Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Former aide: Powell WMD speech 'lowest point in my life' (CNN)

Pian piano viene tutto a galla...
Am.
Former aide: Powell WMD speech 'lowest point in my life'
(CNN) -- A former top aide to Colin Powell says his involvement in the 
former secretary of state's presentation to the United Nations on 
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was "the lowest point" in his life.
"I wish I had not been involved in it," says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a 
longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff from 2002 
through 2005. "I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest 
point in my life."
Wilkerson is one of several insiders interviewed for the CNN Presents 
documentary "Dead Wrong -- Inside an Intelligence Meltdown." The 
program, which airs Sunday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET, pieces together 
the events leading up to the mistaken WMD intelligence that was 
presented to the public. A presidential commission that investigated 
the pre-war WMD intelligence found much of it to be "dead wrong."
Powell's speech, delivered on February 5, 2003, made the case for the 
war by presenting U.S. intelligence that purported to prove that Saddam 
Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Wilkerson says the information 
in Powell's presentation initially came from a document he described as 
"sort of a Chinese menu" that was provided by the White House.
"(Powell) came through the door ... and he had in his hands a sheaf of 
papers, and he said, 'This is what I've got to present at the United 
Nations according to the White House, and you need to look at it,'" 
Wilkerson says in the program. "It was anything but an intelligence 
document. It was, as some people characterized it later, sort of a 
Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose."
Wilkerson and Powell spent four days and nights in a CIA conference 
room with then-Director George Tenet and other top officials trying to 
ensure the accuracy of the presentation, Wilkerson says.
"There was no way the Secretary of State was going to read off a script 
about serious matters of intelligence that could lead to war when the 
script was basically un-sourced," Wilkerson says.
In one dramatic accusation in his speech, Powell showed slides alleging 
that Saddam had bioweapons labs mounted on trucks that would be almost 
impossible to find.
"In fact, Secretary Powell was not told that one of the sources he was 
given as a source of this information had indeed been flagged by the 
Defense Intelligence Agency as a liar, a fabricator," says David Kay, 
who served as the CIA's chief weapons inspector in Iraq after the fall 
of Saddam. That source, an Iraqi defector who had never been debriefed 
by the CIA, was known within the intelligence community as "Curveball."
After searching Iraq for several months across the summer of 2003, Kay 
began e-mailing Tenet to tell him the WMD evidence was falling apart. 
At one point, Wilkerson says, Tenet called Powell to tell him the 
claims about mobile bioweapons labs were apparently not true.
"George actually did call the Secretary, and said, 'I'm really sorry to 
have to tell you. We don't believe there were any mobile labs for 
making biological weapons,'" Wilkerson says in the documentary. "This 
was the third or fourth telephone call. And I think it's fair to say 
the Secretary and Mr. Tenet, at that point, ceased being close. I mean, 
you can be sincere and you can be honest and you can believe what 
you're telling the Secretary. But three or four times on substantive 
issues like that? It's difficult to maintain any warm feelings."

by the CIA, was known within the intelligence community as "Curveball."
Ma in quel caso non aveva affatto mentito :)
-Stefano

 -Stefano
#_..Please, can you explain to me and to everybody what "Curveball" means?
Thanks.
Regards.
Giano

 Giano
Dall'American Heritage Dict.:
2. Slang  Something that is unexpected or designed to trick or deceive: 
That last question on the exam was a real curve ball.
Idiom:
pitch/throw (someone) a curve ball Slang
1.  To mislead; deceive.
2.  To cause to be surprised, especially unpleasantly so.
Mi chiedo se fosse il suo identificativo o se e' stato inventato a 
posteriori - troppo divertente!
Am.