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DOD's Wolfowitz de-funded INC

WASHINGTON, May 25 (UPI) -- The Pentagon cut off funding to the Iraqi National Congress because it did not want to fund one political party over another, a U.S. spokesman said Tuesday.

The decision was made by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and was unrelated to a criminal investigation into the organization and a raid on the home of its leader Ahmed Chalabi over the weekend, Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor said in Baghdad.

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The Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency had been paying the INC $340,000 a month since October 2002 for providing intelligence to the Iraq Survey Group searching for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, as well as to the military hunting down insurgent fighters.

It is "not appropriate for the United States government to be funding individual political parties once Iraq has a sovereign democratic government," Senor said.

He said the raid on Chalabi's residence was initiated by Iraqi authorities "to pursue charges related to individuals who ... have ties to Dr. Chalabi but not related to Dr. Chalabi himself."

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