Chelabi and the Iranians

I suggest you check out this renegade analysis, by the mysterious blogger known as Xymphora, of the rapid downfall of Ahmed Chelabi -- who, as America was shocked to learn, was passing information to the dreaded Iranians. Mr. X does not doubt that these Iranian ties exist, but he feels that they had American sanction, a notion which makes sense to me: Chelabi's people would provided America with a valuable backchannel to Tehran. It's worth noting that Chelabi's most die-hard American backer, Michael Ledeen, has long had Iranian ties. Xymphora's view -- which I think gets within walking distance of the truth -- is that the Iranian accusations serve only to force offstage a marionette who snapped his strings.

I will add only this:

1. When Chelabi's offices and apartment were raided, the media floated a story that "Saddam's agents" had penetrated Chelabi's network. That story didn't fly. Enter the Iranian angle.

2. Xymphora writes:

The neocons provide themselves with an excuse for their failed attack on Iraq, as they can now blame the whole attack on Iraq on misinformation supplied to them by the Iranians through their secret agent Chalabi (I wonder if it will suddenly turn out that the Niger uranium documents were Iranian forgeries).

In fact, some have already blamed Iran for the forgeries; see here. The idea that Iran wanted America to unseat the dictator next door may seem superficially attractive -- until one recalls that the neocons were sending strong "You're next" messages to Tehran immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein.