Don’t you just love European headlines?
Oh, my mistake, they were talking about an Iraqi spy.
Well, I wonder what Judith “I was [xxxxxxx] right” Miller would have to say? Strange silence.
Edward Helmore in New York
Sunday April 3, 2005
The Observer
An alcoholic cousin of an aide to Ahmed Chalabi has emerged as the key source in the US rationale for going to war in Iraq.
According to a US presidential commission looking into pre-war intelligence failures, the basis for pivotal intelligence on Iraq’s alleged biological weapons programmes and fleet of mobile labs was a spy described as ‘crazy’ by his intelligence handlers and a ‘congenital liar’ by his friends.
The defector, given the code-name Curveball by the CIA, has emerged as the central figure in the corruption of US intelligence estimates on Iraq. Despite considerable doubts over Curveball’s credibility, his claims were included in the administration’s case for war without caveat….
heads up via Lunaville
But, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom disputes that:
Fri Apr 1, 7:26 PM ET
By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former CIA Director George Tenet on Friday disputed that he was warned about problems with an Iraqi source just hours before Secretary of State Colin Powell argued the U.S. case against Iraq at the United Nations, using the source’s information.
A presidential commission issued a scathing report on Thursday about U.S. intelligence on weapons of mass destruction that said the Bush administration relied on unsubstantiated intelligence from an Iraqi chemical engineer code-named “Curveball” that Iraq had mobile biological weapons labs.
Tenet and his deputy John McLaughlin issued lengthy statements on Friday saying they were not alerted before the war to concerns about the veracity of the Iraqi source, who was being handled by German authorities….
Point those fingers and hope for some shiny baubles to distract our incompetent media.
