Remember him? He's the Iraqi dissident who, along with his opposition group, the Iraqi National Congress, was being pilloried in the press last year for supposedly providing U.S. intelligence services with faulty information about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs.
At that time, everyone was out to get Chalabi, most especially the press. Chalabi was thought to be finished politically, although he has survived attack after attack on his name and credibility. He is now a member of the new Iraqi legislature.
One of the news outlets out to get Chalabi was Knight-Ridder newspapers. Last year a couple of their reporters filed stories claiming that Chalabi and gang were behind the defection of a discredited Iraqi source, known as "Curveball." Curveball provided exaggerated claims about Saddam's WMD programs. Chalabi always maintained he knew nothing of the defector.
Guess what: He was telling the truth!
Way down low in a long story today about intelligence failures, Knight-Ridder is admitting they were incorrect:
It's now been determined that the INC wasn't behind Curveball's defection, as Knight Ridder reported last year.
Nice of them to admit that. Too bad they tried to bury it so nobody would see it.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:52 PM
