CHALABI SURROUNDED?

Breaking news from AP.

U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police surrounded the residence of Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi on Thursday, and an aide said the troops raided the house ostensibly to search for fugitives.

The aide, Haidar Musawi, accused the Americans of trying to pressure Chalabi, a longtime Pentagon favorite who has become openly critical of U.S. plans for how much power to transfer to the Iraqis on June 30.

He said the Americans also raided offices of Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress.

"The aim is to put political pressure," Musawi told The Associated Press. "Why is this happening at a time when the government is being formed?"

There was no comment from the U.S. military press office.Police sealed off the residence in the city's fashionable Mansour district and would not allow reporters to approach. At least two Humvees could be seen, with a dozen U.S. troops milling about.

Some people could be seen loading boxes into vehicles, and neighbors said some members of Chalabi's entourage were taken away.

Salem Chalabi, nephew of Ahmad Chalabi and head of the Iraqi war crimes tribunal, said his uncle told him by telephone that Iraqi and American authorities "entered his home and put the guns to his head in a very humiliating way that reminds everyone of the conduct of the former regime."

Boy, this is sure an elaborate way of telling someone that they won't be receiving their monthly paycheck.

By the time I wake up tomorrow, all of this will make more sense, I trust. Perhaps Chalabi's duplicity and opportunism has finally come back to bite him and the INC. In the end, he and the neocons he duped (and who, in turn, duped us into war) deserve each other.