Curveball - Hardcover

Drogin, Bob

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0091923034 ISBN 13: 9780091923037

Publisher: Ebury Press, 2008

Synopsis

America was determined to go to war. Curveball had the information they needed. One problem...He was lying., 'Curveball' was the undercover code name given to the mysterious defector whose assertions set the Iraq War in motion. A desperate young Iraqi applying for political asylum in Munich, his first-hand 'evidence' on Saddam Hussein's biological weapons programme would ultimately be a central plank of the Bush administration's justification in launching an invasion. Trouble was, virtually everything he told the intelligence services was a fabrication.Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Drogin, who broke the story to a shocked world, has written the definitive account of the most notorious intelligence fiasco in recent American history., How Curveball hoodwinked his handlers in the German secret services. How petty nationalistic rivalries meant the CIA never even got to meet their primary source. How squabbling, arrogance and incompetence within the various US intelligence agencies allowed Curveball's lies to spread higher and higher up the chain of authority, eventually reaching the White House itself., An irresistible story of international intrigue that twists its way from Germany to America to Iraq and back again, "Curveball" shows how honour and dishonesty amongst spies led to the US and the UK becoming embroiled in a catastrophic war.

About this title

Review:

"Bob Drogin is an ace newspaper man, who raked through the muck of so-called intelligence that was used to justify America's invasion of Iraq -- and struck journalistic gold in this story of a con-man who told his CIA handlers exactly what they wanted to hear. If this twisted tale of deception and credulity could be read simply as a thrilling farce it would be pure delight -- but much more importantly, it is a history of our time." -- Philip Gourevitch, staff writer at the New Yorker and author of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda

"There used to be an old rule that *real* jouralists lived by: 'All governments are run by liars, and nothing they say should be believed.' We've come a long way from those days, to a media that has been cowed into submission and accepting the 'official story.' Thank God for Bob Drogin and his refusal to believe. It's journalists like him and books like CURVEBALL that give many of us a sliver of hope that we can turn things around." -- Michael Moore, author of Stupid White Men

"Curveball is the factual equivalent of Catch 22. It is impossible to read this book and then look at our world leaders without thinking, "F*ck. Oh f*ck. Oh my God, oh f*ck."' -- Mark Thomas

There used to be an old rule that *real* jouralists lived by: 'All governments are run by liars, and nothing they say should be believed.' We've come a long way from those days, to a media that has been cowed into submission and accepting the 'official story.' Thank God for Bob Drogin and his refusal to believe. It's journalists like him and books like CURVEBALL that give many of us a sliver of hope that we can turn things around.
-- Michael Moore, Director of "Fahrenheit 9/11," and "Sicko"

Book Description:

A thrilling true-life account of how deceit, lies and incompetence within the US intelligence services led us into the most disastrous and bloody conflict of recent years

About this edition

• Publisher: Ebury Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0091923034
• ISBN 13: 9780091923037
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352