Yesterday morning we noted that Ahmad Chalabi is being feted next week at the American Enterprise Institute. Set aside the fact that little more than a year ago he was implicated in sharing US intelligence with Iran. What we know pretty much conclusively now is that Chalabi connived at gaming the US into war by cooking up all manner of bogus intelligence and unsubstantiated claims about WMD and terrorism. It is almost a cliche at this point — Chalabi, the Iraqi emigre behind most of the outlandish bogus intel.
One extreme view would have it that Chalabi is an Iraqi patriot and, as such, any lying and cheating and stealing in America is just a means to the end of getting the previous regime overthrown. As it happens, I think the guy is more just a gamer and an opportunist. But be that as it may, what sort of American organization would be hosting and celebrating such a man after all we know today, after all the bad acts we know he has committed against this country.
The organization is, of course, AEI. And how can it be that their feting of him, as they are to do next week, does not amount to a big ‘who cares’ or ‘ends justify the means’ or ‘we knew what he was up to all along anyway’ about all the phoney baloney he pulled in the lead up to the war?
Will any politician, Republican or Democrat, stand up and speak out against this outrage? Does anyone plan to protest?
