WASHINGTON — Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi denied Wednesday that he deliberately provided the United States with faulty intelligence to strengthen the case for invading Iraq, calling such accusations "an urban myth."
Chalabi's comments to reporters came after he met with Bush administration officials and delivered a speech at a conservative think tank in Washington on his vision for Iraq's political future.
Chalabi also denied accusations that he had passed U.S. security secrets to Iran and said he knew nothing about an FBI investigation into the allegations.
"I have no knowledge of any investigation about me," he said. "I did not pass any information to Iran or compromise the security of the United States. I did not pass any codes to Iran."
Earlier, he met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow and President Bush's national security advisor, Stephen J. Hadley.
On Friday, he is scheduled to address the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He will return to Washington for a meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday.
Today, he is expected to meet privately with members of the House Government Reform Committee to discuss issues such as the problem-plagued reconstruction effort in Iraq.
Many Democrats and critics of the White House's leadership of the war in Iraq were dismayed that Chalabi was making the rounds of administration figures without having to confront questions from Congress about whether he knowingly made faulty claims about the dangers posed by Saddam Hussein's regime and whether he passed secrets to Iran.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman of Los Angeles, the ranking Democrat on the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, said Chalabi's private appearance today on Capitol Hill should be public, and that he should be put under oath "to answer questions about his role in providing false intelligence to the United States."
Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) wrote to Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales asking whether the FBI planned to interview the Iraqi politician while he was in the United States.
"If not, why not?" the senators asked in their letter.
Asked by a reporter about such comments, Chalabi said he would be "prepared to go to the Senate and respond to questions."
