Fake Intelligence

A new story in the Los Angeles Times covers the history of how "Curveball," the notoriously full-of-it intelligence source upon which Bush & Co. relied for a number of intelligence items regarding Iraq's WMD's, including the bit about mobile biological labs presented to the U.N. by Powell (story here). The German government, who had been handling "Curveball" at the time, had warned Bush's administration that the information provided by Curveball was often second-hand, unverifiable, and sometimes absurd on its face.

The Germans also determined that Bush mischaracterized the already-pitiful "intelligence" provided by Curveball. Although Bush supporters can obviously resort to saying that the German government is "anti-American," it is somewhat refreshing to see someone other than the criminal himself doing the investigating. To have Congressional Republicans (and Democrats who were party to the entire lead-up to war) investigating whether the intelligence was misused and if Bush lied is like having Vito Spatafore investigate Tony Soprano (or, if you're not familiar with the Sopranos, like having John Gotti invesigated by his wife, Victoria).

It is sad how willfully blind Bush's apologists are as they point out that the U.N. cannot mount an unbiased investigation into the Oil-for-Food scandal, but then rely on the reports of Republican-headed commissions who have found no wrongdoing in their "investigations" of Bush. Might as well have had Saddam inspect himself for WMD's -- it would make about as much sense. The real answers are definitely not going to come from a commission of the very people who assisted Bush in spreading his lies before the war, and anyone whose defense of Bush relies on these reports does not deserve to be taken seriously.