Overview

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.

Full Product Details

9780091923044

Table of Contents

Reviews

Curveball clarifies a large number of points hitherto only dimly discerned which, if true, explain the biggest fiasco in the history of secret intelligence over 500 years. Even if only half of this is true, those who led us into the Iraq war on the basis of a tissue of lies should be impeached and indicted Frederick Forsyth, author of The Day Of The Jackal, The Odessa File and The Afghan. Curveball is the factual equivalent of Catch 22. It is impossible to read this book and then look at our world leaders without thinking , 'F*ck. Oh f*ck. Oh my God, oh f*ck.' Mark Thomas Thank God for Bob Drogin. It's books like Curveball that give many of us a sliver of hope that we can turn things around -- Michael Moore A story of willful blindness masquerading as secret intelligence worthy of Somerset Maugham or Graham Greene New York Times Bob Drogin is an ace newspaper man, who raked through the muck of so-called intelligence that was used to justify America's invasion of Iraq -- and struck journalistic gold in this story of a con-man who told his CIA handlers exactly what they wanted to hear. If this twisted tale of deception and credulity could be read simply as a thrilling farce it would be pure delight -- but much more importantly, it is a history of our time Philip Gourevitch, author of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda

Curveball clarifies a large number of points hitherto only dimly discerned which, if true, explain the biggest fiasco in the history of secret intelligence over 500 years. Even if only half of this is true, those who led us into the Iraq war on the basis of a tissue of lies should be impeached and indicted * Frederick Forsyth, author of The Day Of The Jackal, The Odessa File and The Afghan. * Curveball is the factual equivalent of Catch 22. It is impossible to read this book and then look at our world leaders without thinking , 'F*ck. Oh f*ck. Oh my God, oh f*ck.' * Mark Thomas * Thank God for Bob Drogin. It's books like Curveball that give many of us a sliver of hope that we can turn things around -- Michael Moore A story of willful blindness masquerading as secret intelligence worthy of Somerset Maugham or Graham Greene * New York Times * Bob Drogin is an ace newspaper man, who raked through the muck of so-called intelligence that was used to justify America's invasion of Iraq -- and struck journalistic gold in this story of a con-man who told his CIA handlers exactly what they wanted to hear. If this twisted tale of deception and credulity could be read simply as a thrilling farce it would be pure delight -- but much more importantly, it is a history of our time * Philip Gourevitch, author of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda *

Just when you thought the WMD debacle couldn't get worse, here comes veteran Los Angeles Times national-security correspondent Drogin's look at just who got the stories going in the first place. Clandestine operatives are trained to spread falsehoods as part of their tradecraft, Drogin admits at the outset. The falsehoods that came from an asylum seeker in Germany may have been deliberate, schooled and carefully scripted. More likely they were the inventions of an alcoholic desperate to be believed long enough not to be deported to a land still run by Saddam Hussein. Curveball was recruited out of Baghdad University in 1994 to keep tabs on Hussein's chemical-weapons program; by 1996, the CIA's files were full of notes averring that he was developing mobile germ-weaponry labs and other biochemical nasties. Curveball fled Iraq for Germany in 1999, seeking asylum. He apparently passed the tough scrutiny of the German spies, though British intelligence warned that he was untrustworthy. Meanwhile, other informers on the weapons program were feeding back information that had come from American intelligence, eager to supply what they imagined their American handlers wanted. Said weapons inspector Scott Ritter, most of it just regurgitated what we'd given them. It was crap. Total crap. So it was, as Drogin demonstrates. Even though some within American intelligence eventually came to doubt Curveball, the higher-ups had too much invested in him - the CIA analysts seemed so cocksure about the Iraqi, a defector they had never met, that the president was citing him. The president also used Curveball's reports to take the country to war, depending on a single source that had never been vetted or substantiated. Curveball, Drogin suggests, may in the end be blameless; he told pleasing stories that comforted the president, while George Tenet and his CIA colleagues held on to the lies long after they were shown to be worthless.Simultaneously sobering and infuriating - essential reading for those who follow the headlines. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Bob Drogin is a national security correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. He has won or shared multiple journalism awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize, the Robert F Kennedy Journalism Award and the George Polk Award. He has appeared on the BBC, CNN and many other media outlets. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and two children.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available