Guide Note:
Ahmad Chalabi is the former head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), a group of exiled Iraqi dissidents formed in 1992 and funded by the United States government to help overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein. Significant portions of the intelligence used by the Bush administration to justify to invasion were supplied by the INC; much of this information later turned out to be false. After the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Chalabi served in various positions in the Iraqi government.
Fast Facts
- Born: October 30, 1944
- Birthplace: Khadimiya, Iraq
- Alma Mater: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Doctorate: University of Chicago in Mathematics
- Spouse: Leila Chalabi
The Iraqi National Congress
A doctor of mathematics, Chalabi founded the Petra Bank in Jordan in 1977, but fled the country and was convicted and sentenced in absentia for bank fraud. After the Gulf War, Chalabi helped organize Kurdish resistance against Iraqi forces at which point he came to the attention of the United States. During the 1990s, as the U.S. government sought a way by which to unseat Saddam Hussein, the Chalabi-led Iraqi National Congress received millions of dollars in aid from the U.S. Congress. Faulty intelligence given by the INC to United States intelligence services is often blamed for providing the justification for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Post-Invasion Iraq
After the invasion, Chalabi moved to Iraq and became the president of the Iraqi interim governing council through the influence of the American-led Coalition Provisional Authority. In the intervening years, he has also served as Oil Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. He has been dogged by accusations of corruption since his arrival in Iraq.
