Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war - Curveball 'invented' tales of bio-weapons

[jefferson_dem]

Source: Guardian

• Man codenamed Curveball 'invented' tales of bio-weapons
• Iraqi told lies to try to bring down Saddam Hussein
• Fabrications used by US as justification for invasion

Martin Chulov and Helen Pidd in Karlsruhe
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 February 2011 12.58 GMT


Defector Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball, claims he lied about biological weapons in an attempt to bring freedom to Iraq. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

The defector who convinced the White House that Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme has admitted for the first time that he lied about his story then watched in shock as it was used to justify the war.

Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German and American intelligence officials who dealt with his claims, told the Guardian he fabricated tales of mobile bio-weapons trucks and clandestine factories in an attempt to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime, from which he had fled in 1995.

"Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right," he said. "They gave me this chance. I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime. I and my sons are proud of that and we are proud that we were the reason to give Iraq the margin of democracy."

The admission comes just after the eighth anniversary of Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations in which the former US secretary of state relied heavily on lies that Curveball had told the German secret service, the BND. It also follows the release of former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld's memoirs, in which he admitted Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction programme.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/15/defector-admits-wmd-lies-iraq-war?CMP=twt_gu

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[social_critic]

2. Curveball was a Pentagon and NY Times fabrication

Curvaball was a product of the propaganda shop being run out of the Pentagon in the Office of Special Projects, with cooperation from media such as The New York Times (Judy Miller with blessings from Sulzberger, the editor).

[DURHAM D]

3. Too bad they didn't go back a little further to when -

he was being pushed forward by the Neocons during the Clinton administration.

That administration found him to be a screwy self-promoter and pitched him in the ditch.

One administration's trash is another's treasure.

[Mnemosyne]

4. Stunning.

:sarcasm:

[Historic NY]

5. He is an accomplice to thousands of deaths.

[ronnie624]

10. And he's obviously an idiot.

"...we are proud that we were the reason to give Iraq the margin of democracy."

[lutefisk]

6. Tie up those loose ends, boys.

Now I feel sort of bad that I ever thought Bush and Cheney were war criminals. It turns out they just trusted too much. Case closed.

:hi:

[psychopomp]

7. Well, there it is...

[Maeve]

8. Shocking--arrest the usual suspects

Who could have seen THAT coming? :eyes:

Hope he's proud of all the Iraqi deaths...

[swilton]

9. Fabricate or not

Why were we foolish enough to go on one piece of evidence.

[yurbud]

13. it wasn't foolish, it was convenient. If not for him, it would have been something else

[Gregorian]

11. In 8 more years we might have enough evidence to still do nothing about this.

Although by WE I'm not sure who I mean. Things are being done, just too little and too late.

[Diclotican]

12. jefferson_dem

jefferson_dem

I smell a rat.. a dead rat... And I smelled the rat long before the war staret. When the first rumors about that Pice of man Curvball was telling about WMD in Iraq...

Just common sense, nothing more, but I got it then, and I get it now..

A Lie is a lie is a lie.. And are still a lie after 8 year...

Diclotican

[Lars77]

14. Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war

Source: The Guardian

The defector who convinced the White House that Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme has admitted for the first time that he lied about his story, then watched in shock as it was used to justify the war.

Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German and American intelligence officials who dealt with his claims, has told the Guardian that he fabricated tales of mobile bioweapons trucks and clandestine factories in an attempt to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime, from which he had fled in 1995.

"Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right," he said. "They gave me this chance. I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime. I and my sons are proud of that and we are proud that we were the reason to give Iraq the margin of democracy."

The admission comes just after the eighth anniversary of Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations in which the then-US secretary of state relied heavily on lies that Janabi had told the German secret service, the BND. It also follows the release of former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld's memoirs, in which he admitted Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction programme.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/15/defector-admits-wmd-lies-iraq-war

[SpiralHawk]

15. "Smirk." - xCommander AWOL (R)

[gateley]

16. We know this. If people had been paying attention they'd know it, too. They still

won't listen.

[L. Coyote]

20. We knew it was all lies back then.

And the media ruled the day with the Bush lies.

[Botany]

24. either Germany or France told the bush Admin. that Curveball was a .....

.... a drunk and a liar prior to the Iraq war.

[chowhound]

27. germany warned the us not to rely on this drunk ..nt.

[newspeak]

38. we're talking about an administration who had a

real hard on to go to war with Iraq. After all we needed to "liberate" those nationalized oil fields. Little Boot's administration would have used any and everything for an excuse to go into Iraq. So, they must be offering one of their numerous scapegoats for deflection.

[leveymg]

25. Sometimes I wonder about The Guardian these days . . .

Please see my more in-depth comment, below.

[L. Coyote]

33. No kidding, what a propaganda bugle

[ReggieVeggie]

32. we knew it then as well

Whether this man lied or Bush didn't matter. Just by following current events in 2002, 03 anyone should have known that the WMD claim was flat-out false.

[damntexdem]

17. Didn't trigger it, gave the Bushistas part of their facade for triggering it.

I wonder if he's also proud of the hundreds of thousands who have died because of the invasion.

[Oceansaway]

18. K&R...n/t

[FiveGoodMen]

19. Hmmm. This sounds vaguely important.

[RedCloud]

21. Check to see if he is on the CIA payroll. Something very fishy here.

[leveymg]

22. Curveball didn't invent the lie. It was the network of neocons pushing war since 1997.

The "reconstituted Iraq WMD" threat was largely the invention of a circle of DC hawks and neocons, particularly Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman, guided by Charlie Black, a powerful GOP lobbyist who represented INC and Ahmed Chalabi. Their Iraq Liberation Act (1998) made it possible to sidestep real CIA reporting and analysis, and funded the disinformation system that funded the spread of Curveball's lies. See, http://journals.democraticunderground.com/leveymg/360

McCain Had a Key Role in the Iraq WMD Deception
Posted by leveymg in General Discussion (1/22-2007 thru 12/14/2010)
Fri Apr 25th 2008, 01:13 PM
Part 1 - John McCain and Charlie Black’s War: How a Senator and a Lobbyist Led the Deception Campaign that Tricked the U.S. into Invading Iraq

Who’s responsible for the “intelligence failure” that plunged the U.S. into the Iraq War? As much as anyone else, that distinction is shared by two Americans who discovered and nurtured Ahmad Chalabi and “Curveball”, and pushed their fortunes in Washington.

One of those men is currently the presumptive Republican candidate for President of the United States, and the other is his chief political fixer.

This is the story about how they did it, and then shifted the spotlight of intelligence failure, political scandal, and criminal conspiracy off themselves.

***

Here are some key events to keep in mind as the Iraq War deception unfolds:

• 1998-2003 - John McCain enthusiastically espoused the delusion about cheap and easy Middle East wars, and sponsored Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress (I.N.C.) organization, even though the CIA had cut it off for producing faulty intelligence.

• 1998 - McCain was a co-sponsor of the Iraq Liberation Act that led to the creation of a false intelligence factory that replaced CIA Iraq reporting. He led charges in the Senate about Iraqi WMD programs that U.S. intelligence was reporting didn’t exist.

• 2001-2003 - Using $100 million allocated by the Act cosponsored by McCain, Ahmed Chalabi’s I.N.C. generated the false intelligence about nonexistent mobile bioweapons labs cited as part of the case for the Iraq invasion. I.N.C. Chalabi’s group was paid $335,000 a month in the lead-up to the Iraq war to gather intelligence.

• 2003 - McCain and four other Republican Senators made an appeal to Bush to “personally clear the bureaucratic roadblocks within the State Department” that stood in the way of even more funding for the I.N.C. McCain acted as a character witness for Chalabi, stating “He’s a patriot who has the best interests of his country at heart.”

• Prior to advocating in favor of the October, 2002 Iraq War Resolution, McCain read the classified CIA National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), and was briefed on multiple occasions about it. While he knew that U.S. intelligence was split over Iraq WMDs, McCain never said anything publicly about the other view contained in the classified documents in which he had been given special access.

• 05/03 – present - Even after the Iraq WMD deception and failed occupation became clear, McCain has refused to acknowledge that he had been wrong all along about the justifications for the Iraq War, and says he would vote again for that war, and again vote to fund Chalabi.

• Senator McCain still avoids taking responsibility for his role in the Iraq intelligence failure, perhaps for no better reason than he kept some distance between himself and operatives at the Pentagon and in the Office of the Vice President who actually carried out the policy, some of whom were later convicted of espionage and related charges.

• 1997-present - The McCain campaign’s chief publicist, Charlie Black, a powerful GOP lobbyist, has protected and promoted the cause of Ahmad Chalabi’s I.N.C. organization in Washington since 1997, and also played a major role in spreading I.N.C. disinformation.

• 1997-present – As the Iraq War plan developed, Black’s lobbying firm has received hundreds of millions from U.S. companies doing Iraq War related business, a substantial portion of the profits from which Black has funneled back to McCain and other prominent GOP leaders.

***

MORE . . .

Here's a bit more about Charlie Black, for those who aren't familiar with the name:

wiki
Terror Attack Would Be "A Big Advantage" for McCain

Charles R. Black, Jr., in his position as a top adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, commented in a June 2008 interview with Fortune magazine that another terrorist attack inside the U.S. would "be a big advantage" to McCain in the November presidential election. Black's comments brought the politics of fear and terrorism back into the 2008 presidential campaign, mirroring the 2004 campaign between Senator John Kerry and George W. Bush. McCain disagreed with Black's comments, saying he has long worked to prevent terrorist attacks in the the U.S. and could not imagine why Black had said such a thing. Democratic candidate Barack Obama's campaign called Black's comments "a complete disgrace." Black later backpedaled, telling reporters, "I deeply regret the comments. They were inappropriate." Richard Ben-Veniste, a close campaign adviser and representative for Obama, called Black's comments a “very disappointing glimpse into the thinking of one of McCain’s closest advisers.”<3><4>

Background

Black "served as senior advisor to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also served as a principal public spokesman for President Bush in the 1992 presidential campaign. During 1990, Mr. Black served as chief spokesman for the Republican National Committee. He served on President George W. Bush's 2000 campaign as a volunteer political advisor and surrogate spokesman," states his BKSH profile. <5>

Black also "managed the successful elections of more than ten members of the U.S. Senate and more than a dozen Members of Congress. He acted as political consultant to U.S. Senators Jesse Helms, Robert Dole, Phil Gramm and Dave Durenberger and as political director of the Republican National Committee under Chairman Bill Brock," adds the BKSH profile. <5>

At the lobbying firm, Black was "the principal legislative and public affairs advisor to several Fortune 500 companies and trade associations." <5>

Black's "ties with the Bush family go back to 1972, when he and Karl Rove were jockeying for control of the College Republicans in a campaign so dirty that George H.W. Bush, then head of the Republican National Committee, had to step in and sort matters out," reported Muriel Kane. <6>

[Kolesar]

31. "Mavrick"

:kick:

[Yavin4]

23. Bullshit. This Guy Did Not Trigger The War in Iraq

What triggered the war was two things:

(1) Neo Cons hell bent on re-making the Middle East in their own image, one country at a time.

(2) Bush's overwhelming desire to best his father at something.

If Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi did not even exist, some other justification would have been used.

[Ratty]

26. My RW relatives still claim the WMD went to Syria

Nothing will get through to them.

[chowhound]

28. you should tell them to call the cia and inform the cia

of their whereabouts since no one can find them.

[Botany]

29. Give em this link Iraq 935

http://www.publicintegrity.org/news/entry/189/

It will not matter but it lays out the 935 lies the bush Admin. told
the world to start an unneeded war for money and oil.

I have always wondered how much money was skimmed off the top
from the Iraqi war ...... it has to be in the billions or trillions.

[Iggo]

30. Bull-fucking-shit.

This is an attempt at cover for the "SeeItoldyouwehadbadintelligenceanditwasneverourdesiretogotowar" motherfuckers.

[alp227]

34. the lies just keep on coming out n/t

[ixion]

35. Nah, it was obvious back then that he was lying, and there were many of us who said it

this is just more excuse making. Hold BushCo responsible.

[calimary]

37. There were indeed many of us who said this and knew and had read and researched

and it STILL burns me up that we could know all this and the so-called "brightest minds" were completely suckered. All that "well, they must know more about it, they see things we don't see" crap.

[femrap]

36. This is such old news....

but the more who know about it, the better.

At least the British papers are talking about it.

[NoGOPZone]

39. As Homer told Marge, "It takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen"

The Bush admin believed what they wanted to believe.

[Uncle Joe]

40. I would agree with you but I don't believe the Bush Maladministration ever truly believed it.

Consciously or subconsciously, it was all just cold blooded, blatant lies; meant to brainwash the American People in to supporting a premeditated, costly and unnecessary war.

At the very least, Bush, Cheney, et al; used Curveball if they didn't outright originate him from some black, U.S. intelligence entity.