Editor's Note: Axis of Logic columnist T.J. Coles begins his series on the destruction of Libya after one year of occupation of that country with an analysis of England's role, examining the reasons that belie the myth of a 'humanitarian war." In his letter, introducing this article he states: "I don't forget Britain's war crimes, and in this era of 'information' people move on too quickly."
One Year On. Why we attacked Libya. | England (UK) |Axisoflogic.com
April 2, 2012. London. Americans may not be allowed to watch the historic interview airing in England today and tomorrow. Because of widespread censorship of the news in the US, Americans may not even hear about it. But for the first time ever, the man who single-handedly caused the US to invade the wrong country after the Sept. 11 attacks will speak to reporters in Britain, admitting his lie and telling all. His name is Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, or Curveball to the CIA.
Most Americans will admit that name means nothing to them. But phrased a different way, it means everything. “Every intelligence source from every nation in the western world had the same intelligence showing that Saddam Hussein not only had WMD, but was preparing to use them on the United States” – that’s the line former President George Bush used, the line Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used and former CIA director George Tenet relied upon when deciding to invade Iraq in 2003.
The sad fact is, all US allies who provided intelligence about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, including Britain, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Germany and France, all based that assessment on the rantings of one angry Iraqi dissident - Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi. How did the “alliance of the willing” – an assortment of US-led allies – go to war over the false testimony of just one man? Critics will argue that George W. Bush and his cabinet were going to invade Iraq regardless. This one statement by al-Janabi simply gave Bush and his father’s team what they were looking for – a reason.
According to a statement by President George W. Bush, the reason America went to war against Saddam Hussein and Iraq wasn’t anything more than a personal family feud. “The man tried to kill my dad” the younger Bush let slip when reporters pushed for a legitimate reason for the invasion, considering all intelligence pointed to the fact that none of al-Janabi’s statements were true.
Coalition of the willing
The Canadians knew al-Janabi’s lies were just that, so did the Australians. The Germans tried to enlighten us, as well as the French. All of America’s closest and most trusted allies tried to warn America that the US was about to invade the wrong country, over lies. In fact, each of those countries refused to take part or supply troops or assistance. But while Israel fed the US even more faulty intelligence in the hopes America would wipe out one of the Jewish state’s most hated enemies, the British announced in Parliament that even though the US was wrong, the Brits would join their long-time ally in war anyway.
Explaining the reason English lives would be sacrificed over a lie, former Prime Minister Tony Blair made a statement that would reverberate throughout the world for years to come. Blair simply informed the British people that someday, Britain’s very existence would be in jeopardy. The price for securing the protection of the American war machine in the future was Britain’s blindly following the US into war with Iraq. And that was a price Blair and the British government were willing to pay.
George ‘Slam Dunk’ Tenet
When former President George W. Bush was preparing to launch a Pearl Harbor-style surprise attack against Iraq, while simultaneously in peace negotiations with them and before the US-imposed deadline expired, the President asked CIA Director George Tenet how sure he was that Iraq actually had weapons of mass destruction. According to an account in the Washington Post of Bob Woodward’s book ‘Plan of Attack’, the President asked Tenet, “George, how confident are you?” CIA Director Tenet replied to the President and his top advisors, “Don’t worry. It’s a slam dunk.” As a reward for his loyalty, President Bush awarded George Tenet the Medal of Freedom in 2004, the highest honor an American citizen can receive.
According to later admission by President Bush and his inner circle, that was the confirmation the President was waiting for to launch his long-desired war with Iraq. Most of his inner circle – Cheney, Rice, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Powell – were all left-overs from the Presidency of George Bush Sr. They made no secret that they had always felt that the senior Bush tied their hands and would not let them finish the job of removing Saddam Hussein from power the first time the US went to war with Iraq. Bush Jr. had promised to find a way to let them.
So while the Iraqis consented to UN nuclear weapons inspections (even in Saddam Hussein’s Palace bedrooms as demanded), turned over all evidence of the destruction of their chemical and biological weapons, and gave in to every single US and UN demand, President Bush used one dishonest sentence from one dishonest man to launch a war that would cost the lives of over 100,000 civilians and thousands of America’s sons and daughters.
The interview
In an excerpt released by the BBC, the British interviewer tells al-Janabi, “We went to war in Iraq on a lie. And that lie was your lie." Al-Janabi simply replies, "Yes."
Again, Americans may not be allowed to hear about the interview with Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi on BBC today and tomorrow, just as they weren’t allowed to know the truth about Iraq and Saddam Hussein in the build-up to war. But in promotional teasers in the UK yesterday, the media outlet shows a smiling al-Janabi, arrogantly smiling as he describes how he single-handedly tricked the US into going to war. He seems to claim President Bush and Director Tenet were willing patsies, saying the Bush administration “sexed-up” his initial lie into an even bigger lie in order to sell the war to the American people and the rest of the world.
Readers may recall Colin Powell showing satellite images of bread trucks roaming Iraq’s cities to the entire United Nations in an attempt to sell the world on war with Iraq. Calling the trucks, ‘mobile WMD laboratories’, Powell insisted the US had, “facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.” The rest of the world knew that the ‘solid intelligence’ Powell referred to was the lie of al-Janabi. The UN voted to refuse to authorize the United States to go to war.
In his interview with the BBC, the first time al-Janabi has agreed to one since the Iraq war, he explains his motivation for lieing to US officials about Iraq’s WMD capabilities and intentions toward the US. He says, “My main purpose was to topple the tyrant in Iraq because the longer this dictator remains in power, the more the Iraqi people will suffer from this regime's oppression.”
According to the review in the UK’s The Independent, Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi was an Iraqi chemical engineer who fled Iraq for Germany in 1999. He had been lobbying the world’s governments ever since to intervene and remove Saddam Hussein from power. As time went on, his stories about Iraqi government abuses became more and more horrifying, and at the same time, less and less true. The tall tails culminated in stories of entire divisions of mobile labs producing weapons of mass destruction, all developed and overseen by al-Janabi himself until his defection.
From that one specific made-up claim, Colin Powell and his staff created an elaborate web of WMD programs throughout Iraq, all of which the former General claimed were proven and the US had evidence that it could not reveal without jeopardizing the lives of its secret agents abroad. In reality, every bit of it was a lie.
US official verifies al-Janabi’s claims
Also featured in the special BBC segment and described by The Independent, former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff – Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson – confirmed that he and Powell’s staff “sexed-up” al-Janabi’s original story. Taking crude drawings from al-Janabi of mobile laboratory trucks, the US State Department devised elaborate images of these non-existent mobile weapons labs. “I brought the White House team in to do the graphics," Wilkerson admits, "Intelligence was being worked to fit around the policy."
Col. Wilkerson also tells the publication that he thinks the former General has to be enraged at the way he was used by the Bush administration. Wilkerson explains, "I don't see any way on this earth that Secretary Powell doesn't feel almost a rage about Curveball and the way he was used in regards to that intelligence." Curveball was the CIA codename for Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi.
Modern Spies – US senior official almost seduced by Russian spy
The BBC interview with al-Janabi is one part of a two-part special broadcast titled, ‘Modern Spies’. Another part of the series airing today and tomorrow details the high-profile arrest of the voluptuous, red-headed Russian spy named Anna Chapman in 2010. Arrested along with 10 other accused Russian spies, the attractive red-head became the symbol of the Russian spy cell.
The BBC interview reveals exactly why the spy ring was exposed and shut down by US authorities when it was. The FBI’s head of counter-intelligence, Frank Figliuzzi, explains that Anna Chapman was maneuvering, “closer and closer to higher and higher ranking leadership... She got close enough to disturb us." Figliuzzi goes on to describe an unnamed member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet who was on the verge of becoming a victim of the “honey pot”. That’s what they called Russina spy Anna Chapman and her seduction tactics.
In explaining the reason the FBI moved in on Chapman and her Russian spy network when it did, Figliuzzi says, “We were becoming very concerned. They were getting close enough to a sitting US cabinet member that we thought we could no longer allow this to continue."
The special report ‘Modern Spies’ is the result of BBC veteran reporter Peter Taylor, who worked for a year putting the documentary together. It airs on BBC2 today and tomorrow.
