The Man Behind The Name

I’m a day late in getting to this, but it’s still a solid story.  60 Minutes on CBS had a fascinating piece last night about the source behind the “weapons of mass destruction” report that got us into the Iraq War.

Faulty Intel Source “Curve Ball” Revealed

CBS News reports on its investigation of the Iraqi informant codenamed “Curve Ball”: “Did Saddam Hussein have weapons of mass destruction? No, he did not. We’ve known that for some time now. So where did the intelligence come from that he was building up his arsenal? Fantastically, the most compelling part came from one obscure Iraqi defector who came in and out of history like a comet. His code name, ironically, was ‘Curve Ball’ and his information became the pillar of the case Colin Powell made to the United Nations before the war. Who is Curve Ball and how did he fool the world’s elite intelligence agencies? 60 Minutes spent two years, and traveled to nine countries, trying to solve the mystery.” [...]