Congress Shrugs Off Ahmad Chalabi's Death

Foreign Policy: In life, Ahmad Chalabi cultivated close ties with powerful members of Congress in both parties. In death, few on Capitol Hill want anything to do with him or his legacy.

On Tuesday, the influential Iraqi exile, whose false claims about Saddam Hussein’s purported weapons of mass destruction helped justify the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, died of a heart attack in Baghdad. Despite close partnerships in Congress dating back decades, lawmakers from both parties used interviews to either distance themselves from the Shiite secularist, profess to not know who he was, or say he had little influence on their decision to authorize the use of military force against Iraq in 2002.

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