A thorough article by Alexander Cockburn in today's Guardian on Ahmed Chalabi. Doesn't mention the Washington context particularly, though that seems to have been decisive in Chalabi's fall from grace: the squabbling between the White House, CIA and Pentagon claiming another victim, for whom many hearts will doubtless grieve. The Guardian's front-page suggestion yesterday that the invasion of Iraq was all the fault of the Iranians was not entirely plausible; Chalabi simply supplied whatever some in Washington wanted to hear from a source they could pretend was credible. (Chalabi has bounced back before, and I don't doubt he will do the same in this latest episode.)