Curveball

Spies, Lies and the Man Behind Them: The Real Reason America Went to War in Iraq

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'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.

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.

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

Bob Drogin accomplishes what only the best reporters can; he forces you to wonder how he could possibly know that! If you want to know how the CIA could have possibly been so wrong about Iraq, here is a big part of the answer. It is a case study in how even the most intelligent and capable people can, when determined enough, hear only what they wish to hear

Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down and Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam

Curveball is a true story, marvelously reported, about a descent into the nether world of deceit and duplicity, where the lies of a single man in an interrogation cell in Germany grew like a malign spore in the dark. When it emerged, on the lips of the President and the Secretary of State, it infected the course of world events.

Jonathan Harr, author of The Lost Painting and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for A Civil Action

About Bob Drogin

Details

Imprint: Ebury Press
Published: 01/05/2008
ISBN: 9780091923044
Length: 448 pages
Dimensions: 178mm x 27mm x 110mm
Weight: 237g
Price: £16.99

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Paperback 2008
Ebook 2008

Curveball

Spies, Lies and the Man Behind Them: The Real Reason America Went to War in Iraq

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