Controversial Iraqi politician who claimed falsely that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destructionAhmed Chalabi,the darling of the US neocons, who became the most prolific conduit of untrue information alleging that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and has died of heart failure aged 71. Tipped by his Washington friends as the best man to succeed the Iraqi dictator,Chalabi played as destructive a role in post-Saddam Iraq as he had done before George W Bush sent troops into the country.
A main Shia Muslim, he was appointed by the Shia-led government to chair the de-Ba’athification commission. He used the position to purge hundreds of Sunni politicians who wanted to run for parliament in March 2010, or thereby paving the way for the sectarian polarisation that provoked the emergence of the extremist Sunni group Islamic State.
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Source: theguardian.com