Iraqi Defector Admits To Lying, Iraq Liberated By Mistake

[Zaune]

Link

Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war

• Man codenamed Curveball 'invented' tales of bioweapons
• Iraqi told lies to try to bring down Saddam Hussein regime
• Fabrications used by US as justification for invasion

The defector who convinced the White House that Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme has admitted for the first time that he lied about his story, then watched in shock as it was used to justify the war.

Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German and American intelligence officials who dealt with his claims, has told the Guardian that he fabricated tales of mobile bioweapons trucks and clandestine factories in an attempt to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime, from which he had fled in 1995.

"Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right," he said. "They gave me this chance. I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime. I and my sons are proud of that and we are proud that we were the reason to give Iraq the margin of democracy."

The admission comes just after the eighth anniversary of Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations in which the then-US secretary of state relied heavily on lies that Janabi had told the German secret service, the BND. It also follows the release of former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld's memoirs, in which he admitted Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction programme.

The careers of both men were seriously damaged by their use of Janabi's claims, which he now says could have been – and were – discredited well before Powell's landmark speech to the UN on 5 February 2003.

The former CIA chief in Europe Tyler Drumheller describes Janabi's admission as "fascinating", and said the emergence of the truth "makes me feel better". "I think there are still a number of people who still thought there was something in that. Even now," said Drumheller.

In the only other at length interview Janabi has given he denied all knowledge of his supposed role in helping the US build a case for invading Saddam's Iraq.

In a series of meetings with the Guardian in Germany where he has been granted asylum, he said he had told a German official, who he identified as Dr Paul, about mobile bioweapons trucks throughout 2000. He said the BND had identified him as a Baghdad-trained chemical engineer and approached him shortly after 13 March of that year, looking for inside information about Saddam's Iraq.

"I had a problem with the Saddam regime," he said. "I wanted to get rid of him and now I had this chance."

He portrays the BND as gullible and so eager to tease details from him that they gave him a Perry's Chemical Engineering Handbook to help communicate. He still has the book in his small, rented flat in Karlsruhe, south-west Germany.

"They were asking me about pumps for filtration, how to make detergent after the reaction," he said. "Any engineer who studied in this field can explain or answer any question they asked."

Janabi claimed he was first exposed as a liar as early as mid-2000, when the BND travelled to a Gulf city, believed to be Dubai, to speak with his former boss at the Military Industries Commission in Iraq, Dr Bassil Latif.

The Guardian has learned separately that British intelligence officials were at that meeting, investigating a claim made by Janabi that Latif's son, who was studying in Britain, was procuring weapons for Saddam.

That claim was proven false, and Latif strongly denied Janabi's claim of mobile bioweapons trucks and another allegation that 12 people had died during an accident at a secret bioweapons facility in south-east Baghdad.

The German officials returned to confront him with Latif's version. "He says, 'There are no trucks,' and I say, 'OK, when [Latif says] there no trucks then [there are none],'" Janabi recalled.

He said the BND did not contact him again until the end of May 2002. But he said it soon became clear that he was still being taken seriously.

He claimed the officials gave him an incentive to speak by implying that his then pregnant Moroccan-born wife may not be able to travel from Spain to join him in Germany if he did not co-operate with them. "He says, you work with us or your wife and child go to Morocco."

The meetings continued throughout 2002 and it became apparent to Janabi that a case for war was being constructed. He said he was not asked again about the bioweapons trucks until a month before Powell's speech.

After the speech, Janabi said he called his handler at the BND and accused the secret service of breaking an agreement that they would not share anything he had told them with another country. He said he was told not to speak and placed in confinement for around 90 days.

With the US now leaving Iraq, Janabi said he was comfortable with what he did, despite the chaos of the past eight years and the civilian death toll in Iraq, which stands at more than 100,000.

"I tell you something when I hear anybody – not just in Iraq but in any war – [is] killed, I am very sad. But give me another solution. Can you give me another solution?

"Believe me, there was no other way to bring about freedom to Iraq. There were no other possibilities."

Posted entirely without comment, because I'm lost for words.

[K. A. Pital]

I bet he takes lots of pride in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, if not a whole million. Unlike the revolutions which brought down the regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, the American invasion was one of the most violent and deadly regime-toppling actions in the recent years.

[weemadando]

Why is their "by mistake" in the title?

I would have thought that:
"by knowing, callous and indifferent manipulation of evidence to manufacture a false pretext for a war to be run by profiteers in and around the White House."

would be more accurate.

True, it doesn't fit, but at least Curveball is saying what anyone with a brain has known since some time in 2002.

[Zaune]

Why is their "by mistake" in the title?

I would have thought that:
"by knowing, callous and indifferent manipulation of evidence to manufacture a false pretext for a war to be run by profiteers in and around the White House."
would be more accurate.

True, it doesn't fit, but at least Curveball is saying what anyone with a brain has known since some time in 2002.

It was a reference to a probably apocryphal story I read somewhere, about a contest for the most dramatic fictitious newspaper headline whose winning entry was "Archduke Ferdinand Alive, World War Fought By Mistake".

[weemadando]

Why is their "by mistake" in the title?

I would have thought that:
"by knowing, callous and indifferent manipulation of evidence to manufacture a false pretext for a war to be run by profiteers in and around the White House."
would be more accurate.

True, it doesn't fit, but at least Curveball is saying what anyone with a brain has known since some time in 2002.

It was a reference to a probably apocryphal story I read somewhere, about a contest for the most dramatic fictitious newspaper headline whose winning entry was "Archduke Ferdinand Alive, World War Fought By Mistake".

It's OK, I was being snarky too.

Just wait until the people who still believe that there are WMDs to be found show up. Oh wait, they all suddenly never supported the war...

[Tolya]

I have no idea how this works in US, but doesn't this warrant some kind of investigation, preferably ending with putting all the happy rich motherfuckers who ordered the invasion of Iraq in jail?

Can you put an ex-president in jail?

I am currently in a state of "WTF" so if someone could explain this shit to me I would be very grateful.

[Chris OFarrell]

I have no idea how this works in US, but doesn't this warrant some kind of investigation, preferably ending with putting all the happy rich motherfuckers who ordered the invasion of Iraq in jail?

No no, you see we have to MOVE FORWARD and pretend it all never happened, for the GOOD OF THE COUNTRY so we can actually do the exact same shit again!

[Zaune]

No no, you see we have to MOVE FORWARD and pretend it all never happened, for the GOOD OF THE COUNTRY so we can actually do the exact same shit again!

I already made this point in another thread, but it bears repeating. The price of punishing those responsible would be riots, bombings and shooting incidents that result in a non-zero number of innocent bystanders getting killed and maimed.

[Samuel]

No no, you see we have to MOVE FORWARD and pretend it all never happened, for the GOOD OF THE COUNTRY so we can actually do the exact same shit again!

I already made this point in another thread, but it bears repeating. The price of punishing those responsible would be riots, bombings and shooting incidents that result in a non-zero number of innocent bystanders getting killed and maimed.

The US does not bow down to the threat of terrorism. Why do you hate America and freedom?

[Metahive]

I already made this point in another thread, but it bears repeating. The price of punishing those responsible would be riots, bombings and shooting incidents that result in a non-zero number of innocent bystanders getting killed and maimed.

And what's the price of letting those responsible get away with everything?

[Commander 598]

I already made this point in another thread, but it bears repeating. The price of punishing those responsible would be riots, bombings and shooting incidents that result in a non-zero number of innocent bystanders getting killed and maimed.

And what's the price of letting those responsible get away with everything?

The same thing as it is every year: Your taxes.

[Thanas]

Yeah, and civilian lives, the reputation of the USA, the lives of several thousand servicemen who got killed/maimed for life etc.


And the callousness of the whole affair just shocks me. We have one guy essentially going "whoopsie, I lied. HAHAHAHA." whereas the Bush junta is still running around getting feted by the elite of the country.

[Chardok]

Look - let's be honest. How much "convincing" did the Bush administration really need to go kill brown people? ESPECIALLY one that tried to kill his dad.

[General Zod]

Why is their "by mistake" in the title?

I would have thought that:
"by knowing, callous and indifferent manipulation of evidence to manufacture a false pretext for a war to be run by profiteers in and around the White House."
would be more accurate.

True, it doesn't fit, but at least Curveball is saying what anyone with a brain has known since some time in 2002.

It was a reference to a probably apocryphal story I read somewhere, about a contest for the most dramatic fictitious newspaper headline whose winning entry was "Archduke Ferdinand Alive, World War Fought By Mistake".

It's OK, I was being snarky too.

Just wait until the people who still believe that there are WMDs to be found show up. Oh wait, they all suddenly never supported the war...

Nah, then it becomes "We were acting with the best information we had at the time." and they'll ignore the fact that the people in charge already knew it was false.

[Sea Skimmer]

I bet he takes lots of pride in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, if not a whole million. Unlike the revolutions which brought down the regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, the American invasion was one of the most violent and deadly regime-toppling actions in the recent years.

And also unlike Egypt and Tunisia, mass protest, and mass domestic violent resistance had already proven incapable of removing Saddam Hussein. How many people were killed and wounded in the 1991 rebellion against Saddam in alone? Something like 150,000?

[The Kernel]

And also unlike Egypt and Tunisia, mass protest, and mass domestic violent resistance had already proven incapable of removing Saddam Hussein. How many people were killed and wounded in the 1991 rebellion against Saddam in alone? Something like 150,000?

It wasn't exactly a popular rebellion though. If the rebellion had been made up of an ethnically diverse group of Shia, Sunni and Kurds, Saddam would have been powerless to stop them. The fact that it wasn't let him turn the army on them and crush the rebellion.

That's the problem with ethnic and religious conflicts when a dictator like Saddam limits his oppression to certain groups. The Egyptian army wasn't going to subdue the demonstrators because these people were their friends and neighbors and they weren't about to gun them down. When you have ethnic and religious division, it becomes easy to suppress a rebellion because all you need to crush Shia or Kurd rebels is an army made up of Sunni.

[Block]

And also unlike Egypt and Tunisia, mass protest, and mass domestic violent resistance had already proven incapable of removing Saddam Hussein. How many people were killed and wounded in the 1991 rebellion against Saddam in alone? Something like 150,000?

It wasn't exactly a popular rebellion though. If the rebellion had been made up of an ethnically diverse group of Shia, Sunni and Kurds, Saddam would have been powerless to stop them. The fact that it wasn't let him turn the army on them and crush the rebellion.

That's the problem with ethnic and religious conflicts when a dictator like Saddam limits his oppression to certain groups. The Egyptian army wasn't going to subdue the demonstrators because these people were their friends and neighbors and they weren't about to gun them down. When you have ethnic and religious division, it becomes easy to suppress a rebellion because all you need to crush Shia or Kurd rebels is an army made up of Sunni.

However there was never going to be a coalition like that in Iraq, they hated eachother too much, so Skimmer's point is still valid.

[Themightytom]

Well this only underscores the need for accurate data collection on the onset of the development of any strategic plan...

[Pelranius]

It was a reference to a probably apocryphal story I read somewhere, about a contest for the most dramatic fictitious newspaper headline whose winning entry was "Archduke Ferdinand Alive, World War Fought By Mistake".

Off topic, but that came from "Our Dumb Century", courtesy of the Onion.

[Zaune]

Off topic, but that came from "Our Dumb Century", courtesy of the Onion.

No, it's older than that. I'm almost certain it was Sir John Hackett's The Third World War I saw it in.

[weemadando]

Well this only underscores the need for accurate data collection on the onset of the development of any strategic plan...

I think you've missed the point.

The people doing the data collection knew it the data was inaccurate, untrustworthy or outright lies.

The people they were delivering it to just didn't give a shit, even going as far as to set up new intelligence clearinghouses within their own government departments that would generate the reports that they wanted to hear.

What is needed is a trial where these people face the goddamn music for willfully committing their nation to a war on false pretenses for their own personal gain. Then maybe, just maybe, there might be a disincentive for people to do this again in the future.

[Thanas]

Sadly, any chance of something like that happened died when the USA won the Spanish-American war.

The circumstances of that and the buildup to the Iraq war were eerily similar.

[weemadando]

Sadly, any chance of something like that happened died when the USA won the Spanish-American war.

The circumstances of that and the buildup to the Iraq war were eerily similar.

Yeah. What'll happen is that it'll all get ignored and brushed under the carpet and then in about a decade people will look back on Dubya with the same in(s)ane reverence that they have with Reagan now and demand that the world start naming every airport, library and road after him.

[Thanas]

I just read this speech by Carl Schulz.

It would not be out of place today.

[Serafina]

So, what happens if we apply the principles set in the Nuremberg trials to the Iraq War?
A "crime against peace" is defined as "planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of wars of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing". A "war of agression" is further defined as "a military conflict waged without the justification of self-defense usually for territorial gain and subjugation". Now you might argue that the war was not waged for territorial gain, but that is not a requirement, just an example - and there was no legit case for self-defense. Conspiring to make it appear otherwise is certainly not the same as actual self-defense.
The war was certainly planned, initiated and waged. I am not sure whether it was in direct violation of any international treaties, but a lot of people certainly "participated in a common plan or conspiracy" in order to make this war happen.

Now i am hardly an expert on international law, but from everything i have seen so far the Iraq war was completely illegeal by international law. Can anyone bring up anything that says otherwise?