Bill Delahunt: “I think a more apt description of Mr. Chalabi is that he is a convicted felon. When he fled Iraq he ended up in London…”

“I think a more apt description of Mr. Chalabi is that he is a convicted felon. When he fled Iraq he ended up in London for a period of time and then went ahead and conducted business, banking business, financial services, in the kingdom of Jordan. There he was charged with embezzlement and a series of other crimes that would constitute in our jurisprudence a felony. He was tried and convicted and was sentenced to 22 years by a Jordanian court. I am sure he would contest that. I am sure that he would proclaim his innocence, but that is a fact, a reality. That is not just simply an unflattering description of an individual. I asked the king if he had been consulted by the United States Government because I was aware that Mr. Chalabi had been convicted of a serious crime, an embezzlement of some hundreds of millions of dollars. He said, with certain equanimity, No, I was not.”