Tinker, banker, neocon, spy: Ahmed Chalabi's long and winding road from (and to?) Baghdad.

IF T.E. LAWRENCE ("OF ARABIA") HAD BEEN A 21ST-century neoconservative operative instead of a British imperial spy, he'd be Ahmed Chalabi's best friend. Chalabi, the London-based leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), is front man for the latest incarnation of a long-time neoconservative strategy to redraw the map of the oil-rich Middle East, put American troops--and American oil companies--in full control of the Persian Gulf's reserves and use the Gulf as a fulcrum for enhancing America's global strategic hegemony. Just as Lawrence's escapades in World War I-era ...