Ahmed Chalabi

Ahmed Chalabi was a figure of immense ambition and consequence, a man whose personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein helped reshape the Middle East. Scion of a wealthy Shiite family that fled Iraq, he built a life as a mathematician and banker before turning to opposition politics. From London and later northern Iraq, he tirelessly lobbied Western governments, arguing that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction and could be easily toppled. His Iraqi National Congress became a primary source for U.S. intelligence, much of which proved disastrously incorrect. After the invasion, he returned to Baghdad as a kingmaker, serving on the governing council and influencing the formation of Iraq's new government. Yet his past—a conviction for bank fraud in Jordan—and his close ties to Iran left him viewed with deep suspicion by many, a brilliant operator whose legacy is inextricably tied to the tragic costs of the war he championed.