60 Minutes Video - Iraqi Curve Ball speaks - Mar. 13, 2011
Transcript and web exclusive video are inside.
Bob Simon interviews the Iraqi defector code-named Curve Ball, whose false tale of a mobile, biological weapons program was the justification for invading Iraq.
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(CBS News) -- Next Saturday will mark the eighth anniversary of America's invasion of Iraq. And after all this time, questions still remain as to why the United States launched the war in the first place. The Bush administration said it was because of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
But there were no such weapons.
So how did U.S. intelligence get it so wrong? Incredibly, it was all because of one man - an Iraqi defector codenamed "Curve Ball" - who spun a web of lies which convinced America's top spies. His allegations became the crown jewel of the case Colin Powell made to the United Nations before the war.
Three years ago we told you part of this story. But we were missing one crucial element: Curve Ball himself.
We couldn't find him. Finally, we did and now we're going to introduce you to the man and ask you to ponder how anyone could ever have believed one word he said.
60 Minutes Extra - How Curveball created his story