LA Times: How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball'

The incompetence and arrogance of the Bushevics is staggering. Now the Germans are piling on. Remember-- 'Curveball' was their asset. They interviewed him, they managed him. The results were given in good faith to us, WITH GRAVE RESERVATIONS! The reservations were left out and the administration grossly trumped up outlandish fallacies and used them as a pretext for a war that has since turned into a grotesque failure.

How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball': "The Iraqi informant's German handlers say they had told U.S. officials that his information was 'not proven,' and were shocked when President Bush and Colin L. Powell used it in key prewar speeches."

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"The senior BND officer who supervised Curveball's case said he was aghast when he watched Powell misstate Curveball's claims as a justification for war.

'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."'