Washington, D.C.
The FBI is investigating whether someone in the Defense Department told Ahmad Chalabi, a former Iraqi exile once close to the Pentagon, that the U.S. had broken Iran’s secret spy code. Investigators were focusing on a few dozen officials who talked to Chalabi regularly. Chalabi reportedly relayed the tip to Iranian agents in Baghdad, rendering a major intelligence coup useless. The U.S. confirmed Chalabi’s role six weeks ago, when it intercepted a cable that an Iranian agent sent home from Iraq. The Iranian told his superiors that Chalabi’s American source had been drunk. Chalabi called the allegations against him “stupid,” while some of his supporters in Washington said the charges were part of a smear campaign by Chalabi’s longtime adversaries in the CIA.
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