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Middle East Institute is honored to host Aram Roston, to discuss his new book,"THE MAN WHO PUSHED AMERICA TO WAR: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE, ADVENTURES AND OBSESSIONS OF AHMAD CHALABI," an explosive biography that tells the untold story of the man who is largely responsible for the war in Iraq.

From the book cover:

Ahmad Chalabi literally changed the world. If anyone were to get the most credit for pushing the United States to war in Iraq, Chalabi, a wealthy exile who spent most of his life out of Iraq, would certainly be a leading contender.

A convicted felon and a fugitive from justice in Jordan, Chalabi managed to charm and influence the top leaders of the United States. Those leaders gave him United States government money, which he would, in turn, use to lobby them. He then rode America's immense power, harnessing it to his interests. More so than President George W. Bush or Vice President Richard Cheney, Chalabi and his followers steered the United States toward its fateful position in Iraq.

Roston tells the story of Chalabi as a gifted MIT mathematician, to his misadventures in the Middle East, to the invasion of Iraq, which he himself took part in the most theatrical way, posing in the desert with a rag-tag army of Iraqis.

Aram Roston is a Emmy award-winning journalist who has covered Iraq, Chalabi, and the reconstruction of Iraq for NBC "Nightly News." An award-winning investigative reporter based in Washington, D.C., he has also written for GQ, Mother Jones, the New York Times Magazine, Washington Monthly, The Nation, Maclean's, and the Walrus. He has reported internationally from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Colombia, and Liberia. This is his first book.