Reply #56: At First I Suspected a Neocon Ploy

[Sporadicus]

But after careful consideration I saw some problems with this scenario.

If portrayal of Chalabi as an Iranian agent is a ruse, it would give him some cachet with the Shi'ite population of Iraq, but the Sunnis don't want a leader who would expand Iranian influence in their country.

The CIA wouldn't go along with a ruse that ends up exposing their incompetence. More likely, the CIA has been aware of Chalabi's Iranian connections for years, and the neocons ignored the warnings. This fiasco gives the CIA the opportunity to save face, saying, 'I told you so.'

The neocons must come up with a better pretense for expanding the war than the passing of secret information. At best, this debacle merely gives them an opportunity to ratchet up the rhetoric. I don't pretend that some of the neocons aren't psychotic enough to advocate a head-on attack of Iran, but I would expect a better justification than Chalabi's spying for profit.