Chalabi: "I am not a Crook"

How ironic that on the 30th anniversary of the end of the Nixon presidency, The New York Times has a story about the once Most Favored Individual to lead the New Iraq in the eyes of the Bush administration:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 8 - Ahmad Chalabi, the exile leader who returned to Iraq last year hoping to run the country with American support, was ordered arrested on counterfeiting charges, Iraqi officials said Sunday night.

In a sense, this is back to the future for Chalabi--he's out of the country (no word on how he got to Iran, although I expect he wasn't smuggled out in the trunk of a car), he's vowing his innocence, but it seems that he might once again be exiled. Team Bush, in the best diplomatese, gave him the heave ho:

"This is a matter for the Iraqi authorities to resolve, and they are taking steps to do so," said a White House spokeswoman, Suzy DeFrancis.

Translated, that's somewhat akin to telling him to go Cheney himself.

And, like father, like son: Salem Chalabi, or Chalabi, TNG, is also under indictment. But, as they say, the son always outdoes the father. The charge against him is murder, specifically his involvement in the killing of Haithem Fadhil, a director general of the Iraqi Finance Ministry. The younger Chalabi likewise shares his father's propensity to get the hell out when the going gets tough. Salem, though, is in London, not Iran. Perhaps the boy is a little soft.