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Thu Nov 1, 7:12 PM ET
An Iraqi defector made up his claim that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons,
a threat cited by the Bush administration as a key reason for the U.S. invasion
of Iraq in 2003, the U.S. news program "60 Minutes" said on Thursday.
Rafid Ahmed Alwan, codenamed "Curve Ball" in intelligence circles, claimed to
be a chemical engineering expert but was instead an accused thief and a
mediocre student, the program said. He arrived at a German refugee center in
1999.
"To bolster his asylum case and increase his importance, he told officials he
was a star chemical engineer who had been in charge of a facility at Djerf al
Nadaf that was making mobile biological weapons," "60 Minutes" said in a
statement.
President George W. Bush and senior U.S. officials argued that Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction that threatened the
security of the United States.
But no such weapons have been found and what was supposed to have been a short
U.S. engagement in Iraq is now in its fifth year, with more than 3,800 U.S.
soldiers and tens of thousands Iraqis killed.
"60 Minutes" said it found an arrest warrant for Alwan in relation to a theft
from the Babel television production company in Baghdad where he once worked.
It said he studied chemical engineering at university but got low marks.
The report, a culmination of a two-year investigation by journalist Bob Simon,
is due to be broadcast on the CBS network on Sunday.
"The (then) CIA director George Tenet gave Alwan's information to Secretary of
State Colin Powell to use at the U.N. in his speech justifying military action
against Iraq," "60 Minutes" said.
That was, the program said, despite a letter from German intelligence officials
saying that although Alwan appeared to be believable, there was not evidence to
verify his story.
"Through a spokesman, Tenet denies ever seeing the letter," "60 Minutes" said.
"Alwan was caught when CIA interrogators were finally allowed to question him
and confronted him with evidence that his story could not be as he described
it," the program said.
"Weapons inspectors had examined the plant at Djerf al Nadaf before the fall of
Baghdad and found no evidence of biological agents."