TRUTH

Faulty Intel Source "Curve Ball" Revealed
60 Minutes: Iraqi's Fabricated Story Of Biological Weapons Drove U.S. Arguments For Invading Iraq

By Draggan Mihailovich | CBS

Rafid Ahmed Alwan, seen here dancing at a Baghdad wedding in 1993. (CBS)

(CBS) 60 Minutes has identified the man whose fabricated story of Iraqi biological weapons drove the U.S. argument for invading Iraq. It has also obtained video of "Curve Ball," as he was known in intelligence circles, and discovered he was not only a liar, but also a thief and a poor student instead of the chemical engineering whiz he claimed to be.

60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon's two-year investigation will be broadcast this Sunday, Nov. 4, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Curve Ball is an Iraqi defector named Rafid Ahmed Alwan, who arrived at a German refugee center in 1999. To bolster his asylum case and increase his importance, he told officials he was a star chemical engineer who had been in charge of a facility at Djerf al Nadaf that was making mobile biological weapons.

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Posted by Me on Thursday, November 01, 2007 at 11/01/2007 10:10:00 pm | Permalink