- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- According to the report, the failure of US spy agencies
to scrutinise his claims are the 'primary reason' that they 'fundamentally
misjudged the status of Iraq's [biological weapons] programs'. The catalogue
of failures and the gullibility of US intelligence make for darkly comic
reading, even by the standards of failure detailed in previous investigations.
Of all the disproven pre-war weapons claims, from aluminium centrifuge
tubes to yellow cake uranium from Niger, none points to greater levels
of incompetence than those found within the misadventures of Curveball.
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- The Americans never had direct access to Curveball -
he was controlled by the German intelligence services who passed his reports
on to the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's spy agency.
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- Between January 2000 and September 2001, Curveball offered
100 reports, among them the claims of mobile biological weapons labs that
were central in the US evidence of an illicit weapons programme, but subsequently
turned out to be trucks equipped with machinery to make helium for weather
balloons.
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- The commission concluded that Curveball's information
was worse than none at all. 'Worse than having no human sources,' it said,
'is being seduced by a human source who is telling lies.'
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- Although the defector has never been formally identified,
it appears he was an Iraqi chemical engineer who defected after UN inspectors
left the country in 1998.
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- In the aftermath of the US-led invasion, Iraqis whom
Curveball claimed were co-workers in Saddam's alleged biological weapons
programme did not know who he was. He claimed he'd witnessed a deadly biological
weapons accident when he was not even in Iraq when it was meant to have
happened. After September 2001, his claims were given greater credibility
despite the fact that he was not in Iraq at the time he claimed to have
taken part in illicit weapons work. His information was central to an October
2002 National Intelligence Estimate that concluded Iraq 'has' biological
weapons, and was widely used by President Bush and Dick Cheney to make
their case for war.
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- It now appears there were problems with Curveball from
the start, but the intelligence community was willing to believe him 'because
the tales he told were consistent with what they already believed.'
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- In May 2000 doubts about his credibility surfaced when
he was examined for signs that he had been exposed to biological agents.
While the results were inconclusive, a US official was surprised to find
Curveball had a hangover and said he 'might be an alcoholic.' By early
2001, the Germans were having doubts of their own, telling the CIA their
spy was 'out of control'.
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- But warnings were dismissed. Intelligence analysts who
voiced concern were 'forced to leave' the unit mainly responsible for analysing
his claims, the commission found. At every turn analysts were blocked by
spy chiefs and their warning never passed on to policy-makers.
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- The commission's report is unlikely to renew confidence
in America's intelligence network as it attempts to uncover evidence of
WMDs in Iran and elsewhere. The report concludes that US intelligence agencies
remain poorly coordinated, have resisted reform and produce 'irrelevant'
work.
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- * Dozens of insurgents attacked Abu Ghraib prison outside
Baghdad yesterday, detonating two suicide car bombs and firing rocket-propelled
grenades at US forces before the assault was repelled. At least 20 US soldiers
and 12 detainees were wounded in the fighting, which lasted around an hour.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005
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- http://observer.guardian.co.u
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