Chalabi's credibility

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The State Department and the CIA seem to have grabbed the wheel at the New York Times with successive front-page stories last week on Wednesday and Thursday, first smearing Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi Governing Council member and longtime U.S. ally (but the State Department and CIA's longtime enemy), then his allies in the administration.

Perhaps the New York Times sacrificed its journalistic integrity in exchange for the first pass at leaks from State and CIA, or perhaps the paper and the paper-pushers united because of a common goal: the defeat of George W. Bush this November.

To appreciate how surreal the stories in the New York Times were last week, consider the underlying facts. Mr. Chalabi is accused of telling Iran that the United States had broken its secret code. The kicker, though, is how U.S. officials learned that.

According to the reporting of the New York Times, upon being told that his country's code had been compromised, an Iranian intelligence agent turned around and sent a message back to the mullahs that the United States had cracked the code -- by using the cracked code.

Never mind that the message could have been delivered by hand following a 2-hour drive.

Knowing that your code has been cracked is about the best gift that can be given. The potential for misinformation is enormous. Any Iranian intelligence agent would have had common sense enough not to slaughter the golden goose before it had been given the chance to lay any eggs.

That "intelligence officials" felt strongly enough to go the New York Timesmeans one of two things: 1) They didn't believe that Mr. Chalabi had actually done anything, but exploited it anyway to achieve a long-sought goal (squashing Mr. Chalabi), or 2) they are pitifully, disturbingly gullible.

More offensive, though, was that the New York Times bit. And then some.