The Weapons That Weren't There
The paper of record ran the case for war on its front page, sourced to anonymous officials and a defector known internally as "Curveball." None of it held up.
- First reportNew York Times
"U.S. Says Hussein Intensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts"
Reporters Michael Gordon and Judith Miller, citing unnamed Bush administration officials, reported Iraq was trying to acquire aluminum tubes "specially designed" for enriching uranium — published the same weekend administration officials appeared across the Sunday shows to build the public case for invasion.
PBS, "Buying the War" reporting timeline ↗ - UpdateSecretary of State Colin Powell, UN Security Council
Powell repeats the case, built partly on "Curveball"
Powell's address to the UN — the closest thing the case for war had to a single defining moment — leaned on reporting traced to an Iraqi defector the CIA had code-named Curveball. German intelligence had already warned U.S. agencies that Curveball was unreliable.
CBS News, "Codename 'Curveball'" ↗ - CorrectionNew York Times
"From the Editors: The Times and Iraq"
The paper's editors published a rare institutional note admitting its Iraq coverage "was not as rigorous as it should have been," citing stories — including the aluminum-tubes reporting — where information "was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged." Judith Miller left the Times a year and a half later.
NPR, "N.Y. Times Admits to Errors in Reports on Iraq's WMDs" ↗ - CorrectionIraq Survey Group (Duelfer Report)
No stockpiles found; tubes were most likely for rockets, not centrifuges
The U.S. government's own postwar weapons-hunting team concluded Iraq had no stockpiles or active WMD programs at the time of the invasion, and that the aluminum tubes were most likely intended for conventional rocket bodies — the reading IAEA inspectors had favored before the war started.
Institute for Science and International Security, aluminum tubes analysis ↗ - AftermathCurveball, in his first public interview
The source admits he lied
The defector behind the germ-warfare claims, known to the CIA only by the codename "Curveball," admitted he had fabricated his story to help topple Saddam Hussein, and said he was shocked it had been used to help justify a war.
NPR, "Report: Curveball Admits For First Time That He Lied About Iraq's WMD" ↗
What it teaches
Every stage of this one had a name attached to a title: senior administration official, the Secretary of State, the newspaper of record. The two corrections that mattered most had no title attached. Curveball's real name took eight years to surface, and the tubes were never what the first story said they were.