CURVEBALL….Laura Rozen on Curveball, the Iraqi defector who spoonfed German and U.S. authorities a long pack of lies about Saddam Hussein’s supposed bioweapons:
There’s so much astonishing in here, about how a fairly obvious fabricator manages to find a few key defenders in US policy circles, because he provides information they desperately want to hear. With a miniscule supply of worthy intelligence sources on Iraq, and an infinite appetite, even the obvious junk becomes prized.
The full LA Times after-action report is here, and it’s horrifying no matter what the truth. Either (a) warnings about Curveball were passed up the chain of command and were ignored or (b) warnings about Curveball were muffled and never passed along in any kind of serious way. I’m not sure which would be worse.
