"Curveball"!

This is coolbert:

Thanks to Jungle Trader and from several sources the story of "Curveball". A defector from Iraq, a fabulist, a teller of make-believe tall tales, who in part was responsible for the Iraq war [2003] and eventual demise of Saddam.

[for those of you not American, the term "curveball" can have a negative connotation.]

" 9. a misleading or deceptive trick; cheat; deception. - - 18. throw (someone) a curve, a. to take (someone) by surprise, especially in a negative way."

It should be noted, ONLY in part and nothing more than that, the veracity of the man for a time accepted as FACT not only by the CIA but by the Germans [BND?] as well!

1. "Iraqi Says He Made Up Tale of Biological Weapons Before War"

"WASHINGTON — The Iraqi defector whose claims that Saddam Hussein’s government had biological weapons became part of the Bush administration’s justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq has admitted that he fabricated his story."

"The defector, Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi . . . concocted his tale that Iraq was hiding mobile bioweapons laboratories."

2. "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"

Fabrications BELIEVED AND in the aftermath of 9/11 accepted as true by the U.S. And fabrications that must be seen as a small part of a much larger whole.

Disinformation from a variety of sources, intended to scare. Create fear that would PREVENT war, not cause it. Disinformation that backfired on the perpetrators, with very bad results for all parties?

Disinformation on the part of individual defectors [yes], sent agents of Saddam [yes], and possibly false data as fed to the U.S. by the Iranians through their man Chalabi?

Saddam in particular wanting to appear strong when he was weak. This idea worked well prior to 9/11, but went awry post-9/11?

Being able to separate the true from the false, the wheat from the chaff is a hard job for any intelligence agency. Intelligence collection and analysis of itself is a difficult business! Your adversary is simultaneously preventing you from finding out what you want to find out - - and also feeding you bogus info with the intent to fool!

"Curveball" did throw everyone a curve. That is so much "water over the dam now"! Everyone swung at the pitch and has MISSED!

coolbert.