Chalabi Revisited

Today, Iraqi police and American forces staged a raid on the offices of Ahmed Chalabi, whom Mr. Bush called our best friend in Iraq and to whom the US just suspended all payments (after we paid him a king's ransom) after widespread corruption about the Iraqi National Congress became clear to even Mr. Bush.

It's good riddance in many respects. Chalabi seemed to do nothing but filter us bad intelligence and provide Judith Miller with unbelievable (and ultimately far from truthful) tips she ran with like they were sermons from the Mount.

However, the raid makes me think there is one thing that Chalabi could be useful for and may be the very reason we raided the offices. Chalabi knows some of the dirt that went on in the lead-up to war. I suspect his offices were raided, at least in part, to try to remove some of that dirt before the election here in November.

I suspect he knows some details that it would be very useful for us to know as Americans in how we went to war, in light of all the lies that were told - and not just by Chalabi to Bush.

Will an enraged Chalabi spill the beans on Bush and Company? I don't know. I bet he's under a lot of pressure to keep quiet, and the raid would remind him of that. The problem is that, given his credibility, it would be hard to believe what he says without proof - and the raid, as I said, was likely designed to remove some of that proof.