Rumor And Innuendo And Hearsay

Oh my! No creative use of intelligence here. Move along, please. This is a hell of an article, by the way. LATimes (11.20.05):

"The German intelligence officials responsible for one of the most important informants on Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction say that the Bush administration and the CIA repeatedly exaggerated his claims during the run-up to the war in Iraq. Five senior officials from Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, said in interviews with The Times that they warned U.S. intelligence authorities that the source, an Iraqi defector code-named Curveball, never claimed to produce germ weapons and never saw anyone else do so." How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball'

"According to the Germans, President Bush mischaracterized Curveball's information when he warned before the war that Iraq had at least seven mobile factories brewing biological poisons." "Then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell also misstated Curveball's accounts in his prewar presentation to the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003, the Germans said." "Curveball's German handlers for the last six years said his information was often vague, mostly secondhand and impossible to confirm." "'This was not substantial evidence,' said a senior German intelligence official. 'We made clear we could not verify the things he said.'" The Germans "also said that their informant suffered from emotional and mental problems. 'He is not a stable, psychologically stable guy,' said a BND official who supervised the case. 'He is not a completely normal person,' agreed a BND analyst." Curveball is presently living in Germany in what is the German equivalent of a witness protection program. German Intelligence has had to move him twice "because of concerns that his life was in danger. They still watch him closely. 'He is difficult to integrate' into local society, said a BND operations officer. 'We are still busy with him.'" In other words, Curveball is a delusional nutcase. The Administration used his info anyway. Remember the mobile germ lab stuff? Colin Powell probably does. Reuters (03.31.05):

"Despite Curveball's mysterious background and internal doubts about his reliability, his assertions appeared in more than 100 government reports and shaped then-Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 2003 address to the United Nations detailing Iraq's weapons programs." Source 'Curveball' Blamed in Intelligence Failure

The Germans were watching Colin when he made these claims in front of the UN. "'We were shocked,' the official said. 'Mein Gott! We had always told them it was not proven…. It was not hard intelligence.'" "In a telephone interview, Powell said that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, and his top deputies personally assured him before his U.N. speech that U.S. intelligence on the mobile labs was 'solid'. Since then, Powell said, the case 'has totally blown up in our faces.'" George? What have you to say of this? George?? George Tenet, that is. As to George Bush, here's what he says (11.11.05):

"Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs." President Commemorates Veterans Day, Discusses War on Terror

Read the LATimes article about how they treated "Jerry", head of "a CIA-led unit investigated Curveball himself" once Jerry realized Curveball was full of it. Or how David Kay was treated after he completed his investigation, returned to the States and "told Tenet that Curveball was a liar and he was convinced Iraq had no mobile labs or other illicit weapons." No pressure there or nothing.