Chalabi goes back to Iraq to clear name

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Ahmad Chalabi, once the Pentagon’s favorite to lead a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, fought back Wednesday on two fronts to salvage a political future now tarnished by allegations ranging from dealing in counterfeit Iraqi currency to leaking U.S. secrets to Iran.

In Baghdad, officials of Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress announced that he had returned to Iraq from Iran to clear his name of charges that he counterfeited old Iraqi dinars and used them to buy new dinars issued after Saddam’s ouster. But Chalabi didn’t appear at INC headquarters as expected, and INC officials wouldn’t say where in Iraq he was.

In Washington, U.S. lawyers for Chalabi filed a federal court lawsuit that accused the Jordanian government of illegally seizing Chalabi’s bank in 1989 and framing him on embezzlement charges to stop him from exposing illegal arms sales to Saddam.

The smear campaign continued into this year, the suit says, when Jordanian officials enlisted unnamed CIA officials last spring to spread to U.S. reporters “the knowingly false story” that Chalabi had told Iran that the United States was monitoring its secret communications.

The lawsuit and his return to Baghdad underscored Chalabi’s determination to remain a player in Iraqi politics despite having lost favor with the United States and with little support in the U.S.-backed interim government. Today, the interim government gave the INC 24 hours to vacate its Baghdad headquarters, saying it needed the building. Chalabi for years opposed Saddam from exile, winning millions of dollars in U.S. support and forging close ties with U.S. officials who favored Chalabi as Saddam’s successor.