Exposed: The lie that led us into Iraq

The Iraqi defector who claimed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction has finally confessed that he made the whole thing up. An instant guide

Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi says he is happy he lied about an Iraqi weapons program and saw no other way to bring Saddam Hussein down.
(Image credit: Screen shot, guardian.co.uk)

Eight years after then–Secretary of State Colin Powell used harrowing stories of Saddam Hussein's alleged biological and chemical weapons programs to make the Bush administration's case for invading Iraq, the man who supplied intel agents with those stories admits he made them up. Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, known to U.S. and other Western spy agencies as "Curveball," tells The Guardian that he "fabricated" the whole WMD tale in the hopes of bringing Hussein down. He certainly helped, but what's his real story?

Who is "Curveball"?

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