Chalabi: The Survivor

Lesley Stahl Interviews Iraq's Ahmed Chalabi

(CBS) 
He became such a thorn in the side of the Bush administration that last year the White House decided to go after him, authorizing a raid on his house and office. If the raid was meant to discredit him, Chalabi believes it had the opposite effect.

“This liberated me in front of the Iraqi people,” Chalabi said. "It clarified my relationship with the United States. I am not beholden to the United States after what they did to me."

Chalabi then went about his comeback methodically, identifying centers of power and then either aligning himself, ingratiating himself or insinuating himself.

As he did when — just days after the raid on his home and office — he traveled to Najaf to meet with Moqtada al-Sadr, the charismatic young rebel cleric whose militia was battling U.S. forces.

He knew this was dangerous. “We didn’t know whether we were going to be shot at by Moqtada’s people or by the Americans,” he said.

Chalabi, a Shiite like al-Sadr, helped negotiate a ceasefire but then infuriated the Americans by championing al-Sadr’s cause.

Some Americans were shocked when Chalabi aligned himself with al-Sadr, who had encouraged his followers to attack U.S. soldiers.

“I wanted to avert a full-scale battle between the Sadarists, who are all over Iraq, and American forces,” Chalabi said.

Chalabi says one of his greatest achievements was persuading al-Sadr and his followers to give up their weapons and turn to politics. “They are not a threat to American forces now, and you cannot imagine the situation if there is an insurgency in all the south now,” Chalabi said. “It will be a disaster.”

Stahl asked Chalabi about criticisms that he courted al-Sadr because he was just “looking for votes.”

“You know, (critics) use the word ‘opportunist,’” Stahl said.

“Oh yes. Well, the issue is, of course, they are wrong. Opportunism here doesn’t enter into it,” Chalabi replied.

And yet this self-proclaimed “secularist” worked to convince the major Shiite groups, including some of the most hard-line Islamicists, to join together in a political alliance. He also helped get the country’s most revered religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to endorse the alliance — and to embrace him. Had Chalabi, who sold himself to the United States as a democrat, re-invented himself?

“Here’s a view: you came to the officials in Washington and said, ‘I’m a democrat. I support the rule of law. I support western-style institutions.’ And then you come here and ally yourself with Islamicists, hard-line Islamicists, and a lot of the, your critics say you sold out,” Stahl said.

“I didn’t sell out from any — from the Iraqi people. My loyalty is primarily to the Iraqi people, not to the Americans,” Chalabi said. “I’m a democrat and I didn't give it away. I fight for things. Look at the constitution. The constitution is good. President Bush went on television saying it's a great document. It will change the Middle East.”