Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war

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.

The careers of both men were seriously damaged by their use of Janabi's claims, which he now says could have been – and were – discredited well before Powell's landmark speech to the UN on 5 February 2003.

so the neocons knew the story was BS, and they pushed ahead anyways. I want to know who knew it and when

Janabi (Curveball) said it was the ONLY way to topple Saddam.  If it wasn't for all that oil under Iraqi sand, I doubt the Bushies would have given a crap whether that was WMD or, um, a birdseed purification plant!

Hey, baby, governments lie.  What's done is done.  Nothing new under the sun.
::)

Janabi (Curveball) said it was the ONLY way to topple Saddam.  If it wasn't for all that oil under Iraqi sand, I doubt the Bushies would have given a crap whether that was WMD or, um, a birdseed purification plant!


See, that's the truly hilariousdepressing thing about the whole story.  One dude managed to troll the entire military of the United States into spending a trillion dollars.  I gotta give Curveball props for that, even if it turned out to be an epic waste of men and materiel. 

Let this stand as a lesson to everyone from the l33test intel d00dz to the average voter: whatever the thinker thinks, the prover will prove. 

"Whatever the Thinker thinks, the Prover will prove. And if the Thinker thinks passionately enough, the Prover will prove the thought so conclusively that you will never talk a person out of such a belief, even if it is something as remarkable as the notion that there is a gaseous vertebrate of astronomical heft ("GOD") who will spend all eternity torturing people who do not believe in his religion."
   - Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising

If you go into the task of analysis already believing that there's going to be justification for a war, you'll find it.  Even if it isn't there.  Because there's always going to be one guy willing to tell you everything you want to hear.  And you'll fall for it, every time.  *trillion-dollar-facepalm*