  The dynamics of a general Bianchi IX model with three scale factors is
examined. The matter content of the model is assumed to be comoving dust plus a
positive cosmological constant. The model presents a critical point of
saddle-center-center type in the finite region of phase space. This critical
point engenders in the phase space dynamics the topology of stable and unstable
four dimensional tubes $R \times S^3$, where $R$ is a saddle direction and
$S^3$ is the manifold of unstable periodic orbits in the center-center sector.
A general characteristic of the dynamical flow is an oscillatory mode about
orbits of an invariant plane of the dynamics which contains the critical point
and a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) singularity. We show that a pair of
tubes (one stable, one unstable) emerging from the neighborhood of the critical
point towards the FRW singularity have homoclinic transversal crossings. The
homoclinic intersection manifold has topology $R \times S^2$ and is constituted
of homoclinic orbits which are bi-asymptotic to the $S^3$ center-center
manifold. This is an invariant signature of chaos in the model, and produces
chaotic sets in phase space. The model also presents an asymptotic DeSitter
attractor at infinity and initial conditions sets are shown to have fractal
basin boundaries connected to the escape into the DeSitter configuration
(escape into inflation), characterizing the critical point as a chaotic
scatterer.
