Speaks at Council on Foreign Relations
(12 Nov 2005) 1. Wide conference room 2. SOUNDBITE (English) Ahmed Chalabi, Iraq Deputy Prime Minister: "The fact that I perpetuated a case for war based on weapons of mass destruction is an urban myth which is not rooted in reality and continues to have life on its own despite the very serious investigation that was conducted by bi-partisan bodies of the United States government such as the Senate intelligence committee." 3. Wide conference room 4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ahmed Chalabi, Iraq Deputy Prime Minister: "And the answer to the question when can America pullout is contingent upon us doing the right thing. If we do the right thing together, I think significant American troops can be withdrawn from Iraq without causing serious security threat during 2006, next year." 5. Wide conference room 6. SOUNDBITE ((English) Ahmed Chalabi, Iraq Deputy Prime Minister: " We are also going to do the first distribution of cash to the people of Iraq from oil revenue. We are going to do this in lieu of the items on the ration cards that the Iraqis did not get in the last year." 7. Wide conference room STORYLINE: Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi said this Friday that American troops could be able to pull out of Iraq in 2006. Chalabi, who is on an eight-day visit to Washington and New York, spoke this Friday at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Iraq's Prime Minister said the Iraqi forces were not ready to take over security responsibilities as they "lack leadership and training". However, he seemed confident that by giving Iraqis more latitude in the recruitment and training process, American forces could be able to withdraw within a year: "I think significant American troops can be withdrawn from Iraq without causing serious security threat during 2006, next year," Chalabi said. In a speech Thursday to the Senate, Sen. Edward Kennedy, (D-Mass), said Chalabi was the Pentagon's favourite Iraqi dissenter in prewar Iraq and that Chalabi was proud of a false link promoted by the Bush administration between the al-Qaida terror network and Saddam Hussein. But today, Chalabi rejected any involvement in the American government's case for war in Iraq based on the existence of weapons of mass destruction: "The fact that I perpetuated a case for war based on weapons of mass destruction is an urban myth which is not rooted in reality," he said. The Iraqi Prime Minister said that the oil in Iraq was "the property of all the Iraqi people". He announced that each Iraqi will therefore soon receive a monetary retribution from oil sales. Chalabi met Wednesday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley, the president's national security adviser. He also is to meet on Monday with Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/3d4a7d924d36f313ca44a65dbbfe675b
