April 9, 2018
http://www.dw.com/en/the-iraq-
Deutsche Welle interviewed Ray. Its report was distributed in many languages. The above link is to part of the English version (excerpts of which are below). The link to the full German version is:
http://p.dw.com/p/2vaxE .
The Iraq War: In the beginning was the lie
On April 9, 2003, US soldiers toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. Fifteen years later we know that this war cost hundreds of thousands of lives, plunged the Middle East into chaos — and was based on lies. …
Ray McGovern is a security services veteran. He worked for the CIA for 27 years, and held senior positions within it. In 2003, he and some colleagues from the CIA and other intelligence services founded the organization Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), which critically examines US policy. McGovern told DW, “The intelligence was not mistaken; it was fraudulent — and they knew it.” And a significant part of Powell’s presentation was based on intelligence provided by Germany. …
Despite other, more explicit warnings about the veracity of Curveball’s testimony [about mobile bio-weapons labs in Iraq], it became the centerpiece of Powell’s war propaganda. Ray McGovern is certain: “They didn’t care whether Curveball knew what he was talking about. What they had was something they could put on the record, that they could give to these very imaginative and very professional graphics people working for the CIA, and they in turn could render drawings of these nonexistent mobile chemical weapons labs, which of course they did and which Colin Powell featured during his speech.”