Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 4 Num 351 Wed. May 26, 2004  
   
International


Iran may have duped US into Iraq war: The Guardian


US officials suspect Iran duped the United States into invading Iraq by slipping bogus intelligence to Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC), The Guardian newspaper reported yesterday.

"Some intelligence officials now believe that Iran used the hawks in the Pentagon and the White House to get rid of a hostile neighbour and pave the way for a Shia-ruled Iraq," it said in a front-page dispatch from Washington.

Quoting a US intelligence official, whom it did not name, The Guardian said Chalabi's intelligence chief Ara Kariim Habibi had been a paid by Iranian agent for several years, "passing intelligence in both directions".

"It's pretty clear that Iranians had us for breakfast, lunch and dinner," it quoted an intelligence source in Washington as saying. "Iranian intelligence has been manipulating the US for several years through Chalabi."