This seems worthy of making some headlines:
The defector who convinced the White House that Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme has admitted for the first time that he lied about his story, then watched in shock as it was used to justify the war.
Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German and American intelligence officials who dealt with his claims, has told the Guardian that he fabricated tales of mobile bioweapons trucks and clandestine factories in an attempt to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime, from which he had fled in 1995.
“Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right,” he said. “They gave me this chance. I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime. I and my sons are proud of that and we are proud that we were the reason to give Iraq the margin of democracy.”
The admission comes just after the eighth anniversary of Colin Powell’s speech to the United Nations in which the then-US secretary of state relied heavily on lies that Janabi had told the German secret service, the BND. It also follows the release of former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s memoirs, in which he admitted Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction programme.
I will once again take the opportunity to post a link to what I consider the greatest post in the history of blogging, Operation Desert Snipe. I wish I had listened to it then, but in retrospect, it is so powerful.
*** Update ***
Watching the President’s press conference, and I’m finding the press to be aggressive, suspicious, and adversarial. THANK GOODNESS. I find it odd that they’ve chosen now to behave this way, but then again, the village infatuation with pain and entitlement cuts is well known. However, I’m not complaining. This is how they are supposed to behave. I want them to act like this. They aren’t the President’s partner. They aren’t supposed to be all chummy with people in Washington. What I would like is for them to be like this all the time. When Obama has a press conference, go after him. Same with Boehner and the Republicans. Sadly, I imagine this is a one-off.
You Told Me you Loved Me, But I Don’t UnderstandPost + Comments (171)