In a detailed profile of Ahmed Chalabi [3] and the Iraqi National Congress [4], Jane Mayer includes some fairly candid admissions by Francis Brooke [5], the INC's PR guru. Without Chalabi, he says, "This war would not have been fought. ... We thought very carefully about this, and realized there were only a couple of hundred people" in Washington who were influential in shaping policy toward Iraq - people like Trent Lott, Newt Gingrich, Richard Perle and Dick Cheney. During the Clinton years, the INC targeted conservatives with what Brooke describes as "naked politics": "We took a Republican Congress and pitted it against a Democratic White House. We really hurt and embarrassed the President." Following 9/11, his marketing strategy switched to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction: "I sent out an all-points bulletin to our network, saying, 'Look, guys, get me a terrorist, or someone who works with terrorists. And, if you can get stuff on WMD, send it!'" Meanwhile, the New York Times [6] reported that former Pentagon advisor Richard Perle [7], former CIA director James Woolsey [8], and a few other Washington influencers met recently with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice [9] to complain about the "smear campaign" they say is being waged against Chalabi.