Curveball - Powell 'Demands Answers'

A bit late for the tough questions, Colin, no? Perhaps before millions of lives were destroyed in one way or another, hundreds of thousands fatally, would have been a better time. The narrative which books you a berth in the same corner of hell as Bush, Cheney and Rumsfelt goes as follows:
Powell's landmark speech to the United Nations on February 5, 2003, cited intelligence about Iraq leader Saddam Hussein's bioweapons programme gained from a defector, code-named Curveball.

But he has now admitted that he lied to topple the dictator, in an interview with the Guardian*.
"It has been known for several years that the source called Curveball was totally unreliable," Mr Powell said.
"The question should be put to the CIA and the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) as to why this wasn't known before the false information was put into the (report) sent to Congress, the president's state of the union address and my 5 February presentation to the UN."

You might have thought of testing or querying some of the 'intel' yourself, I would have thought. Pass the parcel is the new Iraq game. Somebody should develop a version for Playstation - the title 'Curveball' has a ring to it. Or 'Grand Theft - Iraqi Oil'.

*The defector, real name Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, admitted for the first time this week that he lied to the BND, Germany's secret service, by claiming in 2000 that Iraq had mobile bioweapons trucks and had built clandestine factories.