We’re gonna take a closer look at an intelligence failure that was a major factor in taking the U.S. to war in Iraq. It’s a story of a shadow Iraqi defector who duped the bush administration into believing Sadam Hussein had mobile biological laboratories. Some at the administration thought the defector was lying. Their concerns were ignored. Our chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross reports.
When he defected from Iraq to Germany, intelligence services gave him a randomly chosen codename that would prove prophetic—“curveball”—seen here in a photo provided to ABC NEWS by intelligence sources. Curveball was the supposed insider who revealed Saddam’s biological weapons labs.
None of this true, as far as I know now. None of it.
Yet, despite growing concerns in the CIA, curveball’s tales become the principal basis for secretary of state Colin Powell’s speech to the United Nations four years ago, making the case for war. Featuring evidence of supposed mobile biological weapons labs all provided by curveball.
The source was an eyewitness, an Iraqi chemical engineer who supervised one of these facilities.
Curveball’s details were the centerpiece of the case, according to Powell’s then chief of staff, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson.
It was almost that which mad the whole case seen effective. It was just so dramatic.
But it was all made up. As some in the CIA had suspected well before the speech, including then their head of European operations, Tyler Drumheller, who says he tried, unsuccessfully, to have his bosses take the material out of Powell’s speech.
And so we led out that paragraph completely --- just scratched it out.
You said, “Don’t say his”?
Yes, said, “This is from curveball. Don’t use this.
Drumheller says he even met personally with the number—two man in the CIA, JOHN McLAUGHLIN, to warn that curveball was a fabricator.
And John said, “Oh, my, I hope not.” You know, he said, this is all we have. And I said, “This can’t be all we have.” I said, “There must be another. There must be something else.” And he said, “No, this is really the only tangible thing we have.”
Drumheller’s allegations have created a kind of family feud in the CIA, with McLAUGHLIN denying any such meeting or warning from Drumheller.
This man never came into my office; sat down, looked me in the eye and made a case that curveball was a fabricator.
Powell told ABC NEWS he’s furious with what happened and his former chief of staff says feels deceived.
I think they hedged the truth.
As to why curveball did not tell the truth, U.S. officials describe him as a clever flake, who figured out he could have a nice life in Germany if he told stories that everybody seemed to want to hear.
It’s amazing that U.S. intelligence would put so much faith in somebody they hadn’t talked to, right?
That’s right. They didn’t talk to him prior to the speech.
Where is he now? Have they talked to him since?
He’s in Germany, protect by German intelligence. They’ve talked to him and they broke him. He essentially conceded it was all lies.
