The Bush Administration knows that they've made some mistakes in regard to Iraq. Even though the President said during his last press conference that he couldn't think of any mistakes he'd made...I'll bet trusting Ahmed Chalabi would rank up there in the top ten.

Chalabi is a very keen player, however. And just because the Bush people have smacked him down..doesn't mean he's out quite yet.

This analysis by SFGate.com outlines the powerful connections that Chalabi has put together.

Due to Chalabi's role in the Iraqi Governing Council, he's been able to install his surrogates in key places in Iraq's governmental structure. Chalabi's people apparently control large sections of the natural resource and banking contracts and stand to make huge sums of money.

Chalabi has also had key allies in Washington, chiefly among the neoconservative powerbase. Dick Cheney, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and the State Department's John Bolton to name a few. These men gave Chalabi access to key documents regarding the "de-Baathification" of Iraq. The tribunal system in Iraq is under the control of Chalabi's nephew, Salem. It's well funded (by the US) and has huge power in Iraq.

The Bush people may be hard pressed to knock Chalabi out of power.

What's worse...the Bush people may have been duped by Chalabi into knocking Hussein out of power at the behest of Iran.

Chalabi has connections to an individual who alledgedly works for the Iranian intelligence services (thanks for the article, Manny). Chalabi may have been getting and feeding information to this guy in an effort to oust Hussein from the Iranian end.

Given that the information Chalabi gave the neoconservative set that was used as impetus for invading Iraq has turned out to be complete and total horse droppings...it would appear that the US may have been used as tools by the Iranian government.