Media Throws 'Curveball' Back at White House

The White House had no qualms about using 'curveball' to their advantage before the war, but they can't seem to handle his being thrown back at them - especially after they thought they had buried him in congressional hearings.

McClellan said the president was basing his remarks on an intelligence assessment provided by the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency on May 28, which said that "coalition forces have uncovered the strongest evidence to date that Iraq was hiding a biological warfare program." . . .

"I cannot count how many times the president has said the intelligence was wrong. The Robb-Silberman commission, which was the independent bipartisan commission that looked into this intelligence, said that the intelligence community's assessment of Iraq's biological weapons programs was almost entirely wrong," . . .

Intelligence about the mobile biological weapons labs came mainly from a source whose code name was "Curveball."

That information was shared with U.S. intelligence officials and was subsequently used by then-Secretary of State Powell as evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

A report last year from the Robb-Silberman commission said some senior CIA officials had begun having doubts about Curveball's credibility in 2002 and took their concerns to senior managers -- and eventually to former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet and his deputy, John McLaughlin.

The information remained in Powell's U.N. presentation.

The report outlines a meeting in early autumn 2002 between a CIA division chief and a representative of the foreign intelligence service who debriefed Curveball.

I wonder which country's foreign intelligence service debriefed "Curveball." No doubt, it's one that does not want to take the blame for passing on false pre-war intelligence.

The division chief said the foreign officer told him Curveball "was crazy ... had had a nervous breakdown and was a fabricator."

According to the division chief, he passed the information to senior managers.

The report cites a meeting in January 2003 when the division chief allegedly told McLaughlin that Curveball was a fabricator.

In April 2005, McLaughlin said he has "absolutely no recall of such a discussion. None."

How convenient. I'm sure they're hoping the division chief does not stand up to dispute his claim.