Iraqi defector Curveball: 'I had to do something for my country' – video

trigger-happy · 16 Feb 2011 at 22:38

This just makes me more angered about the war, even though everybody knew Sadam had no WMD's. But what baffles me why on earth he would admit it?

Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi – codenamed Curveball by the CIA – explains why he lied about Saddam's chemical weapons capability. His false claims were quoted at the UN by former secretary of state Colin Powell and used to help justify the Iraq war

Source -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/feb/15/curveball-lies-us-war-iraq-video

discuss.

Rameses · 16 Feb 2011 at 22:42

SO WHAT.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense knew it was about a) finishing what his father started, b) securing Iraq's oil output.

/Move on.

Naffa · 16 Feb 2011 at 22:47

AmTechFox said:
SO WHAT.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense knew it was about a) finishing what his father started, b) securing Iraq's oil output.

/Move on.

By placing it in the control of the China, Russia, and France? Yeah...

It's pretty scary stuff really, that Colin Powell would use a witness that had obviously produced no evidence to support his claims in a speech to the United Nations to justify military action...

Cosimo · 16 Feb 2011 at 22:52

Doesn’t make me angry about the war and this item is from 2007:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21604795/ns/world_news-mideast/n_africa/

Just the Grauniad doing a little **** stirring.

dowie · 16 Feb 2011 at 23:31

AmTechFox said:
SO WHAT.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense knew it was about a) finishing what his father started, b) securing Iraq's oil output.

/Move on.

erm not quite - which firms were the oil contracts awarded to in the end?

It was about regime change in a region that was valuable to the US but to argue that they wanted to secure Iraq's oil output is a bit simplistic. If it was all about Iraqi oil then they could have made a deal with Saddam rather easily.

Naffa · 17 Feb 2011 at 00:03

dowie said:
erm not quite - which firms were the oil contracts awarded to in the end?

If anyone cares, the two most lucrative multi-billion dollar contracts were awarded to Russia and China, both of whom fiercely opposed the intervention. I believe that even France has a bigger stake in Iraqi oil than the US, and I think it was France who poured the most effort into trying to refuse legal permission for regime change in Iraq.

Stag · 17 Feb 2011 at 00:08

It's not necessarily about owning the oil, merely access.

Naffa · 17 Feb 2011 at 00:08

Stag said:
It's not necessarily about owning the oil, merely access.

That's a different argument.

And I'm going to bow out now, as this is a thread about Curveball, but I can sense where this is going...