Full Release - IRmep

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., obstruction ofjustice.Qr them, the Watergate PrinQZe applies: It's not
the crime, it's the coverup."
The lie~ Chalabi fed to Washington policymakers, who eagerly scarfed them
up and regurgitated them to the American public, originated with Iranian
intelligence, as we are beginning to learn. But the neocon-Tehran
information superhighway ran in both directions. As Julian Borger reports in
the Guardian:
'~n intelligence source in Washington said the CIA confirmed its long-held
suspicions when it discovered that a piece of information from an
electronic communications intercept by the National Security Agency had
ended up in Iranian hands. The information was so sensitive that its
circulation had been restricted to a handful of officials. 'This was 'sensitive
compartmented information' - SCI - and it was tracked right back to the
Iranians through Aras Habib,' the intelligence source said."
UPI's Richard Sale reports that "the Federal Bureau of Investigation has
launched a full field investigation into the matter,II and gives more
information on what was compromised and how the Iranians pulled off this
intelligence coup:
"Chalabi allegedly passed National Security Agency/CIA intercepts to
intelligence agents of the Iranian government using intermediaries or 'cutouts'
or 'gophers' within the INC, another former CIA agent said. Some of
the intercepts, dated from December, were the basis for a rec~nt Newsweek
story, but there are others of a later date in possession of the FBI, this
source said."
How did Chalabi get his hot little hands on highly secret information?
That's why the FBI - instead of going after, say, Brandon .Mayfield, or some
other completely innocent person, as per usual - is now calling on
"prominent" neocons at Washington's poshest thinktanks. I hope they're
bringing an ample supply of handcuffs. But whom might they be
handcuffing and frog-marching out the door, into a waiting paddywagon?
UPI gives us the scoop, citing "a former very senior CIA official" as saying:
"'Chalabi passed specially compartmented intelligence, extraordinarily
sensitive stuff, to the. Iranians.' This source said that some of the intercepts
are believed to have been given Chalabi by two U.S. officials of the
Coalition Provision Authority, both of whom are not named here ·because
UPI could not reach them for comment."
Well, they aren't named, but they might as well have been:
"Qne former CPA official has returned to the United States and is
'employed at ·the American Enterprise Institute, the fQrme~ very senior
file:/IQ:\DOCUME-l\agolwink\LOCALS-l\Temp\XN729MWP.htm 6/13/2005