Aide says Colin Powell 'was lied to and used by George Bush to add credibility to invasion of Iraq'

From [HERE] Colin Powell was lied to and ‘manipulated’ into supporting the invasion of Iraq, it was claimed last night. The former Secretary of State was deliberately not told that information he used to make his famous speech justifying the war was bogus, a former colleague claimed.

Instead the George W Bush White House abused his good reputation to give the push for war much-needed credibility. The claims were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, Powell’s former chief of staff, in an angry and revealing interview. He spoke out after the main source for Powell’s report justifying the Iraq invasion which he presented to the UN Security Council in February 2003 admitted he made the whole thing up.

Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, or ‘Curveball’ as he was known by the CIA, said he let his imagination run wild with claims about Saddam Hussein and that he was doing it just to overthrow the regime.

When he saw Powell relaying the fabricated information to the UN he was stunned.

Speaking to America’s NBC, Wilkerson said he did not believe that when Powell gave his speech - which came just a month before the invasion - he knew the truth.

‘I never heard a single word of doubt expressed about what we were told were four separate sources which proved the existence of mobile biological labs,’ he said.

‘What I’ve found out since makes me very angry.

‘I cannot come to any other conclusion that we were flat out lied to, especially when I have discovered that no U.S. people were present when Curveball was interrogated.

‘I have some serious doubts, I think there was some manipulation of this material and some outright lying.’ Asked if the office of former Vice President Dick Cheney manipulated Powell into giving a speech, he replied: ‘Absolutely. Absolutely.’ He added that Colin Powell had the credibility that none of the others had because he was a war sceptic surrounded by hawks.

‘The were using him,’ Wilkerson said.

Powell has said that he wants to know why the doubts about Curveball were not raised before he gave his speech, which was seen as a crucial factor in persuading other countries to support the invasion.

But Wilkerson said that in the end even if Powell did know it would have made little difference.

‘Had Curveball not even existed we still would have gone to war because George W Bush and Dick Cheney were determined to do so,’ he said.