Posted on 11/19/2005 3:05:26 PM PST by bnelson44
Germans Say U.S. Used Bad Data to Justify Iraq Invasion Sat Nov 19 2005 17:58:49 ET
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 Iraq war.
The LOS ANGELES TIMES is planning to front the allegation is Sunday editions, newsroom sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.
Five senior officials from Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, said in interviews with the LOS ANGELES TIMES that they warned U.S. intelligence authorities that the source, an Iraqi defector codenamed Curveball, never claimed to produce germ weapons and never saw anyone else do so.
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 claims in his pre-war 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 second-hand 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 German authorities, speaking about the case for the first time, 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.
Developing...
(Excerpt) Read more at drudgereport.com ...
I'll worry about it when the Germans decide what they're going to do about it. I don't think I'll be losing much sleep over it.
Hasn't the Curveball story been played already? Not this particular one, but hasn't it?
Yep, the thousands of missiles that Hussein fired at our pilots prior to our side going to war against Hussein were mere figments of our imagination.
BS - He had WMD and could not tell us how he disposed of them so the logical assumption is he still had them. The delay in congress is what messed things up.
Probably, anyone have a link?
Let's see...the invasion was when??? And now they come forward with this hot new information??? I think the UN needs to investigate these Germans and find out why they didn't speak up much earlier if they had this information. [This is a job that the UN can bungle without any ill effects.]
Nuts N' Sluts defense? Why did the use him for 6 years?
``We made clear we could not verify the things he said.''
Sounds like they're talking about Saddam himself.
Oh, No! Does that mean the Germans will be withdrawing their troops from Iraq immediately? We're dooooomed! /sarcasm
I remember Cheney being asked "why Iraq?""What were they doing to us?".
His response was that one of the reasons was, that Iraq was the only country in the world that was shooting at us on a daily basis.
Iraq may have nuclear weapons in three years, says Germany
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/print.asp?ArticleID=10537
coming from the leader of warmongering western countries? meh.
What data did Hitler use to invade most of Europe and surrounding countries?
Who in the CIA egged this one on?
There were multitudes of reasons to depose Saddam but he MSM and Dims only want to focus on WMD. Typical. But this goes beyond that. CIA, at war with the Bush administration, is now calling on foreign agencies to try to make him look bad. That place can't get cleaned out fast enough to suit me.
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