Recently in Nuclear Weapons Category

I am not sure what to make of this story. No doubt many of you long time blogsphere members will remember Judith Miller and her now debunked reporting on Iraq's WMD which lead to our invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Well, it seems CNN has interviewed "Curveball" and damn if I am not amazed at the stupidity of using this man as a source.

 
CNN

As slides depicting drawings of the supposed germ labs flashed on a big screen in the Security Council's chamber, Powell drove his point home:

"The source is an eyewitness, an Iraqi chemical engineer, who supervised one of these facilities."

Just days after Powell's presentation, U.N. weapons inspectors presented evidence they said disproved those claims. But six weeks later, on March 20, 2003, the United States launched its invasion, toppling Hussein's government in three weeks but locking itself in a war against an insurgency that has cost more than 4,000 American lives.

No biological weapons, no germ labs, no weapons of mass destruction of any kind were found in Iraq after the invasion. Curveball -- Rafid Alwan -- remained in hiding in Germany, where he had been interviewed by the German intelligence service, the BND.

Subsequent U.S. investigations into the intelligence failure around the claims found that German intelligence considered the defector "crazy" and "out of control," while friends said he was a "liar."

Here's the kicker; not only did the CIA not talk to him, but simply relied on the word of the German intelligence agency.

And, it turned out, the CIA not only never spoke with him, it never even saw transcripts of the German interviews, only the Germans' analysis of the interviews.

[...]

Norbert Juretzko, a former BND officer who is familiar with the Curveball case, now criticizes the German intelligence service for its handling of the matter. The BND wanted so badly to believe Alwan, Juretzko said, that the case officers didn't notice inconsistencies in his story.

"He was put under pressure by the BND: 'Tell us something,'" Juretzko said. "They were desperate for something. They gave him money, privileges, a visa and the like. And so this man used his imagination to get all these things."

Guardian Unlimited

One of the contingency plans would involve US special forces, working in conjunction with Pakistan's military and intelligence services, to spirit away any weapons at imminent risk.

But the US cannot be confident that the Pakistan military would co-operate at such a time.

In spite of US aid to help with security, the Pakistan government has remained suspicious of US intentions, fearing that it might plant devices capable of neutralising the weapons.

As a result, Pakistan has withheld information about the location of all its arsenal and other specifics. Pakistan's nuclear scientists and technicians go to the US for training.

Just great. A nuclear armed country is going to hell in a hand basket, is turning paranoid, and as a result, brings the world closer to nuclear war. The End Of The World nut cases must be orgasming all over each other.