Polygraph Testing Starts at Pentagon in Chalabi Inquiry

[R. A. Hettinga]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/03/politics/03CHAL.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=>

The New York Times

June 3, 2004

Polygraph Testing Starts at Pentagon in Chalabi Inquiry
By DAVID JOHNSTON and JAMES RISEN

ASHINGTON, June 2 - Federal investigators have begun administering
polygraph examinations to civilian employees at the Pentagon to determine
who may have disclosed highly classified intelligence to Ahmad Chalabi, the
Iraqi who authorities suspect turned the information over to Iran,
government officials said Wednesday.

The polygraph examinations, which are being conducted by the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, are focused initially on a small number of Pentagon
employees who had access to the information that was compromised. American
intelligence officials have said that Mr. Chalabi informed Iran that the
United States had broken the secret codes used by Iranian intelligence to
transmit confidential messages to posts around the world.

Mr. Chalabi has denied the charge. On Wednesday, his lawyers made public a
letter they said they had sent to Attorney General John Ashcroft and F.B.I.
Director Robert S. Mueller III repeating Mr. Chalabi's denials and
demanding that the Justice Department investigate the disclosure of the
accusations against Mr. Chalabi.

 The lawyers, John J. E. Markham II and Collette C. Goodman, said in the
letter, "The charges made against Dr. Chalabi - both the general and the
specific ones are false."

 They also said, "We ask that you undertake an immediate investigation to
find and hold accountable those who are responsible for these false leaks."

Officials would not identify who has taken polygraph examinations or even
who has been interviewed by F.B.I. counterespionage agents. It could not be
determined whether anyone has declined to submit to a polygraph test.

 No one has been charged with any wrongdoing or identified as a suspect,
but officials familiar with the investigation say that they are working
through a list of people and are likely to interview senior Pentagon
officials.

 The F.B.I. is looking at officials who both knew of the code-breaking
operation and had dealings with Mr. Chalabi, either in Washington or
Baghdad, the government officials said. Information about code-breaking
work is considered among the most confidential material in the government
and is handled under tight security and with very limited access.

 But a wider circle of officials could have inferred from intelligence
reports about Iran that the United States had access to the internal
communications of Iran's spy service, intelligence officials said. That may
make it difficult to identify the source of any leak.

 Government officials say they started the investigation of Pentagon
officials after learning that Mr. Chalabi had told the Baghdad station
chief of Iran's intelligence service that the United States was reading
their communications. Mr. Chalabi, American officials say, gave the
information to the Iranians about six weeks ago, apparently because he
wanted to ensure that his secret conversations with the Iranians were not
revealed to the Americans.

 But the Iranian official apparently did not immediately believe Mr.
Chalabi, because he sent a cable back to Tehran detailing his conversation
with Mr. Chalabi, American officials said. That cable was intercepted and
read by the United States, the officials said.

Mr. Chalabi and his supporters argue that the accusations against him are
part of a C.I.A.-inspired campaign to discredit him. His backers have been
dismayed that the Bush administration recently divorced itself from Mr.
Chalabi and his group, the Iraqi National Congress. They contend that the
move was instigated by the C.I.A., which they say is now wielding
intercepted Iranian communications as a weapon against Mr. Chalabi.

Richard N. Perle, the former chairman of the Defense Policy Board and an
influential Chalabi supporter, said Wednesday that the notion that Mr.
Chalabi would compromise the American code-breaking operation "doesn't pass
the laugh test." Mr. Perle said it was more plausible that the Iranians,
knowing already that the United States was reading its communications,
planted the damning information about Mr. Chalabi to persuade Washington to
distance itself from Mr. Chalabi.

 "The whole thing hinges on the idea that the Baghdad station chief of the
MOIS commits one of the most amazing trade craft errors I've ever heard
of," Mr. Perle said, referring to Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and
Security. He said it defied belief that a seasoned intelligence operative
would disclose a conversation with Mr. Chalabi using the same
communications channel that he had just been warned was compromised.

 "You have to believe that the station chief blew a gift from the gods
because of rank incompetence," Mr. Perle said. "I don't believe it, and I
don't think any other serious intelligence professional would either."

 Mr. Chalabi is not a focus of the inquiry, but senior law enforcement
officials said he could be investigated in the future. They said a decision
on that could be left to the new Iraqi government.

 In the 1990's, the Iraqi National Congress was part of a C.I.A. covert
action program designed to undermine Saddam Hussein's rule. But Mr. Chalabi
had a falling out with the C.I.A., and agency officials concluded that he
was untrustworthy. He subsequently forged an alliance with major
conservative Republicans in Washington. When President Bush took office,
Mr. Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress were embraced by senior policy
makers at the Pentagon, which became his main point of contact in the
American government.

 In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Mr. Markham, one of Mr. Chalabi's
lawyers, said that Mr. Chalabi had been subjected to increasing "adverse
comments" by American officials as his disagreements with the Bush
administration over the future of Iraq had intensified. Nevertheless, Mr.
Markham said, Mr. Chalabi "is very happy to come to the United States to
appear before Congress or be interviewed by legitimate investigative agents
in this matter."

The lawyers' letter said that "Dr. Chalabi would never endanger the
national security of the U.S."

"Those responsible for such leaks, however, we submit are the same
individuals within the U.S. government who have undermined the President's
policies in Iraq and efforts to bring democracy and stability to that
country, and are using Dr. Chalabi as a scapegoat for their own failures
that have cost this country dearly in the past year in Iraq," the letter
said.

Last month, American and Iraqi forces raided Mr. Chalabi's Baghdad compound
and carted away computers, overturned furniture and ransacked his offices.
The raid was said to be part of an investigation into charges that Mr.
Chalabi's aides, including a leading lieutenant, had been involved in
kidnapping, torture, embezzlement and corruption in Iraq. It is still
unclear what the connection might be between that raid and the continuing
counterintelligence investigation of the possible leaks of secrets to Iran.

 Richard A. Oppel Jr. contributed reporting for this article.


-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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