Meanwhile the Knight Ridder news agency is reporting that Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress may have broken U.S. law by using taxpayer funds to lobby for the US to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein. The General Accounting Office of Congress has launched a probe to determine if U.S. taxpayers essentially paid to have themselves persuaded that it was necessary to invade Iraq. Between 1998 and 2003, the U.S. gave the INC at least $18 million.