Political Quotes

“I do not have clear evidence yet as to whether they were raided by the Iraqi government or by the CPA, but both the Senator and I have been incredible skeptics of this administration's reliance on this fellow, Ahmed Chalabi, who has been indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced in Jordan. For the last 2 years--although I have nothing personal against Mr. Ahmed Chalabi--I have been urging this administration, particularly the Secretary of Defense, the Vice President, and Mr. Wolfowitz: Do not put our eggs into Mr. Chalabi's basket. Mr. Chalabi is the President of the Iraqi National Congress. I was so concerned about this that my friend from Nebraska, Senator Hagel, and I were literally smuggled into northern Iraq about a month before the war began because we wanted to meet with the Barzani and Talibani clients in northern Iraq to determine what their attitude was, first, toward our invasion with Iraq--would they be with us? There were reports that they would have been, but we wanted to find out firsthand. And B, we wanted to find out whether Ahmed Chalabi spoke for them. The leaders of both those clans said: We want to make it clear that the INC does not speak for us.”