Glass
16th February 2011, 03:00 PM
Defector admits he lied to help topple Saddam
Martin Chulov and Helen Pidd, Karlsruhe
February 17, 2011
THE Iraqi defector code-named ''Curveball'' whose claims that Iraq had biological weapons were used to justify the 2003 US invasion has admitted he lied to help get rid of Saddam Hussein.
Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi told Germany's secret service, the BND, that Iraq had mobile bioweapons trucks and had built clandestine factories.
Even after he went back on his story after being confronted with denials from another source, his former boss, the BND continued to take him seriously, he told The Guardian.
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The false information was the cornerstone of former US secretary of state Colin Powell's key address to the United Nations on February 5, 2003.
During the speech, Mr Powell described Mr Janabi as ''an Iraqi chemical engineer'' who ''supervised one of these facilities''.
''He actually was present during biological agent production runs and was also at the site when an accident occurred in 1998,'' Mr Powell told the UN.
''Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right,'' Janabi has now 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.
''I had to do something for my country, so I did this and I am satisfied because there is no dictator in Iraq any more.''
The Iraq war resulted in more than 100,000 civilian deaths and damaged the political reputations of then US president George W. Bush, his defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and their ally, then British prime minister Tony Blair.
Mr Rumsfeld admitted in memoirs released last week that he ''made a mis-statement'' when he claimed Saddam had weapons-of-mass-destruction sites around Baghdad and Tikrit.
Full article...... (http://www.theage.com.au/world/defector-admits-he-lied-to-help-topple-saddam-20110216-1awjh.html)
Martin Chulov and Helen Pidd, Karlsruhe
February 17, 2011
THE Iraqi defector code-named ''Curveball'' whose claims that Iraq had biological weapons were used to justify the 2003 US invasion has admitted he lied to help get rid of Saddam Hussein.
Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi told Germany's secret service, the BND, that Iraq had mobile bioweapons trucks and had built clandestine factories.
Even after he went back on his story after being confronted with denials from another source, his former boss, the BND continued to take him seriously, he told The Guardian.
Advertisement: Story continues below
The false information was the cornerstone of former US secretary of state Colin Powell's key address to the United Nations on February 5, 2003.
During the speech, Mr Powell described Mr Janabi as ''an Iraqi chemical engineer'' who ''supervised one of these facilities''.
''He actually was present during biological agent production runs and was also at the site when an accident occurred in 1998,'' Mr Powell told the UN.
''Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right,'' Janabi has now 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.
''I had to do something for my country, so I did this and I am satisfied because there is no dictator in Iraq any more.''
The Iraq war resulted in more than 100,000 civilian deaths and damaged the political reputations of then US president George W. Bush, his defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and their ally, then British prime minister Tony Blair.
Mr Rumsfeld admitted in memoirs released last week that he ''made a mis-statement'' when he claimed Saddam had weapons-of-mass-destruction sites around Baghdad and Tikrit.
Full article...... (http://www.theage.com.au/world/defector-admits-he-lied-to-help-topple-saddam-20110216-1awjh.html)