German Intelligence Was 'Dishonest, Unprofessional and Irresponsible'

Der Spiegel ^

[Kaslin]

SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH IRAQ WMD SLEUTH DAVID KAY

David Kay was charged by the Bush administration with finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after the invasion. Instead of finding weapons, though, he found what he told SPIEGEL was 'the biggest intelligence fiasco of my lifetime.'

SPIEGEL: As head of the Iraq Survey Group, you led the effort to follow up on the claims made by 'Curveball,' the asylum seeker from Iraq who told German intelligence that Saddam Hussein was building mobile biological weapons laboratories. Do you remember the first time you began to doubt his story?

Kay: The real shock was that the CIA had never spoken to him directly. To this day, I still don’t understand. How can you hang the most dramatic part of a case for war on an individual no American agent has ever directly debriefed? I realized right away, we needed to follow up in Baghdad on whatever leads we had concerning 'Curveball.'

SPIEGEL: Were you briefed by the BND, the German foreign intelligence agency, before you went to Iraq?

Kay: No way. This is part of how toxic and how horrible the relationship was between the BND and the CIA. The Germans never gave us 'Curveball’s' real name which once lead to minor disaster in Germany.

SPIEGEL: What happened?

Kay: Members of the CIA based in Munich thought they had his name and went out and found someone in Germany with a very similar name. They found him -- a young Iraqi -- and knocked on his door without approval by the German authorities. But it was the wrong guy, and he ended up calling the police on the intruders.

[ketchikan]

I agree the press and the left have provided a tremendous roadblock. What leaves me baffled is the numerous times that someone from the administration has been interviewed on TV and just lets comments that are not true go by.

The same happens with others on the right who support the war. They either don't have all the facts (see that way too often) or they don't know how to “speak truth to power” (ie media). Why haven't the Republicans in congress been more vocal and insistent on the whole truth. Me thinks they and their aides spend too much time playing politics rather than the country's business.

Even the rt wing talk shows have fallen down on the job with the WMD issue. Everyone takes the info at the top of the fold but most do not do their own research.