A US TV network has revealed the name of "Curveball" - an Iraqi man whose information was central to the US government's argument to invade Iraq.
The CBS show 60 Minutes identifies him as Iraqi defector Rafid Ahmed Alwan.

The programme says he arrived in a German refugee centre in 1999 where he lied to win asylum and was not the chemical expert he said he was.

His claims of mobile bio-weapons labs in Saddam Hussein's Iraq were backed until well after the 2003 invasion.

'Playing the system'

The CBS 60 Minutes programme airs on Sunday but material released on its web site says Curveball was "not only a liar, but also a thief and a poor student instead of the chemical engineering whiz he claimed to be".

It also says it assumes Mr Alwan is now living in Germany under a different name.

How can the US government be so stupid and take such a drastic step on the recommendation of a single person. Did they never verify his credentials and claims?

Wow, that's an outrage...

But I think it wasn't just that man, there had to be other people backing his idea up as even though the government doesn't sound too clever, they do have some logic. There was probably some business pressure as well. Perhaps that guy was bribed to say that or something...

We should put this behind and instead try to solve the current problem instead though. We have to figure out how to end the war, it's already been started, and there's nothing we can do to change it, but we can still end it before it's too late.