known from the moment the US thought they boke the code (IOW, from day one) The story claims Chalabi told the Baghdad station chief six weeks ago, but for all we know, this was a set up by Iranian intel and they decided to "break" this six weeks ago but actually had the info much longer. I suspect this is the actual case. I'd be willing to bet that Iranian intel had this info since before the war and had been using it VERY effectively the whole time. A LOT of stuff might make more sense in light of this info.

[Ganja Ninja]

35. I don't remember Bill Clinton ever being fooled by Chalabi.

The current fool in the White House is a security risk based on his gullibility alone. It's really not hard to imagine Dumya bragging about how we cracked the Iranian code as if he did it himself. Dangerous incompetence IMHO.

[Claire Beth]

43. I agree! n/t

[carolinayellowdog]

36. Josh Marshall drops hints about the leaker

http://talkingpointsmemo.com

"Iran expert" = Ledeen? Michael Rubin?

[theHandpuppet]

38. The PNAC crew ignored King Abdullah's warnings...

... about that sniveling crook Chalabi and I hope the King of Jordan is having a good chuckle right about now. This administration's backing of Chalabi had to be an incredible insult to one of the ME's most moderate voices, and I hope they ship Chalabi's butt to Jordan for trial on those embezzlement charges the Pentagon so pooh-poohed when it was convenient for them.

[Fleshdancer]

46. Does this mean we'll be invading Iran soon???

After all, aren't they part of the "Axis of Evil" that Bush was fond of saying? Maybe this is too tinfoil, but could Chalabi have been used to further inflame US/Iran relations to the point of future war?