The Traitor of Baghdad

On 15 February 2011, the Guardian reported that Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, code-named ‘Curveball’ by U.S. intelligence officials, admitted to fabricating knowledge of Saddam Hussein’s alleged Biological Weapons Program. Despite clear warnings from CIA officials, both the Bush administration and the British Labour Government used Al-Janabi’s information in public statements and official reports, resulting in military action against Iraq.

The Guardian reported on 2nd April 2004 that Mr. Janabi is the cousin of a close aide to Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress and now a senior Iraqi government official, who played an instrumental role in the “disinformation” campaign designed to coerce the United States and Britain to authorize the invasion of Iraq. The 2006 US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report about the INC corroborates this.

The Guardian noted that, according to the Los Angeles Times, UN weapons inspectors specifically asked Mr. Chalabi to find evidence of mobile biological weapons production facilities inside Iraq. This has left many questioning wherever “Curveball” was either directed or encouraged by Ahmed Chalabi, to present false information and precipitate the illegal invasion.

Deception is a second nature to Ahmed Chalabi. A convicted embezzler, he was sentenced to 24 years hard labour by the central criminal court in Jordan for having brought down the Petra Bank. However, he escaped the kingdom, fled to the West where opposing Saddam Hussein was more prestigious and even established himself as a “joint director” of the INDICT Campaign, alongside the former chairperson of Britain’s then ruling Labour Party, Ann Clwyd MP. INDICT was founded 1996 with the aim of bringing Saddam Hussein and other leading members of his government to justice.

In 2004, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Salem Chalabi, Ahmed Chalabi’s nephew, also known for being in charge of the trial of Saddam Hussein. It was claimed that Salem Chalabi was suspected of involvement in the murder of a senior Iraqi civil servant.

Like his uncle, Salem is reported to have worked on various projects, including helping to draw up suggestions for a possible post-Saddam constitution, before the war was even waged After Saddam Hussein was overthrown by the US/UK led “Coalition of the willing”, Mr Chalabi junior – like his uncle – returned to Baghdad and was soon playing a key role in the country’s so-called “reconstruction”.

Ahmed Chalabi, who was being paid roughly $340,000 per month by the Pentagon “for intelligence”, had these subsidies cut off after allegations emerged that he was also spying for the Iranians. It was alleged that Chalabi told Iranian intelligence officials in Baghdad that he had been informed the US had broken Iranian communications codes and were reading the internal documents of Tehran’s ministry of intelligence and security.

Even though Chalabi admitted that he had met Iranian officials frequently as part of his political functions, he went on to accuse George Tenet, then head of the CIA, of fabricating the information as part of a smear campaign against him.

A not so strange conclusion to draw for anyone with sociopathic tendencies, especially when David Kay, the former chief weapons inspector in Iraq, was to later state: “the reason George Tenet and the top of the (CIA) agency came over to the argument that Iraq had W.M.D. was that they really knew the US vice president had come to that conclusion anyway, they had been getting information from Chalabi for years.”

It is estimated that over one million people have died within Iraq, as a result of the “lies” told by Al-Janabi aka “Curveball”. According to the UNHCR, millions more have been displaced and over five million children are orphans. The degenerate “Curveball” has also shown no remorse for his actions either; he and his children appear “proud” of the fact that they were the reasons Iraq now has “democracy.”

Human Rights Watch recently reported that torture in Iraqi prisons continues under the authority of elite military units reporting to Al-Janabi’s “Democratic” Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Meanwhile, thousands of men and women have lost their lives, with countless others suffering from the wounds of war in both Britain and America, just so eight years after Bush and Blair launched the invasion of Iraq, Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi could say, “maybe I was right, maybe I was not right”, whilst clearly admitting to be the cause behind the increasing numbers of veteran suicides, homelessness, substance abuse and domestic violence.

Hussein Al-alak is a British based journalist and is chairman of the Iraq Solidarity Campaign UK. Hussein is also a member of the Royal British Legion and a mental health advocate for Combat Stress.

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This post was written by Hussein Al-alak