Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

The Man Who Pushed America to War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures and Obsessions of Ahmad Chalab

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
Home » Discuss » Topic Forums » Books: Non-Fiction Donate to DU
 
RamboLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-08-08 01:34 AM
Original message
The Man Who Pushed America to War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures and Obsessions of Ahmad Chalab
From Amazon.com

From an Emmy award-winning investigative reporter--an explosive biography that tells the untold story of the man most responsible for the war in Iraq.
Ahmad Chalabi literally changed the world. If anyone were to get the most credit for pushing the United States to war in Iraq, Chalabi, a wealthy exile who spent most of his life out of Iraq, would certainly be a leading contender.

A convicted felon and a fugitive from justice in Jordan, Chalabi managed to charm and influence the top leaders of the United States. Those leaders gave him United States government money, which he would, in turn, use to lobby them. He then rode America's immense power, harnessing it to his interests. More so than President George W. Bush or Vice President Richard Cheney, Chalabi and his followers steered the United States toward its fateful position in Iraq.

This is an extraordinary investigative biography, by a brilliant young Emmy award-winning journalist who works for NBC's Investigative Unit, telling the story of Chalabi as a gifted MIT mathematician, to his misadventures in the Middle East, to the invasion of Iraq, which he himself took part in the most theatrical way, posing in the desert with a rag-tag army of Iraqis.

From Raw Story

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.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/chalabi_biography__0307.html
Refresh | 0 Recommendations Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top

Home » Discuss » Topic Forums » Books: Non-Fiction Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC