Lies that kill: the non-existent "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq according to "Curveball"

One of the main sources on which the Cheney-Bush Administration relied to build their dishonest case for invading Iraq was Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, an Iraqi defector better known as "Curveball." German intelligence had warned the United States that Janabi was a shaky source. As former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer puts it, "Our position was always: [Curveball] might be right, but he might not be right. He could be a liar but he could be telling the truth." (See Helen Pidd, Curveball doubts were shared with CIA, says ex-German foreign minister [Joschka Fischer] The Guardian 02/17/2011) Janabi is especially known for the highly-improbable story about the mobile labs of death that Saddam supposedly had driving around the country cooking up bioweapons in the back of the truck.

But fabrication is what the Cheney-Bush Administration wanted.

Justin Logan in the aptly named post Ein Haus der Lüge ("A House of Lies" - the text of the post is in English) The National Interest 02/15/2011, Al-Janabi recently gave an interview to The Guardian, Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war by Martin Chulov and Helen Pidd 02/15/2011. And even though he claims he was shocked, shocked, I tell you, when he say it contribute to starting a war, he's unrepentant about his role in the whole criminal enterprise:

Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German and American intelligence officials who dealt with his claims, has told the Guardian that he fabricated tales of mobile bioweapons trucks and clandestine factories in an attempt to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime, from which he had fled in 1995.

"Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right," he said. "They gave me this chance. I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime. I and my sons are proud of that and we are proud that we were the reason to give Iraq the margin of democracy." ...

With the US now leaving Iraq, Janabi said he was comfortable with what he did, despite the chaos of the past eight years and the civilian death toll in Iraq, which stands at more than 100,000.

"I tell you something when I hear anybody – not just in Iraq but in any war – [is] killed, I am very sad. But give me another solution. Can you give me another solution?

"Believe me, there was no other way to bring about freedom to Iraq. There were no other possibilities."

Yet another Guardian article is a reminder that going so public to try to drum up a film or book deal for himself might not be the best idea Janabi ever had, either: Helen Pidd and Martin Chulov, Curveball could face jail for warmongering, says German MP 02/17/2011:

In his adopted home of Germany, MPs are demanding to know why the German secret service paid Curveball £2,500 a month for at least five years after they knew he had lied.

Hans-Christian Ströbele, a Green MP, said Janabi had arguably violated a German law which makes warmongering illegal. He added that Gerhard Schröder, German chancellor around the time of the second Iraq war, should also reveal what he knew about the quality of evidence Curveball gave to Germany's secret service, the BND.

Under German constitutional law, it is a criminal offence to do anything "with the intent to disturb the peaceful relations between nations, especially anything that leads to an aggressive war", said Ströbele. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment, he said, adding that he did not expect it would ever come to that.

The MP said he would table a question to the Bundestag demanding to know whether the German secret service knew that Curveball was lying before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Jail for warmongering in the form of knowingly providing false intelligence to drum up a war? What a concept! These Germans obvious haven't gotten on board yet with the concept of Look Forward, Not Backward. They don't realize that all this "rule of law" stuff is, like, soo-ooo 20th century. At least according to the Beltway Village consensus.

But Americans should never forget how frauds like this Janabi guy and senior officials in the Cheney-Bush Administration and the pathetic Tony Blair's British government generated a completely unnecessary war based on lies that turned out to be the biggest strategic disaster in the history of American foreign policy. The US will be experiencing negative consequences from the invasion of Iraq for decades.

ags: bush administration, iraq war, war crimes