Chalabi's victory over Allawi
nytimes.com
September 27, 2004
Iraqi Judge Drops Case Against Leading Exile Figure
By EDWARD WONG
AGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 27 — A senior Iraqi judge said today that he had closed a case brought against Ahmad Chalabi, the former exile once backed by the Pentagon, who had been suspected of involvement in a counterfeiting operation.
The judge, Zuhair al-Maliky, said in a telephone interview that he took the action about a week-and-a-half ago because he had decided "the evidence was not enough to bring the case to trial." If more evidence emerges, he said, the case will be reopened.
The decision also followed conversations between Mr. Chalabi's lawyers and representatives of the Central Bank of Iraq, Judge Maliky said.
The move appears to signify a minor victory by Mr. Chalabi over the interim government led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a longtime rival of Mr. Chalabi's. The government said in August that it was charging Mr. Chalabi with counterfeiting Iraqi currency. That came at a time when Mr. Chalabi was on vacation at a summer home in Iran, and it appeared to many that the levying of the charge was a move by Mr. Allawi to dissuade Mr. Chalabi from re-entering the country.
But Mr. Chalabi did return to Iraq and proceeded to lambaste the government, holding meetings with reporters in which he proclaimed his innocence and vowed to return to political life.
A seemingly unending string of suicide car bombs continued this morning, as seven members of the fledgling Iraqi National Guard were killed after a suicide car bomber rammed into their convoy in the northern city of Mosul, health officials in the city said. Eight people were wounded in the attack.
The First Cavalry Division, which is in charge of controlling the capital, carried out airstrikes on Sunday night and early today against residents of Sadr City, a vast slum of 2.2 million people in northeastern Baghdad. The area is home to the Mahdi Army, a militia of mostly impoverished young men led by Moktada al-Sadr, a youthful, fiery, anti-American cleric. The overnight strikes killed at least 6 people and injured at least 46, said Qasim Saddam, director of Chewadir Hospital. Among the wounded, Mr. Saddam said, were 15 women and 9 children.
A Mahdi Army official who gave his name only as Abu Thar said all the people in the hospital were civilians because "we do not admit our casualties into hospitals fearing they might be arrested by the Americans."
The American military issued a statement that, in typically terse language, described the assault: "During early morning hours today, precision strikes on several positively identified targets destroyed four insurgent forces and several enemy positions. Following the engagements, secondary explosions were reported, destroying one civilian vehicle."
Later, in the evening, the military released another statement that disputed the reports of casualties. "Early indications are that injuries to a large group of people as a result of this engagement did not occur as is being reported," it said, adding that officers had begun an internal investigation "to determine the full set of facts on this matter."
A Mahdi Army official named Kadhum said the Americans had also arrested many members of the militia in raids.
"They want to finish them, to finish all the members, and they're doing it for the American elections," he said.
Late tonight, an AC-130 gunship fired into the streets of Sadr City, and loud explosions could be heard for miles. One witness said soldiers had formed a perimeter along some of the outer streets and appeared ready to send in tanks.
The First Cavalry Division has been conducting airstrikes in Sadr City for nearly a week in hopes of breaking the back of the Mahdi Army and winning support. But even the most casual trips to the neighborhood show that Mr. Sadr enjoys fervent backing from a large swath of the population there, and that a military offensive in the area might only stir up more hatred of the occupation. Mr. Sadr's following is not predicated on his own leadership abilities, but rather on the immense popularity of his deceased father, a prominent Shiite cleric who opposed the iron rule of Saddam Hussein.
Two soldiers with the First Infantry Division died near the town of Balad today, one in an automobile accident and the other in an ambush while riding in a patrol that was returning from the scene of the accident, the American military said.
The military also said it was charging two First Cavalry soldiers, Staff Sgt. Johnny Horne Jr., and Staff Sgt. Cardenas Alban, with murder. The military said the Army's criminal investigation division was still looking into the accusations and declined to give more details. The two soldiers are part of Company C, First Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment.
Last Wednesday, the military said it was charging two other soldiers from the same unit with murder, though the military said the cases were not related. On Saturday, the military said it had sentenced a soldier from the First Infantry Division to 25 years in prison for murdering a member of the Iraqi National Guard in May. In that case, the soldier, Specialist Federico Merida, had pleaded guilty.
This morning, insurgents launched several mortar rounds at a police training center in eastern Baghdad, along Palestine Street, and at an American base in the area. Since April, insurgents have launched nearly 3,000 mortar rounds in Baghdad alone, a spokesman for the First Cavalry Division, Lt. Col. James Hutton, said in a statement.
A delegation of senior officials from Falluja, the insurgent-controlled city 35 miles west of Baghdad, continued meeting today with Kurdish officials in the northern city of Suleimaniya. The officials, who represent the hard-line Islamist rebel government that now runs Falluja, went to Suleimaniya on Sunday to meet with Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two main Kurdish parties. The two sides discussed how to bring peace to Falluja, which the Americans hit often with airstrikes.
In a related Chalabi matter, the judge presiding over the case of Ahmad Chalabi said that murder charges against a nephew of Mr. Chalabi, Salem Chalabi, had not been dropped, despite a statement put out by the younger Mr. Chalabi last week saying that they had.
Salem Chalabi is the former head of the special Iraqi tribunal set up to try Saddam Hussein and his associates. In his statement, Mr. Chalabi accused Prime Minister Allawi of dismissing him five months into a three-year term to gain "political control" of the tribunal.
There has been dispute over the status of charges before involving the Chalabis. In early September, Ahmad Chalabi said that the counterfeiting charges against him had been dropped, only to have Judge Maliky tell reporters that the investigation was still ongoing.
Since last spring, when American soldiers and Iraqi security forces raided Ahmad Chalabi's house here, he has been fighting for his political life. That raid was initiated by an American investigation into accusations that Mr. Chalabi had leaked American code-breaking secrets to Iran. Mr. Chalabi's fortunes sank further when the Americans anointed Mr. Allawi as leader of the interim government.
Now, having lost the support of politicians in Washington, Mr. Chalabi has recast himself as a champion of Shiite rights and is moving to align himself with Shiite religious leaders here. |
