“Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday [February 16, 2011] that U.S. intelligence officials should be questioned over their handling of ‘Curveball,’ an Iraqi defector whose now discredited claims on weapons of mass destruction helped fuel the Bush administration’s drive to war in 2003. It has become clear over the years that ‘the source called Curveball was totally unreliable,’ Powell said in a statement to CNN. ‘The question should be put to the CIA and the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) as to why this wasn’t known before the false information was put into (a key intelligence estimate) sent to Congress, the president’s [2003] State of the Union address and my February 5 [2003] presentation to the U.N.‘ ”
– Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd, “Powell Questions Handling of Iraqi Defector,” CNN, Feb. 17, 2011