WASHINGTON, 3 June 2004 — The FBI is investigating who in the US government leaked information to former Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi that made its way into the hands of the Iranian government, potentially damaging American efforts to monitor Tehran’s activities, government officials said yesterday.
The officials, who would speak only on condition of anonymity because the information remained classified, said the US government has evidence that Chalabi or his followers told Iran that Washington had cracked some of it secret codes for transmitting sensitive information.
The official said that a raid last month on Chalabi’s home inside Iraq was conducted to determine how the leader of the Iraqi National Congress got the information and whom he shared it with. The FBI is already trying to determine if someone in the US government gave the information to Chalabi, which would be a criminal offense for leaking highly classified material, the official said.
CBS News initially reported Tuesday that Chalabi had told an Iranian intelligence official that the United States had cracked its codes, allowing US agents to read Iran’s secret communications. Revealing such information would expose one of the United States’ most important sources of information about Iran. Following the broadcast report, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post followed with similar stories, all quoting anonymous US intelligence officials.
Appearing on NBC”s “Today” show yesterday, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said: “I actually can’t comment on this story. I don’t know about its veracity or not. I’m sure if there is anything there, it will be investigated.”
The New York and Los Angeles papers said they had learned some details of widely reported US assertions last month that Chalabi had given classified material to Iran, but had agreed not to publish those details at the request of US officials who said to do so would endanger an ongoing investigation. The two papers said those requests to withhold the information they had gathered were withdrawn Tuesday when other news accounts began appearing.
