Iraq: The Spies Who Fooled the World (BBC) {Curveball and ilk}

[eppur_se_muova]

By Peter Taylor
BBC News

The lies of two Iraqi spies were central to the claim - at the heart of the UK and US decision to go to war in Iraq - that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. But even before the fighting started, intelligence from highly-placed sources was available suggesting he did not, Panorama has learned.

Six months before the invasion, then-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair warned the country about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

"The programme is not shut down," he said. "It is up and running now." Mr Blair used the intelligence on WMD to justify the war.

That same day, 24 September 2002, the government published its controversial dossier on the former Iraqi leader's WMD.

Designed for public consumption, it had a personal foreword by Mr Blair, who assured readers Saddam Hussein had continued to produce WMD "beyond doubt".
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21786506

[grasswire]

1. ugh

The second highly-placed source was Iraq's head of intelligence, Tahir Jalil Habbush Al-Tikriti - the jack of diamonds in America's "most wanted" deck of cards which rated members of Saddam Hussein's government. A senior MI6 officer met him in Jordan in January 2003 - two months before the war.

Bill Murray says the "best intelligence" was not used
It was thought Habbush wanted to negotiate a deal that would stop the imminent invasion. He also said Saddam Hussein had no active WMD.

Surprisingly, Lord Butler - who says Britons have "every right" to feel misled by their prime minister - only became aware of the information from Habbush after his report was published.

"I can't explain that," says Lord Butler.

[Ash_F]

2. Didn't fool me...

...nor most of DU's population at the time.

[Jerry442]

4. The military wasn't fooled either.

At the time, I pointed out to people that American forces were massing in Kuwait preparation for invasion. They would never have put most of their forces at one point like that if they had had an inkling that Saddam had even one nuke that had a chance of working.

[JoeBlowToo]

3. Dick Cheney and his cohorts were desperately seeking the misinformation...

It was what was needed to justify their long planned invasion of Iraq.