CBS is reporting that after a two year investigation they have found the one source that led to both the Clinton Administration and the Bush Administration to believe that Saddam had an active WMD program going:
Curve Ball is an Iraqi defector named Rafid Ahmed Alwan, who arrived at a German refugee center in 1999. To bolster his asylum case and increase his importance, he told officials he was a star chemical engineer who had been in charge of a facility at Djerf al Nadaf that was making mobile biological weapons.
~~~He eventually wound up in the care of German intelligence officials to whom he continued to spin his tale of biological weapons. His plan succeeded partially because he had worked briefly at the plant outside Baghdad and his descriptions of it were mostly accurate. He embellished his account by saying 12 workers had been killed by biological agents in an accident at the plant.
More than a hundred summaries of his debriefings were sent to the CIA, which then became a pillar – along with the now-disproved Iraqi quest for uranium for nuclear weapons – for the U.S. decision to bomb and then invade Iraq. The CIA-director George Tenet gave Alwan’s information to Secretary of State Colin Powell to use at the U.N. in his speech justifying military action against Iraq.
Interesting stuff, and I’m sure his tall tales had something to do with bolstering the case against Saddam but even before 1999 the United States had other intelligence that led members of the Democrat party and the Clinton Administration to tell the world that Saddam was dangerous, and either had or was working to get WMD’s:
“Saddam’s goal … is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed.”
— Madeline Albright, 1998
“(Saddam) will rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and some day, some way, I am certain he will use that arsenal again, as he has 10 times since 1983”
— National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Feb 18, 1998
“The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow.”
— Bill Clinton in 1998
“Iraq is not the only nation in the world to possess weapons of mass destruction, but it is the only nation with a leader who has used them against his own people.”
— Tom Daschle in 1998
“As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process.”
— Nancy Pelosi, December 16, 1998
“Even today, Iraq is not nearly disarmed. Based on highly credible intelligence, UNSCOM [the U.N. weapons inspectors] suspects that Iraq still has biological agents like anthrax, botulinum toxin, and clostridium perfringens in sufficient quantity to fill several dozen bombs and ballistic missile warheads, as well as the means to continue manufacturing these deadly agents. Iraq probably retains several tons of the highly toxic VX substance, as well as sarin nerve gas and mustard gas. This agent is stored in artillery shells, bombs, and ballistic missile warheads. And Iraq retains significant dual-use industrial infrastructure that can be used to rapidly reconstitute large-scale chemical weapons production.”
— Ex-UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter in 1998
But the one thing about this report that is even more interesting to contemplate is the fact that because of this defector can we finally put to rest the Bush lied meme? The Anchoress:
You’d think this story – which goes to the root of the “lies” that brought us into Iraq after 9/11, and puts to rest the “Bush lied” mantra – would be grabbing headlines all over the place. Oh, I forgot, it puts to rest the “Bush lied” mantra.
The narrative is so ingrained, and so many have so much invested in it, that it would be remarkable – and inspiring – to see a few folk in the press and congress suggest (even if they do it grudgingly) that “maybe Bush didn’t ‘lie,’ maybe the rhetoric has been too harsh,” but I won’t hold my breath for it. And I know the Bush WH won’t do anything to correct the narrative because they never do.
While I disagree with The Anchoress that the Bush Administration never attempts to correct the liberal narratives, he does in his speeches all the time but no one in the media is listening, I will agree that this report will not get the kind of splash it deserves. For the very same reason our MSM doesn’t listen to Bush when he tries to correct them. Because the narrative they spin, in which Bush is the all-knowing, all-seeing, brilliant idiot who is so dumb he can’t get anything right but was able to fool the world on Iraq, is the narrative they believe will carry a Democrat into the White House.
And we all know the MSM wants a Democrat in there bad.
See author page
It’s amazingly ironic that just last Wed I was re-reading the Sen Intel Com Phase II report, and I was reminded of something. Until 2005, the committee had been told that there were no, none, zero, nada, zip human intelligence assets in Iraq from 12/98-12/02. Later, 60 minutes came out with an interview with a CIA officer in Germany who said the US DID have a human intel asset in Iraq. What’s amazing is that the reports of Curveball are NOT that human intel asset. No. The CIA actually got someone in Saddam’s inner circle to give intel to the US (again, it wasn’t Curveball. Curveball is a political distraction). This spy that the US was getting intel from-from inside Saddam’s inner circle in 2002-said,
Page 142:
The intelligence report conveyed information from the source attributed to the Iraqi official which said:
The same source provided intel that was contradictory to other intel re regime ties to Al Queda (contradictory intel which said there was some evidence of a relationship, but not enough had been gathered-since then, the relationship has become quite clear; it was far closer than anyone expected).
What struck me as particularly important?
THE DATE
Y’all know I’m all about dates. Take a look at the Bush Admin statements that are most often ranted and raved about as lies. Now look at the date and the date that the source in Saddam’s inner circle started reporting that there was WMD in Iraq. Both are September 2002.
Curveball’s reporting is irrelevant. It’s this source in Saddam’s inner circle that bred the WMD fears, and the Saddam’s Ties to Al Queda bit? Well, we can largely thank the msm for that, can’t we?
Again, isn’t it interesting that this human intel asset info was NOT given to analysts, but paired/reiterated what they were concluding and putting in the national intelligence estimate at the time (recall that they wrote the 2002NIE in Sept, and released it 10/2/02).
Tenet said it well,
He’s getting intel saying that Saddam’s a WMD threat from his analysts, from numerous foreign intel services, from numerous foreign leaders, and from a turncoat in Saddam’s inner circle, and they all give almost identical reports. Hmmm, what should the President have done then?
1) blow it off, ignore it (something he’s been accused of as recently as yesterday on this very site regarding intel before 911)
2) make the intel public knowledge and reinvigorate the diplomatic process with Saddam (since diplomacy without the threat of force had NEVER EVER EVER had any effect on Saddam, that meant including-as Chirac put it-the credible threat of force)?
3) Take the combination of threats seriously, start a diplomatic course, and at the same time use the credible threat of force to put the dangerous question to bed once and for all by force if necessary?
4) call millions of people around the world to march in the streets and protest against Saddam’s regime? Oh wait-sorry, people who want peace don’t march against genocidal dictators. My bad. Sorry.
Scott,
Sounds similar to what I’ve been saying in previous posts on Iraq. I am not sure how many times we have to lay out the clear and present danger Iraq was before the left gets it….
But then, we are fighting a well entrenched leftist propaganda machine full of “useful idiots” mired in, and blinded by, their hatred of President Bush.
I can’t believe they’re putting this report out in a vacuum. No way does an investigation into WMD allegations and the BUSH Lied myth pop up exactly (+-48hrs) 1 year after Reid closed the Senate Doors and demanded the Phase II report (hundreds of pages of which focused on Curveball AND CONCLUDED HE WASN’T A KEY SOURCE). My Gawd, they had an entire section of the Phase II report dedicated to Curveball and Chalabi, then ignored all the other stuff that the report admitted was substantive and/or needed more investigation.
Way to coincidental.
Why my oh my…a quick glance at the Sen Intel Com Phase II pt2 report concerning Curveball, the INC, Chalabi etc shows that there was YET ANOTHER human intel asset that gave intel re Iraq’s WMD and ties to AQ. This guy, “Source Nineteen” supposedly was a civilian working for the IIS who was afraid to go to the Americans, contact the INC, and they told him to go to a certain “foreign embassy” with the intel. He did. They said his intel was not likely, but it did corroborate the other reports and reports from other foreign intel services. He said he was a driver for a guy in the Iraqi Intelligence Services, knew of AQ training in Iraq as early as 95, knew of several truckloads of WMD, and gave names of IIS agents abroad .
Hey CBS…please feel free to turn to page 110 of your copy of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence oversight’s report on pre-war intelligence regarding Iraq (ie, the Sen Intel Com phase II pt2 rpt).
Was this guy for real? I dunno, but he’s yet another source reporting the same thing that others reported. If Bush is accused of “blowing off” intel that said, Bin Laden Seeks to Attack United States, then how could he NOT take seriously the numerous source chains of intel coming in that said Saddam’s regime had ties to AQ and was a WMD threat?
Sorry CBS, Curveball was not the “pillar” of the WMD case for war. He was barely part of it.
Oh how I’d love to see someone show Bob Simon how irrelevent Curveball was. Sure, he was important to the claims of mobile labs, but was completely irrelevant to the claims of chemical/bio tipped ballistic missiles, chemical weapons, bio weapon stockpiles, ICBM development, and ties to Al Queda.
My money’s on CBS trying to paint the entire war as an INC lie using Curveball and a blood-thirsty, daddy-complex President bent on oil and revenge. Makes a nice narrative, but is as close to the truth as Skull & Bones or Bilderbergers.
This story is just pathetic, however, the thing that pisses me off the most in this whole article is that they continue to covertly insert this one point…
“along with the now-disproved Iraqi quest for uranium for nuclear weapons ”
“now disproved”????? What a bunch of garbage! These idiots really do think that they can make up their own reality.
I noticed too that CBS is hailing the report as something that took YEARS of work on Simon’s part.
Wow, took me all of a two minutes to open the copy of the reports saved in my hard drive, and go see how moot Curveball was.
Amazing. They are actually going to put out a report based on total fiction-stuff specifically proven wrong and reported so in by various investigations, and no one’s gonna call em on it.
Oh, and it just so happens that this is a year after Reid “demanded” the Bush Admin stop stonewalling the Phase II pt3 (or was it pt4) report. Dems’ve had the committee for a year, no report (proving Admin wasn’t stonewalling, but Dems were), and so instead we get this crap rehash of WMD myths?
wow.
Nice work, you guys. I filed the link to this page in my “Truth Folder”, along with all the debunking info on “Bush Lied, People Died” and “Man-Made Global Bull***t”. When will we again have real journalists in the MSM? When conservatives decide to get involved, I guess. I will be sharing this page with my contacts. Hopefully, it will spread virally throughout the land.
It took them two years to find the obvious?
For one, in the summer of 1998, the Inspectors found that Saddam had not destroyed all his old VX. That would explain all the Pre 1999 quotes.
https://www.foia.cia.gov/duelfer/Iraqs_WMD_Vol1.pdf
. . . During the summer of 1998, when UNSCOM surfaced its concern over the evidence it found that Iraq had, contrary to its declarations, weaponized VX in missile warheads . . .
And secondly, we know that Clinton, and the Democrats in Congress stopped talking about Saddam and his WMD’s after Desert Fox (Till Bush restricted the Intelligence Congress got to see after 9-11); because:
The Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, 1 January Through 30 June 1999, Unclassified Report to Congress from the Director of Central Intelligence, released on February 2000 (and the updated/newer reports released in August 2000, and February 2001) said the following:
http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/bian_feb_2000.htm
. . . We do not have any direct evidence that Iraq has used the period since Desert Fox to reconstitute its WMD programs . . .
60 Minutes Curve Ball of Blame
60 Minutes will be profiling a bad source for the CIA.
Buried within is the fact German Intelligence even vouched for the guy in an official letter directed to Clinton + Bush CIA Director George Tenet – the scandal being Tenet doesn’t remember seeing.