updated Tue. February 20, 2024
-
Center for Research on Globalization
March 16, 2018
As US secretary of state, Colin Powell gathered his notes in front of the United Nations security council, the man watching — Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, known to the west's intelligence services as “Curveball” — had more than an inkling of what was to come. He was, after all, Powell's main source…
Newsweek
November 10, 2017
Former agency managers have said that during the internal debates over Iraqi WMD, Tenet and his deputy John McLaughlin ignored warnings by agency managers about the credibility of a key source the White House was relying on to make the case for an invasion. Code named Curveball, the sourceÃâà...
Trinicenter.com
September 12, 2017
Despite those objections and the lack of direct U.S. contact with Curve Ball, he earned a rating as “credible” or “very credible,” and his information became a core element of the Bush administration's case for invading Iraq. Drawings of Curve Ball's imaginary bio-weapons labs were a central feature ofÃâà...
The American Conservative
July 11, 2017
This is especially so when considered in the larger framework of what a proper “IC-coordinated assessment” process should look like, and in the aftermath of the intelligence failures surrounding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and the lessons learned from that experience, none of which were appliedÃâà...
CNN
January 4, 2017
To bolster his point, Trump cites the CIA's faulty intelligence about Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in March ... One of them was an Iraqi defector with the telling alias of "Curveball," who claimed that Hussein possessed mobile bioweapons labs.
PolitiFact
September 13, 2016
Codenamed "Curveball," Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi had spun a tale for German intelligence in a bid to secure a safe haven for himself. Curveball told the Germans about those mobile labs and said where the Iraqi military might be hiding them. But as we lay out in a bit, by the time Powell relied on thatÃâà...
World Policy Institute (blog)
July 8, 2013
Image from Colin Powell's presentation at the UN Security Council on alleged WMD facilities in 2003, which according to the Bush administration was based on faulty intelligence from the informant known as Curveball. By Elizabeth Pond. Remember Curveball? He was the star witness Secretary of StateÃâà...
World Policy Institute (blog)
July 8, 2013
Image from Colin Powell's presentation at the UN Security Council on alleged WMD facilities in 2003, which according to the Bush administration was based on faulty intelligence from the informant known as Curveball. By Elizabeth Pond. Remember Curveball? He was the star witness Secretary of StateÃâà...
The Independent
March 31, 2012
"Curveball", the Iraqi defector who fabricated claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, smiles as he confirms how he made the whole thing up. It was a confidence trick that changed the course of history, with Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi's lies used to justify the Iraq war. He tries to defend hisÃâà...
The Independent
March 31, 2012
A man whose lies helped to make the case for invading Iraq – starting a nine-year war costing more than 100,000 lives and hundreds of billions of pounds – will come clean in his first British television interview tomorrow. "Curveball", the Iraqi defector who fabricated claims about Iraq's weapons of massÃâà...
NPR (blog)
February 17, 2011
German Foreign Minister: CIA Knew 'Curveball's' WMD Intel Was Questionable. Facebook; Twitter; Flipboard; Email ... Curveball, as he was codenamed by intelligence officials, told The Guardian that he fabricated stories of mobile bioweapons trucks and clandestine factories. That intelligence made it intoÃâà...
