Curveball has finally admitted that he made the entire thing up. If you recall, we went to war in Iraq based on the claim that Saddam Hussein had developed biological weapons. That account was based on the statements of Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, who our foreign allies warned was unreliable and clearly lying. However, President Bush and his aides were set upon invading Iraqi and relied on Curveball before the United Nations. He has now come out publicly to admit he fabricated the entire thing and could not believe the Americans relied upon his stories to launch a major war.
The interview was published on the eighth anniversary of Colin Powell’s speech to the United Nations
He says that foreign intelligence officials were so keen on confirming biological weapons that they gave him a copy of Perry’s Chemical Engineering Handbook to help communicate. He still has the book, which he used to fabricate the stories. However, he admitted to making up the stories in mid-2000.
Of course, President Obama has continued to expend treasure and lives in Iraq in the ultimate example of the economic theory of “path dependence.” We continue to fight a war based on a fabricated story because our leaders cannot risk the political repercussions to pulling out from that country. There is also no known punishment for the officials, including high-ranking CIA and Administration officials, who perpetuated this lie. At best this was an act of willful blindness and at worst knowing falsification to justify going to war.
Our intelligence officials appear to continue to accept a good fabricated story over bad facts. Recently, they paid an enormous amount of money to an imposter who pretended to be the head of Taliban in Afghanistan, here. American officials even flew the imposter to meet with Karzai before finding out that he was lying.
Source: Guardian
SL,
I can tell you my exact reaction when I found out Bush invaded Iraq.
“Invaded who? They didn’t attack us. This is going to end badly for everybody.”
Elanie,
There is proof that our govt. knew he was lying from day one. Curveball was recruited to give a semblance of cover in order that the US govt. had an excuse to go to war. The war is and was illegal. It’s authors of it should be in jail, reparations made to the people of Iraq and not one more of our soldiers should be sent in harms way. Yet we stand with one of the largest embassies ever built, a large mercenary force and our own military in Obama’s operation “New Dawn”. We must understand what the govt. is doing. It is illegally occupying another country. It is composed of corrupt war and financial criminals. They Egyptians understood what their “leaders” were doing. I hope we follow their example.
James in LA, Hope your Michigan people don’t turn to the gun toting tea party.
” the lies of what our troops would face once they got their”
I need to calm down … “the lies of what our troops would face once they got THERE”
James & BIL:
When the Moron-In-Chief announced we were invading Iraq I had to do a triple take. I knew from day one that everything was a lie – the lies of why we were going; the lies of how long it was going to take; the lies on how it was going to be paid for; the lies of what our troops would face once they got their … lies, lies, and more f**king lies. Billions and billions of dollars pissed away on nothing more than an elaborate game of ego-feeing, chest-thumping “my dick is bigger than your dick” bullshit; hundreds of thousands of lives wastefully lost; and the clusterf*ck continues without EITHER party finding the balls and spines to make it stop and hold those who committed the war crime known as Iraq accountable.
Now we suffer the consequences. We here are expected to sacrifice in terms of massive budget cuts that will affect not the ass-hats and their corporate ass-masters that got us into this mess, and continue keeping us there, but the lower and middle classes. The treatment of our troops and veterans SUCK, our education system SUCKS, our infrastructure SUCKS, our healthcare system SUCKS, our social services SUCK , etc., etc., etc.
The criminals walk while revising history and making millions upon millions of dollars from it and we mere peons are left standing in the rubble.
F**k ME!
SM, I know, I took no joy in authoring those words. Given the rage I see building among even people I know — good people, who I have known for decades — is growing universal. And when our democratic institutions fail us, primarily because they have been deliberately disassembled, that rage has fewer and fewer channels for positive outcomes.
You instead end up seeing only targets.
None of the people I know and love escaped the depression without significant damage to their financial and professional lives. Three lost their homes, and nowhere near “getting back on track.” Almost all have changed employment, some have still not found jobs. Living in Michigan creates a bleak future for most, and that was true when I lived there growing up. I nearly had to pack it in myself, and move in with my sister. My net worth is now by debt. Luckily, one can get and stay lost in L.A.
And so for those who feel 500:1 salary disparities, for example, are just fine, they are putting on the Target Suit, because the government isn’t just turning a blind eye.
It’s actively aiding and abetting. And the rage is not going to just go away. Converge this with 25% of the population ready to take up their Second Amendment Remedies, and Higgledy-Piggeldy is a near certainty.
May the courageous Rep. Giffords continue to Speak.
Wasn’t Curveball’s veracity called into question a long time ago?
Now what?
BIL, that’s exactly right. They got Pinnochet ‘ere the End.
It is very difficult in the meantime to remain focused on actual policy when the mouths speaking it belong in jail.
Yo, Holder!…duuuuude, they stole my country!
James in LA, When you said targets on their backs, I thought of Gabrielle Gifford and Palin’s map.
Annie,
But who has all of the necessary equipment to conduct the drilling on a world wide scale….Haliburton…
Anon:
only problem is that I dont think we have any contracts to drill. I think the Chinese have those.
SL,
They won’t be held accountable only as long as Americans are stupid enough to keep buying the propaganda and weak enough to not insist that the war criminal traitors be brought to justice along with their enablers. The wheels of justice often turn slowly. They are also dependent upon revelation and processing true facts – another sometimes slow process. And whether justice is had at bar or at the hands of pitchfork bearing mobs is entirely up to those in government. I’ll put on the popcorn.
History, however, will paint them rightfully as the villains that they are.
It is well on its way to completing the picture.
Stamford, it’s so flagrant…and now two years of aiding and abetting it by the current administration assures we will have it until we have our own Tahrir Square.
Revolution will happen in this country when the number on the gas pump reaches $10. Then you will see technology unleashed, because in this age, anyone who wants to know your exact location and your movements in time can find it out, and justice will come ugly via FlashMob. They will take a page from abortion nuts and occupy the cracks and crevices of people’s daily lives. One suspects they will not limit their speech to prayer alone. Count on it. When it happens, I intend to join.
This is unsustainable. People who are doing this to our country have only targets on their backs now.
You think Oil has anything to do with this WAR?
Iraq: Oil and Economy
Sands of Iraq hold world’s 2nd largest oil reserve
In a Feb. 26 address, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called suggestions that the US is really after Iraq’s oil “utter nonsense.”
“We don’t take our forces and go around the world and try to take other people’s real estate or other people’s resources, their oil. That’s just not what the United States does,” he said. “We never have, and we never will. That’s not how democracies behave.”
Nonsense aside, the sands of Iraq hold oil… lots of it. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), “Iraq holds more than 112 billion barrels of oil – the world’s second largest proven reserves. Iraq also contains 110 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and is a focal point for regional and international security issues.”
http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aairaqioil.htm
How reliable the source is….I am not sure…But I heard a piece on NPR last October…
NONE of these clowns will be held accountable … I am so pissed off right now I don’t know where to begin.
the damaging aspect of ‘agenda’…
http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/russ-baker/34192/bush-rumsfeld-and-iraq-is-the-real-reason-for-the-invasion-finally-emerging
Here is an activist letter request concerning our wars: “It is important to put budget issues in perspective, so I have a simple request that President Obama, the top members of his administration, and his allies in Congress send a hand written version of this letter to constituents:
Dear low-income American,
I know times are tough. I know many of you saw your savings and home values hurt by Wall Street recklessness. I also know that, with official unemployment above 9 percent, it is tough to find a job, and many have been forced to choose part-time employment that lacks benefits. But as a result of extending the Bush tax cuts for millionaires, the budget deficit has grown.
So, despite your problems, you are going to be “asked” to sacrifice. Your president is planning to cut $2.6 billion from Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps people afford keeping their homes warm during the winter, despite the fact that due to the economic downturn the number of poor people needing help has increased significantly.
As a result of your going without heat next winter, we will be able to afford almost one whole week of fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which cost about $468 million a day. Although when you add in the many hidden costs like increased long-term veteran’s health care due to the conflicts, your sacrifice is probably only really going to cover maybe half a week.
I hope you understand that when we had to choose between providing basic necessities to our citizens or fighting about five more days in Iraq and Afghanistan because of [insert newest justification here], we clearly just had to choose the wars over you.
Sincerely,
Democrats in Washington” (find on Common Dreams)
All records clearly indicate the US was gunning for Iraq, even under Clinton. As the Downing Street Memo clearly shows, “the intelligence was being fixed around the policy”. In the U.K. the Iraq war is called the illegal Iraq War. In the US it’s called an opportunity to make money. Our former and current leaders engaged in and continue to engage in war crimes. This may not seem like a big deal to those who are wealthy enough to profit from such horror, or to those who remain untouched by the suffering of this crime, but we are responsible for unspeakable cruelty against our own soldiers and the people of other nations. What is wrong with so many of our own people that we remain complacent in the commission of such cruelty?
Oh, I thought Dubya brought a war of choice to Iraq because;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC5dfneoHcE
All the other reasons were falsified, that must be the only one left.