Iraqi weapons 'expert' unmasked as a fraud

[cal04]

By Sadie Gray
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3124366.ece

The Iraqi defector whose claims regarding Saddam Hussein's biological warfare capabilities were central to the US government's case for the 2003 invasion, despite repeated warnings that they were dubious, has been unmasked by a television documentary.

The informer, codenamed Curveball was Rafid Ahmed Alwan who, in 1999, turned up at a refugee centre in Germany seeking political asylum. He went on to convince the Pentagon he was a brilliant chemist who had helped develop mobile biological warfare laboratories.

His role in the build-up to war was exposed in a detailed investigation by the Los Angeles Times, in which he was dismissed as an "out-and-out" fabricator who should have aroused scepticism in the CIA. The LA Times said Curveball was the brother of a senior aide to Ahmed Chalabi, then leader of the Iraqi National Congress, and reported that neither the Pentagon nor the CIA knew exactly who he was.

But he is named for the first time in an edition of the US network CBS's documentary 60 Minutes to be broadcast tomorrow. The report is already on the programme's web pages. The documentary assumes he is still living in Germany, under a false name.

link to 60 minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/01/60minutes/main3440577.shtml

[procopia]

1. Germans warned US about Curveball

Prewar:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1121/dailyUpdate.html