Wednesday 9 November 2005

Chalabi Visit May Signal New Cabal Meeting

Group Battered By Scandals, Indictment and Torture Probes Looking To Rattle Its' Saber Again

Ahmad Chalabi, the deputy prime minister of Iraq, and former Bush Administration 'Golden Boy', arrived in Washington yesterday, for talks with American officials, and, sources tell The Garlic, to attend a Secret Cabal meeting with, among others, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield.

The former Iraqi exile, who some deride as a modern day Harry Lime, after the corrupt and unscrupulous character of the Graham Greene novel, 'The Third Man', made famous by Orson Wells in a film of the same title, is accused by many as conning the United States into removing Sadam Hussein, of attempting to lead a coup of the new Iraqi government and, currently, is being looked at for passing along intelligence to Iran and Syria.

This has caused an ambivalent relationship with the Bush team.

His visit was coordinated with that of another top Iraqi official, Adel Abdul Mahdi. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli coolly described the occasion as "Ahmad Chalabi is the deputy prime minister of Iraq; he is an official and a representative of the government of Iraq"

'They don't know whether to piss or wind their watches when it comes to Chalabi," offered veteran independent foreign correspondent, Huntley Haverstock Jr.

Haverstock contends that Chalabi coming to the United States, at this time, signals that the Secret Cabal inside the White House is gearing up to meet again.

"They've been thrown off course the past few weeks," says Haverstock. "The disarray in the White House, the scandals and the Libby indictment has caused them to take their eyes of the ball."

Haverstock says the first clue he got as to a new Secret Cabal meeting came with Vice President Dick Cheney seeking an exemption for the CIA when it comes to banning torture.

'Cheney was putting a stake in the ground. He's getting the Cabal refocused and warming them up to rattle the sabers again."

Chalabi is the longtime head of the Iraqi National Congress, an exile group that provided information about Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons programs to the United States. Chalabi was the Bush Administrations first choice to lead the new Iraq, before the State Department, and other agencies and some allies, made charges of corruption, bank fraud, extortion and leaking intelligence.

Perhaps, says Haverstock, as a signal to the Secret Cabal, President Bush, in a stopover in Panama on Monday, on his return from the Latin America summit meetings, defended the Administration, and Military's, record and policies as to detention and interrogation methods in the war on terror. The President said, flat out, that "We do not torture."

'Cheney's likely," said Haverstock, "just bucking up the Neocon's. Whether or not the Congress passes law to ban torture, the CIA has their black site prisons very well established, so they aren't going to close those down anytime soon."

Haverstock reports that rumors are circulating the Bush Administration held a quiet, private reception for Chalabi last evening, attended only by select staff, congressional, Secret Cabal members and wealthy GOP donors.

"They said it was to raise funds for Scooter Libby's defense."

Haverstock said there's also talk that Libby will be a target of a Extraordinary Rendition, perhaps being sent to one of the CIA black sites.

"They're alittle nervous on what this guy might say, if he tries to cut a deal. You can bet that will be on the agenda of the Secret Cabal meeting."















After his stop-over in Panama, President Bush dropped into Cuba, to visit the Guantánamo Detention Camp, to engage in torturing a group of prisoners with his singing and guitar playing of the classic Led Zeppelin tune, "Stairway To Heaven".