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 Dinner With AhmedPosted on Mar 17, 2008
By Scott Ritter (Page 4) He had been embraced by the CIA in the early 1990s, only to be abandoned following halfhearted coup attempts the U.S. government failed to support, and accusations of financial mismanagement. But Trent Lott and the Republican Party were gunning for Bill Clinton and the Democrats, and they believed that with Iraq they had discovered a chink in Clinton’s armor. Chalabi was being resurrected before my eyes. They had picked their cause and selected their champion. Now all they needed was a springboard issue from which to launch their program. And that, apparently, was where I came in. I rose early the next morning and went downstairs for breakfast before heading back to Capitol Hill and another round of meetings with senators that Pletka had arranged. Chalabi was already up, and we chatted a bit while I ate. “You see, Scott,” he said, “I have many friends here in Washington. With what you know about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, you can be of invaluable assistance to our cause. The VX story is but the tip of the iceberg.” I was taken aback, as I had not shared the VX lab report information with Chalabi. Clearly, one of our co-diners of the previous evening had spoken out of school. “Well, I am just a simple weapons inspector,” I replied. “In any event, it wouldn’t go over well back at the U.N. to have an UNSCOM inspector plotting regime change down in Washington, D.C.” I looked at Chalabi directly. “This is why you must be very discreet about the VX lab report. It simply won’t do for you to have your fingerprints on this information.” Chalabi smiled and nodded. “I understand completely. As for your status as a weapons inspector, you must understand that those days are nearly gone. The inspection process has run its course. You need to think about what you are going to be doing in the future. I would like you to work for me.” I looked over at him. “How would that work? As an American citizen I can’t be working for you while planning the overthrow of Saddam. I believe there are laws against that.” Chalabi laughed. “Of course. You wouldn’t be working for me, but for the U.S. Senate. My friends would create an advisory position for you, and you would in turn advise me. It wouldn’t pay much upfront,” he said. “But don’t worry. One day I will be the president of Iraq, and will be in control of Iraq’s oil. When that day comes, I will not forget those who helped me in my time of need. Let’s just say that my friends will be given certain oil concessions that will make them very wealthy.” I remained silent. Chalabi’s butler drove me to the Senate office buildings, where I met up with Pletka. She escorted me to the office of Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican. He had been fully briefed on the VX story. He was also interested in my description of how the Clinton administration was balking at fully supporting the work of the UNSCOM inspectors. “This will not stand,” he said when I was finished. “Believe me when I say you and your colleagues have friends here in the U.S. Senate who will make sure America honors its commitments and obligations, especially when it comes to disarming a cruel tyrant such as Saddam Hussein.” Afterward, Pletka and I met with her husband, Steve Rademaker, in the Senate office building cafeteria. Rademaker had been hard at work briefing influential congressmen, especially Ben Gillman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, about the VX lab report. “We’ve got their attention,” Rademaker said, “and I think you’ll find that serious pressure will be brought on the Clinton administration to better support your work.” Pletka then took me back to where I had started, the office of Randy Scheunemann. Once again I was ushered in to see Sen. Lott, who thanked me for my service. “This is very important, and we’re very glad you brought the lab report to our attention. Be assured that this matter will be handled with the utmost discretion.” As I got up to leave, Scheunemann brought up the issue of future collaboration. I said that my being a weapons inspector made such collaboration difficult. Lott intervened. “Well, maybe we can find a way to bring you down here working for us. That might be the most useful thing to do.” Chalabi’s schemes seemed to have some substance behind them. Armed with that potential job offer, I left Washington and returned to New York. Richard Butler was due back at the U.N., where he was planning to announce a “major breakthrough” regarding Iraq’s approach to disarmament. There was to be no mention of the specific details of the VX lab report findings, although Butler had alluded to their existence, and the Iraqi rejection of these findings. Butler was to make a presentation to the Security Council on June 25th. However, my visit to Washington produced results that dramatically altered his planned presentation. On June 23rd, The Washington Post published a front-page story headlined “Tests Show Nerve Gas Agent in Iraqi Weapons.” The article made the main gist of the Aberdeen lab results public. It also reported on the political work undertaken by Lott and the Republicans based on that information. According to the Post story, “The new indications of Iraqi deception also are likely to reverberate in U.S. politics, where conservative Republicans are increasingly critical of what they see as a failure by the Clinton administration to support strongly either aggressive UNSCOM inspections for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction or efforts to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.” Senate Majority Leader Lott was quoted in the article as being “deeply disturbed” by reports that the administration had not acted on the VX information. “The latest example of a failed policy toward Iraq will not be swept under the rug,” the Post quoted him as saying. I was just about to conclude that my visit had been a tremendous success when I caught a line in the middle of the article. “The Washington Post obtained a copy of the U.S. Army lab report from officials of the Iraqi National Congress, the principal Iraqi exile opposition group.” After watching the Republicans build up Chalabi, I should have known that they could not have passed up this opportunity to interject his name into the limelight. “This is a smoking gun,” Chalabi said to The Washington Post. “It shows that Saddam is still lying, and that this whole arrangement based on his turning his weapons of terror over to the United Nations is not workable.” The Post then quoted a “Republican Senate source” who echoed Chalabi’s concern: “This report means that they have VX out there now, and can use it. They have lied from the start.”
Today, in the aftermath of the American invasion of Iraq, I think back on my visit to Washington and my dinner with Ahmed Chalabi and his friends. The ramifications of that visit were many.
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By keller, March 28 at 11:23 am # Sheynonomous If you are such a person to call to action, why do you sit on your computer to the call of 721 comments?????? Go and freaking do something with your life. Call to action?? what the hell does that mean?? You are an instigator of crap. Oh sorry () ()( s ) and you can’t spell or use proper diction in your ‘call to action’ prose whilst you sit at your computer wishing for a different world.
By Joe, March 19 at 11:26 am # Shenonymous, Re your thoughts, “There is an implication for action in the original intent of the article. What exactly does anyone think it is?” The message is stop what you’re doing. Leave them alone.
By nils cognizant, March 18 at 2:14 pm # john, after carefully reading the article, I too was struck by the frankly announced sequence of actions in which Mr. Ritter took part. I’d like to give my more charitable take on this, though. This article must have been a struggle for Ritter to work through. The fact that he is man enough to detail these events is a tribute to him; a man I believe to have grown tremendously since the Chalabi days. I’ve been loosely following Iraq’s travails since the Clinton years and the awful suffering inflicted on the Iraqi population by that President, with needed medical and water filtration supplies stopped before they could be delivered and the careless, frequent use of depleted-uranium anti-armor missiles launched at Iraqi targets (in the South, I think)as we used the Iraqis for target practice. My observation of Mr. Ritter is that he underwent a spiritual change in the late 90’s, overcoming his Marine Corps aggressive training and finding the Iraqi people to be worthy of rescue rather than rough handling and invasion. He is becoming a model for military men here and abroad; those with an expanding world-view and a systematic, solutions-based approach to foreign policy.
By Joe, March 17 at 4:40 pm # Heavyrunner--check the last page of this article. Ritter makes the same points you have made in criticizing the lab findings. Of course, since he is not a chemist, Ritter had no reason to suspect the original report.
By john in california, March 17 at 2:39 pm # Now let me see, Mr. Ritter. You betrayed your boss, your job, your oath to leak information that you had no way to verify and that was subsequently (waaay subsequently) found to be false, giving this info to the political foes of someone you deemed weak knowing they would use it to your boss, your agency and your mission. You were also, apparently, a spy for the CIA, in direct contradiction of everything you and your agency said at the time, though it was the main rationale for Saddam kicking out inspectors. You not only gave secret info to a politico who may have had security clearances but also to an Iraqi national in direct contradiction of your agency’s and your own sworn oath. And all of this you could have revealed before the war but waited until it is useless in stopping the carnage and for this you expect what? Sympathy? Praise? Respect for now mildly questioning you judgment then? Oh, mea culpa, me oh my! Or are we to think you were so naïve that you thought taking this unreliable info to those trying to sabotage the use of inspections would produce something good for Iraq? In truth, you were just pissed off at your bosses for not paying enough attention to you so you thought “ To hell with them! I’ll just sneak around to my right wing buddies in DC and fuck over all this diplomacy shit!” Great job, Mr. Ritter, great job!
By Nancie, March 17 at 12:43 pm # ChalibiIt is amazing to me that Chalabi continues to have the blessings of people in power. He’s a two-bit politician without any credibility at all. Whoops, reminds me of so many others in the Bush Administration—a plethora without credibility!
By Bill Blackolive, March 17 at 12:10 pm # Scott, this is tiring. As can be seen at patriotsquestion9/11 you too know there is a US coverup of 9/11. Get ye back to there to see and understand there will be no time to kill you when a thousand respectable folks have enough heart to say there is this coverup of the US government’s attack on its people, attack on the populace’s mind after bodily murder. You are safe, man, you are safe and please help gang up because otherwise there will be the worsening.
By Bill Blackolive, March 17 at 12:06 pm # Scott, this is tiring. As can be seen at patriotsquestion9/11 you too know there is a US coverup of 9/11. Get ye there to see and understand there will be no time to kill you when a thousand respectable folks have enough heart to say there is this coverup of the US government’s attack on its people, attack on the populace’s mind after bodily murder. You are safe, man, you are safe and please help gang up because otherwise there will be the worsening.
By Jimmy McStubble, March 17 at 11:55 am # Re: Mike Mid-CityI think it’s just the nature of our society. My generation doesn’t speak out like they did in the 60’s. We know nothing of real activism, and those who we wish to influence know only of actual gatherings. The days of Washington DC protests are over. We are in a digital world now, and perhaps it will only be time until my generation is in power and all of our blogging will start to make a difference. I have always promoted that we combine the efforts and try and bring the future sooner. The military personnel didn’t speak out because they didn’t want to lose their jobs, or end up MIA. It’s rough out there looking for work. I’ll be 23 this year, and I’ve had Bush in office since I was 15 years old, so I don’t know much else. Just what’s in history. I guess i’ll stop because I got off topic lines ago. -Steve
By STORMY7, March 17 at 9:06 am # stormy7THERE IS NO ACCOUNTABILITY. THERE WILL BE NO ACCOUNTABILITY. WE HAVE LOST SOMETHING VERY VALUABLE TO ALL AMERICANS. WE HAVE LOST THE CONSTITUTION. THE ONLY LAWS ABIDED BY THIS GOVERNMENT ARE BUSH’S LAW. Add Your Comment |
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Newsroom Carnage Continues at The Washington Post
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