BLAIR'S DEMISE: US relied on 'drunken liar' to justify war
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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1451138,00.html
US relied on 'drunken liar' to justify war
'Crazy' Iraqi spy was full of misinformation, says report
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.'
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.
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.
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.'
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'.
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.
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.
· 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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