The Man Who Pushed America to War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures, and Obsessions of Ahmad Chalabi (Hardcover)

by Aram Roston (Author)
Key Phrases: hunting club, hijacking school, million dinars, Ahmad Chalabi, United States, Saddam Hussein (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Intellect, charm, and lust for revenge against Saddam Hussein made Chalabi irresistible to political operatives, neoconservatives, and reporters. Chalabi blamed Saddam Hussein for the1958 exile of his family and the toppling of their banking empire, despite ample evidence that fraudulent insider deals were behind the collapse. Chalabi maneuvered himself onto the payroll of several agencies, including the CIA. The U.S. eventually invested $59 million over 11 years to promote Chalabi’s political agenda and to support his Iraqi National Congress (INC). Reporter Roston pored through legal documents and interviewed a multitude of political figures in the U.S. and the Middle East to detail Chalabi’s incredible machinations. Cultivating the romantic image of a freedom fighter, Chalabi attracted the support of American neocons and was the architect of legislation that helped his cause. INC funds paid accusers, unearthing stories of mobile weapons-of-mass-destruction labs and accusations by Saddam’s mistress that the dictator was connected to Osama bin Laden. Many of those who spoke to Roston were chastened by the turn of events in Iraq, marveling at Chalabi’s abilities to manipulate. But Roston likens Chalabi more to Puck than to Iago in this amazing look at the con man, or hero, who changed the course of Iraqi and American history. --Vanessa Bush

Review
"Another tenpenny nail in the Bush administration's coffin, insofar as the historical record is concerned." -- Kirkus

"Roston pored through legal documents and interviewed a multitude of political figures in the U.S. and the Middle East to detail Chalabi's incredible machinations...[An] amazing look at the con man, or hero, who changed the course of Iraqi and American history." -- Booklist, starred review

"During the next presidential election, voters should have to show proof they have read Aram Roston's fascinating book before being allowed into the booths so we never get into a war like this again." -- James Bamford, bestselling author of Body of Secrets and A Pretext for War

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books (March 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568583532
• ISBN-13: 978-1568583532
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #453,277 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent but imperfect book, March 27, 2008

By	maskirovka (Alexandria, Virginia) - See all my reviews

As a member of the Intelligence Community, I have been following the public discussion of the Iraq WMD debacle for years with keen interest. I remember using some of the Iraqi National Congress reports in a paper that I wrote while attending graduate school, and I now realize that the "facts" I had relied on were fictions.

This is why I was eager to read this book, but when I got it in the mail and looked on the back for who had endorsed it, my heart sank. That's because the two endorsers featured there are Seymour Hersh and James Bamford. Given Seymour Hersh's own problems with using tainted sources for his various articles and books, it was not encouraging to see him extolling the virtues of this book. James Bamford's endorsement was even more disturbing because it was so over the top.

So I thought I was going to be reading a leftist screed (it is ironic that some of the books attacking the decision to go into Iraq for getting it wrong on Iraq are sometimes just as blinkered as the reasoning and "intelligence" that got use there).

But I was pleasantly surprised at the tone of the book. It was not over the top like Bamford's endorsement, and it was not laden with questionable "sources" like Hersh employs. Rather I would characterized the tone as one of mixed wonder at Chalabi's success, chagrin at his negative impact on US interests, and mild amusement at it all as well.

For me, the best parts of the book are the ones dealing with the financial shenanigans that --correctly in my view-- got Chalabi a criminal conviction for financial crimes in Jordan. What he was up to in the --for him-- bleak years in the 1990s was also quite interesting as was the discussion of his success in manipulating key US opinion makers, pundits, and journalists.

This being said: the book is not perfect. The sourcing starts getting rather thin near the end of the book (there are only a couple of hundred endnotes all told and given the facts and controversial nature of the book, there should be a lot more). Another thing the author did on several occasions was state things like "It's clear the Iranians got more out of Chalabi than the US did" without specifying any evidence for making that conclusion. Finally, the author is unfair in his criticism of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). This is a non-profit that translates and publishes a good deal of the anti-American, pro-terrorist commentary circulating in Arab world. The author concedes that MEMRI does some service by doing that but then complains that MEMRI only presents the bad...that an equivalent for the Arab and Islamic world would be a service that only translated Pat Robertson, Ann Coulter, and other Americans' lurid diatribes.

That is not really a fair comparison. MEMRI plays up the negative, but the author's contention that there is just as much "crazy talk" in America as there is in the Arabic world is very, very unfair to the US. People like Coulter and Robertson are the exception and not the rule in the US. Contrast this with Egyptian television broadcasting a miniseries about based on the anti-semitic screed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. And it's not fair to Coulter or Robertson, who crazy as they may be are not advocating violence like many "talking heads" in Arab language media.

Bottom line: The book is well worth reading, and I can only hope that the US will never get itself entangled with Chalabi again. But you never know...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Odd Man In, May 28, 2008

By	Retired Reader (Maryland) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Ahmad Chalabi is certainly one of the more fascinating characters to emerge from the complex story of the U.S. involvement with Iraq. Even his detractors acknowledge his intelligence and disarming charm. He emerges from this book as an extremely clever operator who has very fuzzy ethical standards and a talent for manipulation. His entire family appears to have had a tradition of shady dealings and dubious financial activities. Yet it is hard for the reader not to admire the resilience and ability to work the system of this MIT trained Professor of Mathematics turned international entrepreneur cum Iraqi patriot.

As Roston himself acknowledges, Chalabi did not "push" America into Operation Iraqi Freedom. But it does appear that with the help of conservative scholar Bernard Lewis Chalabi became deeply involved with the American Enterprise Institute and developed a following within the neo-conservative wing of the current administration, to include even Vice President Cheney. Of this group, Richard Perle appears the most steadfast Chalabi loyalist. One of the group, David Wurmser, even wrote a book, "Tyranny's Ally" that was apparently quite influential among some circles that promoted Chalabi as an Iraqi nationalist who was friendly to the U.S., and its Near East interests. And it is no secret that the neo-conservative wing definitely was in favor of a second war with Iraq.

In the period prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom (the second U.S.-Iraqi War), Chalabi and the organizations he created were funded by, CIA, State Department, and finally DIA. Each eventually stopped funding when accounting `irregularities `surfaced in the activities that he undertook for these government entities. Chalabi definitely appears to be allergic to normal government auditing procedures. Always one to hedge his bets, Chalabi also appears to be an agent of the Iranian Government and a confident of the anti-American Shiite Cleric Muqtada al Sadr.

As Roston makes abundantly clear, the initiation of Operation Iraqi Freedom was a decision made by the administration for their own reasons and that Chalabi really had little more than a supporting role in this decision. Yet he has managed to maintain his latest role as a person of consequence in Iraq who promises to complicate U.S. dealings with Iraq for years to come.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Investigative Book on Chalabi and the US Administration, July 24, 2008

By	Keri Douglas (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Brilliant! Aram Roston provides an excellent investigative, well researched, intelligent profile of Ahmad Chalabi and the US war in Iraq.

The Man Who Pushed America to War is essential reading for those in the foreign policy, intelligence and defense communities. In the future, The Man Who Pushed America to War will be mandatory reading for all students of history, US foreign policy decision making during the Bush administration and especially, anyone trying understand what the US was doing in Iraq and why.

Roston reveals a masterpiece of grand manipulations by this entire cast of characters who brought the US to war in Iraq. In addition, Roston reveals a sensitivity and appreciation for the historical complexities of life in the Middle East and in Iraq. As a result - Roston captures the adventurous, free-wheeling tragic comedy of US involvement with Chalabi and the eventual war in Iraq.

With more investigative reports like Roston's, hopefully good intelligence on all parties seeking war would either prevent unnecessary wars or at least allow an educated hard decision. Roston's The Man Who Pushed America to War is a valuable contribution to the historical review of Chalabi and the US war in Iraq.