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Curveball answers the crucial question of the Iraq war: How and why was America’s intelligence so catastrophically wrong? In this dramatic and explosive book, award-winning Los Angeles Times reporter Bob Drogin delivers a narrative that takes us to Europe, the Middle East, and deep inside the CIA to find the truth–the truth about the lies and self-deception that led us into a military and political nightmare. In 1999, a mysterious Iraqi applies for political asylum in Munich. The young chemical engineer offers compelling testimony of Saddam Hussein’s secret program to build weapons of mass destruction. He claims that the dictator has constructed germ factories on trucks, creating a deadly hell on wheels. His grateful German hosts pass his account to their CIA counterparts but deny the Americans access to their superstar informant. The Americans nevertheless give the defector his unforgettable code name: Curveball. The case lies dormant until after 9/11, when the Bush administration turns its attention to Iraq. Determined to invade, Bush’s people seize on Curveball’s story about mobile germ labs–even though it has begun to unravel. Ignoring a flood of warnings about the informant’s credibility, the CIA allows President Bush to cite Curveball’s unconfirmed claims in a State of the Union speech. Finally, Secretary of State Colin Powell highlights the Iraqi’s ́eyewitnesś account during his historic address to the U.N. Security Council. Yet the entire case is based on a fraud. America’s vast intelligence apparatus conjured up demons that did not exist. And the proof was clear before the war. Most of the events and conversations presented here have not been reported before. The portrayals–from an obdurate president to a bamboozled secretary of state to a bungling CIA director to case handlers conned by their snitch–are vivid and exciting. Curveball reads like an investigative spy thriller. Fast-paced and engrossing, it is an inside story of intrigue and incompetence at the highest levels of government. At a time when Americans demand answers, this authoritative book provides them with clarity and conviction.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Causes, Intelligence service, Iraq War, 2003-, Nonfiction, Politics, United States, United States. Central Intelligence Agency, Weapons of mass destruction, Iraq War, 2003-2011, Informers, United states, central intelligence agency, Iraq war, 2003-2011, Intelligence service, united states, New York Times reviewedPeople
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Iraq, United StatesShowing 9 featured editions. View all 9 editions?
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Curveball: Spies, Lies and the Man Behind Them - the Real Reason America Went to War in Iraq
2008, Penguin Random House
in English
1407024221 9781407024226
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Curveball: Spies, Lies and the Man Behind Them - the Real Reason America Went to War in Iraq
2008, Penguin Random House
in English
140702423X 9781407024233
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Curveball: spies, lies and the man behind them : how America went to war in Iraq
2007, Random House
in English
1400065836 9781400065837
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Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War
2007, Penguin Random House
in English
1299096115 9781299096110
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Curveball: spies, lies, and the man behind them : the real reason America went to war in Iraq
2007, Ebury
in English
0091923034 9780091923037
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Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War
October 16, 2007, Random House
Hardcover
in English
- 1 edition
1400065836 9781400065837
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Curveball: Spies, Lies and the Man Behind Them - the Real Reason America Went to War in Iraq
1998, Penguin Random House
in English
1407024248 9781407024240
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Book Details
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Includes bibliographical references and index.
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A thrilling true-life account of how deceit, lies and incompetence within the US intelligence services led us into the most disastrous and bloody conflict of recent years"Curveball' was the codename given to the mysterious defector whose first-hand evidence on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction proved vital in giving the Bush administration the excuse it needed to invade Iraq.The only problem – this "evidence' was nothing more than a pack of lies.Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Drogin has written the definitive account of the most notorious intelligence fiasco in US history, revealing how squabbling, arrogance and incompetence within the various intelligence agencies allowed one man's lies to spread higher and higher up the chain of authority, eventually reaching the White House itself.Breathlessly paced and shockingly revelatory, Curveball is an explosive true-life account of how honour and dishonesty amongst spies led to the UK and the US becoming embroiled in a catastrophic war.
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