(ABC) Exclusive: Curveball, the Defector Whose Lies Led to War

[sabra]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/03/exclusive_curve.html

Exclusive: Curveball, the Defector Whose Lies Led to War



The Iraqi defector known as Curveball, whose fabricated stories of "mobile biological weapons labs" helped lead the U.S. to war four years ago, is still being protected by the German intelligence service, an ABC News investigation has found.

Intelligence sources, who provided ABCNews.com with the first known photo of the man, say he has been resettled in a small town near the Munich headquarters of the German service, which has continued to honor its original commitment made when he fled Iraq in 1999.

...

Behind the scenes at the CIA, however, a former senior official says he was trying to keep the Curveball information out of the Powell speech.

"People died because of this," said Tyler Drumheller, the former chief of European operations at the CIA, who has written about it a new book, "On the Brink." "All off this one little guy who all he wanted to do was stay in Germany."

...

The CIA has since issued an official "burn notice" formally retracting more than 100 intelligence reports based on his information.

[truthisfreedom]

1. We're quite familiar with the "one little guy" screwing everything up for everyone syndrome.

We suffer from it greatly here.

[Scriptor Ignotus]

9. haha

too bad I can't K&R your comment.

[hippiechick]

2. Chalabi?

:shrug:

[saigon68]

3. Skunk Chalabi

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. Wonder what he'll say? "Rugs, tobacco, beads, wool, bogus

mobile biological weapons labs, I'll sell you whatever you want!"

[gauguin57]

5. Curveball's lies didn't lead to war. Bush & Co KNEW he was lying. But they could USE his lies

to sell their oily PNAC plan to the American public. Curveball's lies were just crap on a page ... Bush & Co turned crap into Christmas (for themselves and the military contractors).

[daleo]

6. CurveballCheney

Curveball was a fig leaf for Cheney.

It doesn't really matter whether there really was a Curveball. Cheney could just as easily made it up (maybe he did).

[Doctor_J]

7. Sounds like All of Bush's Crap (ABC) is mixing up a batch of whitewash

Bush himself was told the intel was crap. He put it in the state of the union anyway, and cleared it for Powell to use, and Kindasleeza, and McClellan. Sorry, Network of Glen Beck. No one's buying this stuff any more.

[wildbilln864]

8. Let's not forget....

Bush and the PNAC cabal used forged documents! They knew they were forged and they used them anyway!
:banghead:
Impeach, indict, and imprison the Bush/PNAC cabal for their death dealing lies!

[endarkenment]

10. The premise is bullshit.

Curveball did not lead us to war. The assumptions behind that statement is that we went to war because of faulty intelligence. We went to war because the criminal cabal in the whitehouse engaged in fraud and deception and deliberately used flawed intelligence information, ignoring all warnings about the dubious quality of that information, to bully congress and deceive the american people.

[maddezmom]

11. connection? NYT:German Official Adds to Mystery of Iranian Missing in Turkey

NYT:German Official Adds to Mystery of Iranian Missing in Turkey
German Official Adds to Mystery of Iranian Missing in Turkey
By SEBNEM ARSU
Published: March 14, 2007
ISTANBUL, March 13 — More than a month after a former top official in Iran’s Defense Ministry disappeared in Turkey, a German official on Tuesday stirred up the controversy over whether he had defected with the collusion of the West.

On an official visit to Ankara, the German defense minister, Franz Josef Jung, was asked about the whereabouts of the former Iranian deputy defense minister, Ali Reza Asgari, and whether he was in Germany undergoing questioning. Mr. Jung merely replied: “I cannot say anything on this issue.”

~snip~

But the official, who declined to be identified because of diplomatic protocol, was not optimistic about finding him, saying, “Every year millions of Iranians enter Turkey, so it’s impossible to keep personal records.”

The official said accounts in the news media should be viewed “as pure speculation before our collective and comprehensive investigation is finalized.” He was referring to coverage in the mainstream newspaper Hurriyet that said Mr. Asgari arrived at the Istanbul airport on Feb. 7 after moving his family to safety in Damascus, Syria. The newspaper said he was given a passport under a new name, enabling him to flee Turkey over land.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x268710

taking off my :tinfoilhat: now. :D

[laststeamtrain]

12. K&R n/t