Chalabi back in Iraq, will fight charges U.S. lawyers file suit, say Jordan framed him: BAGHDAD, Iraq - Ahmad Chalabi, once the Pentagon's favorite to lead a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, fought back Wednesday on two fronts to salvage a political future now tarnished by allegations ranging from dealing in counterfeit Iraqi currency to leakin

In Baghdad, officials of Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress announced he had returned to Iraq from Iran to clear his name of charges that he counterfeited old Iraqi dinars and used them to buy new dinars issued after Saddam's ouster. But Chalabi didn't appear at INC headquarters as expected, and INC officials wouldn't say where in Iraq he was. In Washington, U.S. lawyers for Chalabi filed a federal court lawsuit accusing the Jordanian government of illegally seizing Chalabi's bank in 1989 and framing him on embezzlement charges to stop him from exposing illegal arms sales to Saddam. The smear campaign continued into this year, the suit says, when Jordanian officials enlisted unnamed CIA officials last spring to spread to U.S. reporters "the knowingly false story" that Chalabi had told Iran the United States was monitoring its secret communications. "I know with all my heart that no one will ever prove in a fair and public court that my father is a counterfeiter, a bank embezzler or a traitor," Chalabi's daughter, Tamara, declared at a news conference in Washington announcing the lawsuit. A Jordanian diplomat and a CIA spokeswoman separately declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying they couldn't talk about pending litigation. The lawsuit and his return to Baghdad underscored Chalabi's determination to remain a player in Iraqi politics despite having lost favor with the United States and with little support in the U.S.-backed interim government. It was unclear when the interim Iraqi government might arrest Chalabi. The judge who issued the warrant, Zuhair al Maliky, said the timing of Chalabi's arrest would be up to the Iraqi police.