Laff

King of Zembla found this story in his archives, which refers to "Curveball" the "source" of Iraqi WMD "intelligence" and full time drunk...

Didn't it occur to anyone in the intelligence community that undercover types sometimes pick their code names for a reason? From the L.A. Times:
The Bush administration's prewar claims that Saddam Hussein had built a fleet of trucks and railroad cars to produce anthrax and other deadly germs were based chiefly on information from a now-discredited Iraqi defector code-named "Curveball," according to current and former intelligence officials.

U.S. officials never had direct access to the defector and didn't even know his real name until after the war. Instead, his story was provided by German agents, and his file was so thick with details that American officials thought it confirmed long-standing suspicions that the Iraqis had developed mobile germ factories to evade arms inspections . . . .

Simbaud's post is over a year old and one election ago--which speaks volumes. But his concluding comment is worth citing:

Administration officials continue to maintain, however, that a wealth of rock-solid intelligence was provided by other informants from the Iraqi exile community, including "Fruitcake," "Batshit," "Flim-Flam," "Snow Job," "Hogwash," and the yet-to-be-identified "Ibalahc Damha."