President Bush should take the opportinuty to ask Mr. Chalabi if he wouldn't mind doing a "Special Guest Appearance" as lecturer, for the White House's latest initiative, compulsory Ethics Classes.

The integrity of the Administration demands it.

Most people think Chalabi is just a crook, and he may be, but he is far more. Greg Palast has uncovered the sordid history behind this man. He was caught in the fight between the neo-cons wanting to break the back of OPEC by privatizing the oil industry in Iraq, and the oil men backed by Cheney/Bush, who wanted cooperation with OPEC to keep oil prices high.

In short, the espionage charges came about after Chalabi put his own man al-Uloum in the oil ministry, the son of a Shia power broker, and kicked out the men installed by the Bush administration. He intended to withdraw from OPEC.

Seems his "bank fraud" was forgiven by the King of Jordan and the trumped up espionage charges dropped by the US following Chalabi's agreement to cooperate with OPEC.

Whether or not this is true, it certainly is the only explanation of the rise and fall of this man in the Bush administration's eyes, which makes any sense.

There's more to this story. Given Palast's past investigations coming to light years after he uncovered the facts, my guess is that this is another thing which needs to be investigated about Cheney.

Laurie Hester

This detailed article is a chronicle of not only Administration misdeeds and grievous activities, but an insight into what appears to be a brilliant, intentionally muddled, strategy for the war that is going to take not months, not years, but centuries to decode.

See? Keep 'em confused long enough - he's in, he's out, he's secular yet has religious approval, he's both shady and reliable - so that both skeptics and critics are continuously befuddled. It's the old confuse and conquer. Show run, throw the bomb.

It begins with the war itself, much less how it was deceptively legitimized. Amazingly, there's no true consensus. The war's about Shakespearian vindication of a son for a father. No. It's about oil. Well, no; that's not working out very well. Then it's about a clash of civilizations. No, that wouldn't permit the fostering of a genuine democracy. That's it; it's about democracy. No, the theocratic constitution and ancient legacy of tribal and sectarian conflicts aren't going to allow true democracy to be cultivated. Then, OK, here - I know - let's bring back that crafty salesman, the kind who could sell ice to Alaskans in January, and have him, in his suit and shifty eyed stance represent what modern secular life is all about - the quick buck, the bait and switch, the promise them anything but above all make sure they have credit cards. That'll do it. How could the shell-shocked masses resist such appealing snake oil? If they buy that, then they're on board. And, moreover, because it's so confusing, twisted so tightly into a huge ambiguous knot, no one in our life's time is going to disentangle it sufficiently to place the blame where it belongs.

C'mon. You might despise the Administration and hate the war, but give those guys credit. Their campaign of confusion - the fog of war squared - has given them an incalcuable amount of endurance. So many people say, "Bush is an idiot." Really. In fact, he's the first president in history to have so successfully mastered the illusion of confusion.