Chalabi is Coming to Town...

Chalabi Back to Court Washington's Favor - Ahmed Chalabi, the Bush administration's co-conspirator in the misinformation campaign that led to the invasion of Iraq, is coming to Washington this week. Rumor has it that Patrick Fitzgerald will serve Mr. Chalabi with a subpoena in an attempt to force him to testify under oath. Stay tuned...... (I made up that last part ...)

WASHINGTON -- Face-to-face meetings with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and probably other senior Bush administration officials await Ahmed Chalabi as the Iraqi deputy prime minister pursues political rehabilitation in Washington. While some Senate Democrats want to probe the role of the Iraq National Congress, an exile group headed by Chalabi, in drumming up support for the war that deposed Saddam Hussein, he is about to receive high-profile attention from the Bush administration. Chalabi, who begins his eight-day visit on Tuesday, is due to see Rice on Wednesday and make a speech that day at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank that provides personnel and considerable support to the administration. He expects to see other senior U.S. officials as well, but he has not yet nailed down a meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney, another goal as Chalabi maneuvers to become Iraq's next prime minister after elections in December. Chalabi is linked with ultimately unfounded claims by President Bush and his top aides that Saddam had amassed hidden arsenals of weapons of mass destruction. The claim helped the president gain support from Congress and much of the American public for the war in 2003. A former banker and MIT graduate, Chalabi has been a controversial figure on several fronts, accused sometimes of being an Iranian agent.

Chalabi, here on Tuesday and Tehran yesterday.