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How Ahmad Chalabi Downplayed His Role in the U.S. Invasion of Iraq

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Ahmed Chalabi, one of nine rotating pres
Ahmed Chalabi, one of nine rotating presidents of the Iraqi Governing Council, speaks to the 58th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Oct. 2, 2003, at UN headquarters in New York.Stan Honda—AFP/Getty Images
By Lily Rothman

American obituaries of Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, whose death in his 70s was announced on Tuesday, are likely to focus on one aspect of his decades-long career: that, in encouraging the U.S. military involvement in Iraq in 2003, he provided information that led many to believe that his country had weapons of mass destruction.

However, about two years after that conflict began, when he was Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister and Saddam Hussein was still on trial, he spoke to TIME’s Brian Bennett during a visit to the United States—and his version of what had happened was very different. In describing the events that led up to the war, he downplayed his own role in influencing any decisions by the U.S.:

HOW MUCH CREDIT CAN YOU TAKE FOR THE U.S. DECISION TO GO TO WAR IN IRAQ? The U.S. has been at loggerheads with Saddam [Hussein] since the first Gulf War, and there was a sense of unfinished business. There were many calls to remove Saddam’s regime from power by American organizations. We were there, but we could not have much influence. We were an exile organization.

NOW THAT SOME OF THE WEAPONS-OF-MASS-DESTRUCTION [WMD] SOURCES YOU INTRODUCED TO THE AMERICANS HAVE BEEN DISCREDITED, DO YOU REGRET NOT CHECKING OUT THEIR STORIES MORE? The Robb-Silberman report said we had minimum impact on WMD intelligence as it related to the U.S. decision to go to war. It is an urban myth that we had ill-principled sources. It is our job to check to see that these people are who they say they are. It is the job of the intelligence agencies to do the serious vetting and checking.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT JUDITH MILLER, THE NEWLY RETIRED NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER WHO HAS BEEN CRITICIZED FOR RELYING ON YOUR ORGANIZATION AS A SOURCE FOR PREWAR REPORTING ON IRAQ’S WMDS? I think Judith Miller is a good reporter. Over there she did very good reporting for the Times, and she tried to check the facts and examine the evidence. I think she has been made into a scapegoat for the media. If you count the number of newspapers and media outlets that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, you’ll find many all around.

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THE REPORTED ALLEGATIONS THAT YOU GAVE U.S. SECRETS TO IRAN? Those allegations are false. I deny them. I did no such thing.

Read the full interview here in the TIME archives: 10 Questions for Ahmad Chalabi

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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com