Curveball : spies, lies, and the con man who caused a war / Bob Drogin.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [295]-319) and index.

This book answers the crucial question of the Iraq war: How and why was America's intelligence so catastrophically wrong? Journalist Drogin takes us to Europe, the Middle East, and deep inside the CIA to find the truth. In 1999, a mysterious Iraqi applies for political asylum in Munich, offering compelling testimony of Saddam Hussein's secret program to build weapons of mass destruction. He claims that the dictator has constructed germ factories on trucks. His grateful German hosts pass his account to their CIA counterparts, who give the defector his code name: Curveball. After 9/11, when the Bush administration turns its attention to Iraq, they seize on Curveball's story--even though it has begun to unravel. The CIA allows President Bush to cite Curveball's unconfirmed claims in a State of the Union speech--yet the entire case is based on a fraud. And the proof was clear before the war.--From publisher description.