The lies that started the war: Curveball

cat's meow · #1 (**permalink**) 11-04-2007, 07:52 PM

All based on lies and they knew in time to stop it...

Quote:

Faulty Intel Source "Curve Ball" Revealed

60 Minutes: Iraqi's Fabricated Story Of Biological Weapons Aided U.S.

Nov. 4, 2007

(CBS) Did Saddam Hussein have weapons of mass destruction? No, he did not. We've known that for some time now. So where did the intelligence come from that he was building up his arsenal? Fantastically, the most compelling part came from one obscure Iraqi defector who came in and out of history like a comet. His code name, ironically, was "Curve Ball" and his information became the pillar of the case Colin Powell made to the United Nations before the war. Who is Curve Ball and how did he fool the world's elite intelligence agencies?

60 Minutes spent two years, and traveled to nine countries, trying to solve the mystery. We talked to intelligence sources, to people who knew Curve Ball and to people who worked with him. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, Curve Ball's real name has never been made public, nor has any video of him, until now.

60 Minutes has obtained video of Rafid Ahmed Alwan at a 1993 Baghdad wedding, filmed six years before he became the key Iraqi source known as Curve Ball, six years before he helped launch the war.

Former CIA senior official Tyler Drumheller was an insider and watched Curve Ball emerge from nowhere.

Asked how important Curve Ball was in taking us to war in Iraq, Drumheller tells Simon, "If they had not had Curve Ball they would have probably found something else. 'Cause there was a great determination to do it. But going to war in Iraq, under the circumstances we did, Curve Ball was the absolutely essential case."

How did Rafid Alwan become Curve Ball? 60 Minutes' investigation led us to Germany, where in November 1999, Alwan arrived by car and requested asylum at a refugee center outside Nuremberg. The 32-year-old told German intelligence that he was a chemical engineer in Saddam’s Iraq, and that he had done so well in university he had been made director of a site at Djerf al Nadaf, just outside Baghdad. The Iraqis called it a "seed purification plant." In reality, he said, the place was secretly making mobile biological weapons.

He told the Germans specially-equipped trucks made their way to one end of a warehouse, entered doors there, hooked up to hoses and pumps and brewed biological agents. The germ trucks then exited hidden doors on the other side.

Alwan’s story fit what Western intelligence agencies feared: that Saddam might turn to mobile weapons to evade American bombs. The Germans hid Alwan in Nuremberg, then later in the town of Erlangen. He was given a code name: Curve Ball. He was interrogated once a week, sometimes twice, for a year and a half. He told the Germans he didn't want to meet with Americans. Only summaries of his debriefings were transmitted to Washington. Still, there were enough details to convince analysts at the CIA.

"Curve Ball was the one piece of evidence where they could say, 'Look at this. If they have this capability, where they can transport biological weapons, anthrax, all these horrible weapons, they can attack our troops with them. They can give them to terrorist groups,'" Drumheller says.

One of Curve Ball's reports was especially alarming: proof that the agents were lethal, something Curve Ball claimed he had seen while working at Djerf al Nadaf.

"He said, 'In 1998, working around these tanks, there was even an accident and 12 people were killed.' And that got everybody’s attention," Drumheller explains.

So much so that in February 2001, German and American experts met in Munich to discuss Curve Ball. The Americans revealed they had located Djerf al Nadaf on overhead imagery; 60 Minutes found it on Google Earth.

Cont.

Still Dizzy · #2 (**permalink**) 11-04-2007, 10:01 PM

If Saddam NEVER had WMD's yes that would be a hard sell, BUT he DID use them against both Iran, and the Kurds. Hindsight is a great thing, but if you are selling a war, past history is a real strong point.

wvpeach · #3 (**permalink**) 11-04-2007, 10:03 PM

Wow , 60 minutes has been lame the last couple of weeks and now I missed this.

Maybe they will repeat it tonight , late night.

Thanks for the heads up cat.

crowonapost · #4 (**permalink**) 11-04-2007, 11:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Still Dizzy

If Saddam NEVER had WMD's yes that would be a hard sell, BUT he DID use them against both Iran, and the Kurds. Hindsight is a great thing, but if you are selling a war, past history is a real strong point.

Well of course

...as some Replitard senator said... 'We know he had them, We have the receipts.'

All of this is our creation.

That's the part that is DISFUCKINGTURBING to me & most rational people.

the

WE HAVE THE RECEIPTS.

ya know that part of history that bites you in the ass.

if clinto-carter did it....hello.....

Does anyone think this shit through?

OkhamsRazor · #5 (**permalink**) 11-04-2007, 11:46 PM

Once again... Europe got this news as it happened. On CNN europe at that. They immediately outed this guy as a fraud. This is such old news.

CrankyYankee · #6 (**permalink**) 11-04-2007, 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crowonapost

WE HAVE THE RECEIPTS.

ya know that part of history that bites you in the ass.

Does anyone think this shit through?

Ahhh, nope....

It's create an enemy era....

Stryker · #7 (**permalink**) 11-05-2007, 03:59 AM

So youre saying that if we "created this mess" that we shouldnt clean it up?

noneof yourbusiness · #8 (**permalink**) 11-05-2007, 04:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stryker

So youre saying that if we "created this mess" that we shouldnt clean it up?

What fucking desperation for the death of more American soldiers. To try to cath 22 to some permence in the country. Fucking absurd.

Theres nothing you can do but die.

noneof yourbusiness · #9 (**permalink**) 11-05-2007, 05:30 AM

The existance of weapons in the past in no way should lead anybody with a fucking pulse to them having them after 1991. This entire thing was ludicris and this just shows how fucking stupid and gullable the Americans are.

noneof yourbusiness · #10 (**permalink**) 11-05-2007, 05:42 AM

CBSNews.com

this shows it all. hopefully it works direct link