Ahmad Chalabi dies at 71
Carol J. Williams, LA Times
Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile whose false claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and ties to Al Qaeda helped convince the George W. Bush administration to invade Iraq to execute regime change, was found dead at his Baghdad home on Tuesday of an apparent heart attack. He was 71.A controversial but indisputably influential political force in Washington and London as well as his homeland, Chalabi never achieved his ambition to lead post-war Iraq and left a legacy replete with missteps.
The U.S.-educated mathematician-turned-political-lobbyist founded the Iraqi National Congress with other exiles in 1992 and six years later persuaded Congress to pass the Iraqi Liberation Act that declared the Clinton administration s aim of toppling Hussein.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Chalabi and his London-based political exile faction funneled intelligence from Iraqi exiles and opposition figures to Bush administration neoconservatives eager to oust Hussein. The reports — some emanating from a confidential informant code-named Curveball — alleged that the Iraqi leader had hidden stores of chemical weapons and nerve gases that Al Qaeda-linked forces were ready to deploy against Western adversaries.
It was that intelligence — later discredited — that prompted the March 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led forces and the occupation of the volatile country that was soon consumed by sectarian violence and chaos.
Chalabi was remembered by Iraqi leaders on Tuesday as an ardent advocate of democracy and brave mediator in his homeland s internal conflicts, as well as a tainted political figure dogged through his lifetime by accusations of corruption and self-dealing. “The deceased had a large role in fighting the dictatorship and initiating the building of a democratic Iraq,” said Iraqi parliament head Salim Jabouri, describing Chalabi as someone “who dedicated his life to the service of the country.”
Iraqi President Fuad Massoum echoed the sentiment, proclaiming in a statement that Chalabi s death was “a great loss” for Iraq.
But Chalabi was a divisive figure, and critics took to social media to accuse him of having steered Iraq into disaster. “The traitor has died, the one who sold his country twice,” a Twitter user named Ali Al-Dafiri posted. “Once to the American who spit him out, and then to the Iranians who ignored him.”
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