“I Lied to Free My Country”

Nobody played a bigger role in the fall of Saddam Hussein than the “Curveball.” But now, the man who told the CIA that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction confesses that he lied: a story about gullible spies and all too eager politicians.

February 5, 2003. The world is glued to the television screen. Colin Powell, the American secretary of state, provides an overview of the American information about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction to the U.N. Security Council. Those dangerous weapons are — at least officially — the reason why George W. Bush’s Government wants to invade Iraq. Powell’s evidence leaves an impression, since the secretary of state is not known as a war monger.

His most prominent evidence is the mobile laboratories for the construction of biological weapons. Powell gives a detailed description of the labs and even shows a drawing of a lab, according to him based on the eye-witness report of an Iraqi chemical engineer. “That man was also present when in 1998 an accident caused twelve technicians to die after exposure to chemical products,” he says.

April 2, 2004. Powell admits in an interview that the “most dramatic part{ of his plea to go to war, was not based on “reliable information.” Before his speech, however, he had analyzed every argument and piece of information with the spies of the CIA. Still, the reports make it appear he was set up by the Iraq Survey Group, an official nvestigation that went to look for Saddam’s weapons after the invasion.

Powell’s reputation is at stake and he does not feel like taking the blame for this fiasco. He redirects the accusations toward the CIA spies, who in their turn point the finger at their German colleagues from the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). After all, the Americans received the information about the mobile labs from an informant of the BND, nicknamed “Curveball.”

The response in the German newspaper Die Zeit was “that information came with a clear warning regarding the reliability of Curveball.”

In the bitter war about the fight in the Bush administration, the true story about the mobile labs, Curveball and the way in which “hawks” searched purposefully for arguments advocating for the invasion revealed itself. (DS April 5, 2004).

Curveball turned out to be the brother of a high level colleague of Achmed Chalabi, the leader of an Iraqi group of exiled who have spent years lobbying with consecutive American governments to end the Iraqi regime and already saw themselves on Saddam’s throne. When no weapons of mass destruction were found after the invasion, the Americans had to admit that the defectors were the root of much false information. “Curveball is a patented liar,” said David Kay of the Iraq Survey Group.

Asylum

Curveball landed in Munich at the end of 1999 and immediately requested asylum. On his request form, he noted that he worked as a chemical engineer in a factory for bio-weapons in Djerf al-Nadaf. This attracted the attention of the German authorities, since a while later he was contacted by a BND official, a certain Dr. Paul.

“I was given the opportunity to fabricate a story that could contribute to the fall of Saddam Hussein,” admits Curveball now to the British paper the Guardian.

The Iraqi explains how surprised he was that his creations were so avidly believed. Near the end of 2000, he feared that his lie had been uncovered. The BND, in collaboration with British agents in Dubai, went to interrogate Curveball’s former Iraqi boss, Dr. Basil Latif, who pointed out that his former colleague was lying.

When the BND confronted him with this, Curveball said: “If Latif says there were no labs, then indeed there were no labs.” Only at the end of May 2002, he was grilled again. According to the Iraqi, the BND threatened to send his pregnant Moroccan wife and son, who lived in Spain at the time but wanted to go to Germany, to Morocco if he did not cooperate.

It took until January 2003 — a month before Powell’s war speech at the U.N. — before Dr. Paul brought up the mobile labs again. Curveball found this strange, because he was convinced that his story about the labs has long since lost any credibility.

Therefore, he was astounded that Powell used his story to justify the war. He called the BND, which had assured him that his information would not leave Germany. “The man responsible for me admitted that there had been a ‘small problem’ and pushed me to go into hiding because the apartment was not safe anymore for me and my family.” For the duration of three months, he was pretty much locked up in a hotel. The BND did not allow him to talk to anybody or watch TV.

In the interview with the Guardian, Curveball now admits for the first time that he lied. At the end of 2007, he continued to deny everything to CNN and last year, he sent the police after Danish journalists that wanted to interview him. In 2007, information leaked out revealing Curveball’s true name to be Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi and that he resided in Karlsruhe, so he kept a low profile as ordered by the German Secret Service. Since the collapse of Bagdad in 2003 Curveball was found on many most wanted lists.

Truth

Why is he now finally ready to tell the truth? Things have not been going well for Curveball. The German spies arranged German citizenship for al-Janabi and his family. Simultaneously, they removed his 3,000 Euro welfare and took away his Mercedes. Ever since, he has to provide for himself and that is never easy for anyone with the reputation for fabricating information.

Twice now he has returned to his birth country where he founded a political party and participated in the parliamentary elections in March. He received 1,700 votes. He also wrote a book and is now looking for an publisher.

“I will be honest with you,” he told the newspaper. “I find myself in big trouble because the secret service took my apartment and my cell phone away. I find myself in a predicament.”

So al-Janabi is trying to create a new image for himself, partly through the interview with the Guardian; the image of patriot and liberator, rather than the image of a liar, responsible for the deaths of thousands of his fellow countrymen. That is also why he emphasizes that he was offered asylum on March 13, 2000, three weeks before anyone asked him a single question about Saddam’s weapons. “The Germans said I told them about the biological weapons in order to receive asylum, but that is not true. My sons and I are proud that we are the reason Iraq was given the chance to be a democracy.”

He says he does not regret anything. “If I was given the chance to restart, I would say the same, because I would not want the regime to stay in power.” Even when he is confronted with the high death toll of the war and the civil conflicts that followed, he insists that there was no other possible way to free Iraq from Saddam.

Some bitterness does resonate through his words. “Colin Powell did not say I was the sole reason for the war. He talked about three items: first and foremost, uranium, second, al-Qaida, and third, my story. I do not know why the other sources about uranium and al-Qaida remained secret and my name was leaked. But I give in, I have been able to do something for my country and that is enough for me.”