Curveball REVEALED!!

[CatWoman]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/01/60minutes/main3440577.shtml



Faulty Intel Source "Curve Ball" Revealed
60 Minutes: Iraqi's Fabricated Story Of Biological Weapons Drove U.S. Arguments For Invading Iraq


(CBS) 60 Minutes has identified the man whose fabricated story of Iraqi biological weapons drove the U.S. argument for invading Iraq. It has also obtained video of "Curve Ball," as he was known in intelligence circles, and discovered he was not only a liar, but also a thief and a poor student instead of the chemical engineering whiz he claimed to be.

60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon's two-year investigation will be broadcast this Sunday, Nov. 4, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Curve Ball is an Iraqi defector named Rafid Ahmed Alwan, who arrived at a German refugee center in 1999. To bolster his asylum case and increase his importance, he told officials he was a star chemical engineer who had been in charge of a facility at Djerf al Nadaf that was making mobile biological weapons.

60 Minutes has learned that Alwan’s university records indicate he did study chemical engineering but earned nearly all low marks, mostly 50s. Simon’s investigation also uncovered an arrest warrant for theft from the Babel television production company in Baghdad where he once worked.

[Eric J in MN]

1. Real journalism.

Congratulations to 60 Minutes.

[jackstraw45]

16. I wonder how long they sat on the story - i BET they knew this guy in 2004...nt

nt

[Viva_La_Revolution]

37. DU knew about this guy at least as early as April 2005

so the info was out there then...

[dflprincess]

18. If they were real jounalists they would have investigated 6 years ago

and reported the story as loudly and as often as they banged the war drum.

[crickets]

28. Yup. -nt

[Supersedeas]

24. tucking this effort at journalism in the corner until it no longer matters

[H2O Man]

2. Curve Ball

did not hold up to even mild examination. Only the neoconservatives embraced him, because they will accept any liar.

[judaspriestess]

8. birds of a feather flock together

don't they

[Coexist]

33. the Germans tried to tell us - but it was really, really important

that we not listen.

[Drum]

Another low-scoring overachiever like W.

Color me not-surprised. :(

[annabanana]

7. No wonder they hit it off!. . . . n/t

[spanone]

3. curveball, just one more reason to impeach

[Adsos Letter]

4. And he is laughing...

...wonder how hard he would laugh with a cattle prod up his ass...

[CatWoman]

14. !!!

:rofl:

[rateyes]

39. A cattle prod up his ass...

while being waterboarded. Shocking, I say, shocking!! :rofl: Thanks for the laugh.

[MADem]

5. Every time I get disgusted with CBS, they do something worthwhile. This is VERY worthwhile...

Tenet gave the information to Powell despite a letter - a copy of which 60 Minutes obtained - addressed to him by the head of German intelligence stating that Alwan appeared to be believable, but there was no evidence to verify his story.

Through a spokesman, Tenet denies ever seeing the letter. " needs to talk to his special assistants if he didn’t see it," says Tyler Drumheller, a former CIA senior official. "I am sure they showed it to him and I am sure ... it wasn’t what they wanted to see," he tells Simon.

Other CIA officials doubted Curve Ball’s authenticity, including former Central Group Chief Margaret Henoch, who speaks publicly for the first time, telling Simon she openly refuted Alwan’s story. "And it was like 'Whack a Mole.' He just popped right back up. It was unbelievable."

Alwan was caught when CIA interrogators were finally allowed to question him and confronted him with evidence that his story could not be as he described it. Weapons inspectors had examined the plant at Djerf al Nadaf before the fall of Baghdad and found no evidence of biological agents.

In the end, however, Alwan got what he wanted. He is believed to be in Germany, free and probably living under an assumed name.

[seemslikeadream]

6. CBS must be reading the DU archives

[Me.]

19. That's What I Was Thinking

Didn't we already know this?

[chelsea0011]

9. Bad student? A Bush guy to the core.

[Mojambo]

10. He just wanted a green card. It all comes back around to immigration! n/t

[Disturbed]

12. The CIA didn't know this at the time he was spewing his lies?

Come on!

[gateley]

11. Biden mentioned someone from whom we'd received false "intelligence" and

Bush based the war defense on that coerced info. I wonder if this is who he was referring to...

[Zodiak]

13. Unbelievable, unless you have been paying attention to the last 7 yrs

So went went to war based on the assertions of a single source that did not stand up to the most cursory scrutiny.

Can we impeach now?

[louis-t]

22. Actually, it was 2 sources...

A convicted embezzler (Chalabi) and this clown.

[Maestro]

15. Neocons will use anyone that says what they want to hear.

Who cares about facts? Not the neocons.

[stellanoir]

17. Who in their right mind would ever rely on the dubious credibility or Straight Shootedness

of a guy with the nick of Curveball. . .?

It boggles the mind really.

[bklyncowgirl]

20. Would you buy a used car from this man? His code name says it all.

Between him and Chalabi, the Bush administration got taken by a couple of con artists. Or maybe they didn't get taken at all. Maybe they knew this guy was lying through his teeth and didn't care about the truth--they needed to scare Congress and the American people to get the war they wanted.

Back to the eternal question about the Bush administration: Are they evil or are thay stupid? Right now I'm leaning towards Evil but every once in a while Stupid rears its head and says "These clowns couldn't organize a church picnic--much less decieve an entire country into a war."

Either way, they should be impeached and put on trial for war crimes. That's the only way we'll find out if they're Evil or Stupid.

[Disturbed]

21. When Ahmed Chalabi was asked about the bogus Intell, he

replied: "We are heroes in error." Translation: "Whatever it took to overthrow Saddam & make me PM was just great."

[poverlay]

23. Curveball is Borat??? n/t

[H2O Man]

25. More

on the character called "Curveball" can be found in Thomas Ricks' book "Fiasco" (1 page), and Corn & Isikoff's "Hubris" (26 pages). He was not considered a solid source by US intelligence, except perhaps by the OSP. What are the chances?

[A-Schwarzenegger]

26. Wasnt he also Chalabi's valet/limo driver?

Approximately same thing as biological weapons expert.

[RamboLiberal]

27. His elder brother worked for Chalabi

But of course they were estranged. :sarcasm:

I also recommend this book that came out in mid-October:

Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War by LAT writer Bob Drogin

It's a fascinating read - I'm about a hundred pages in.

From Publishers Weekly
In 1999, an Iraqi refugee, soon code-named Curveball, told German intelligence agents of his work on an ongoing Iraqi program that produced biological weapons in mobile laboratories. His claims electrified the CIA, which had little good intelligence about Saddam Hussein's regime and was fixated on the threat of Iraqi WMDs, which later became a centerpiece in the Bush administration's case for invading Iraq. It was only after American occupation forces failed to find any mobile germ-warfare labs—or other WMDs—that prewar warnings about Curveball's heavy drinking and mental instability, and the nagging gaps and contradictions in his story, were taken seriously. In this engrossing account, Los Angeles Times correspondent Drogin paints an intimate and revealing portrait of the workings and dysfunctions of the intelligence community. Hobbled by internal and external turf battles and hypnotized by pet theories, the CIA—including director George Tenet, whose reputation suffers another black eye here—ignored skeptics, the author contends, and fell in love with a dubious source who told the agency and the White House what they wanted to hear. Instead of connecting the dots, Drogin argues, the CIA and its allies made up the dots. (Oct. 16)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description
Curveball answers the crucial question of the Iraq war: How and why was America’s intelligence so catastrophically wrong? In this dramatic and explosive book, award-winning Los Angeles Times reporter Bob Drogin delivers a narrative that takes us to Europe, the Middle East, and deep inside the CIA to find the truth–the truth about the lies and self-deception that led us into a military and political nightmare.

In 1999, a mysterious Iraqi applies for political asylum in Munich. The young chemical engineer offers compelling testimony of Saddam Hussein’s secret program to build weapons of mass destruction. He claims that the dictator has constructed germ factories on trucks, creating a deadly hell on wheels. His grateful German hosts pass his account to their CIA counterparts but deny the Americans access to their superstar informant. The Americans nevertheless give the defector his unforgettable code name: Curveball.

The case lies dormant until after 9/11, when the Bush administration turns its attention to Iraq. Determined to invade, Bush’s people seize on Curveball’s story about mobile germ labs–even though it has begun to unravel. Ignoring a flood of warnings about the informant’s credibility, the CIA allows President Bush to cite Curveball’s unconfirmed claims in a State of the Union speech. Finally, Secretary of State Colin Powell highlights the Iraqi’s “eyewitness” account during his historic address to the U.N. Security Council. Yet the entire case is based on a fraud. America’s vast intelligence apparatus conjured up demons that did not exist. And the proof was clear before the war.

Most of the events and conversations presented here have not been reported before. The portrayals–from an obdurate president to a bamboozled secretary of state to a bungling CIA director to case handlers conned by their snitch–are vivid and exciting. Curveball reads like an investigative spy thriller. Fast-paced and engrossing, it is an inside story of intrigue and incompetence at the highest levels of government. At a time when Americans demand answers, this authoritative book provides them with clarity and conviction.

[Hamlette]

29. His identity has been reported in at least one book

If I had to guess it would be Assassins' Gate but it could have been another one. All this stuff has been known, and in the public record, for years.

[AntiFascist]

30. This was all part of the new neocon faith-based strategy of...

inventing their own reality. Watch out for Iran developing nuclear weapons because the Islamic jihad will bring Sharia law to a Western civilization near you! Funny what opium does to the mind.

[Major Hogwash]

31. Did he get his visa to come here faster that way?

I think the last guy they brought over here came within 6 months of helping Bush tell his lies about WMD's in Iraq in 2003.

[femrap]

32. Finally the TM (Traditional Media) catches up

with the blogs and the internet news.

[wildbilln864]

34. K&R! Thanks! n/t

[Blue_Tires]

35. big surprise

[ooglymoogly]

36. Gee 60 you are 6 years to late...the info is next to useless at this stage

except for the I told you so'ers like me. The damage is done. way to go 60. You might have saved a million or so innocent men women and children from a horrific death, to say nothing of the millions and millions displaced and horribly maimed, if you and the rest of corporate media had done your job 6 years ago instead of firing the only one who WAS doing his job Dan Rather to save El Pompouso's lying butt.

[rateyes]

38. I have a question about this quote in the article:

"Curve Ball," as he was known in intelligence circles, and discovered he was not only a liar, but also a thief and a poor student instead of the....whiz he claimed to be."

George Bush is Curve Ball?

Nevermind. I see his real name: Rafid Ahmed Alwan. But, I can understand the affinity that Bush had for this guy. Two peas in a pod.

[rateyes]

40. They should change his moniker from "Curveball" to

"Lying Sack of Shit."