Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, the man whose stories of mobile bioweapons trucks and clandestine factories were referenced by both Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld to justify the invasion of Iraq, says he lied to American and German intelligence officials in order to bring down Saddam Hussein, whose regime he had fled in 1995. Janabi says the BND, Germany’s secret service, knew as far back as mid-2000 that he was lying and that they didn’t contact him again until May 2002, when it became clear they were trying to make a case for war. In case you have to decode something like this in the future, when the Bush administration says they know beyond a doubt, what they mean is, “This defector with an agenda told the German police about it a few years ago, we think.”
Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war [Guardian UK]
