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Curveball
- Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War
- Narrated by: Erik Singer
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
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Curveball
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Publisher's Summary
“A crucial study in the political manipulation of intelligence, understanding how Curveball got us into Iraq will arm us for the next round of lies coming out of Washington.”—Robert Baer, author of See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism
Curveball answers the crucial question of the Iraq war: How and why was America’s intelligence so catastrophically wrong? In this dramatic and explosive book, award-winning Los Angeles Times reporter Bob Drogin delivers a narrative that takes us to Europe, the Middle East, and deep inside the CIA to find the truth—the truth about the lies and self-deception that led us into a military and political nightmare.
Praise for Curveball
“Just when you thought the WMD debacle couldn’t get worse, here comes veteran Los Angeles Times national-security correspondent Drogin’s look at just who got the stories going in the first place. . . . Simultaneously sobering and infuriating—essential reading for those who follow the headlines.”—Kirkus Reviews
“In this engrossing account, Los Angeles Times correspondent Drogin paints an intimate and revealing portrait of the workings and dysfunctions of the intelligence community.”—Publishers Weekly
“An insightful and compelling account of one crucial component of the war's origins . . . Had Drogin merely pieced together Curveball's story, it alone would have made for a thrilling book. But he provides something more: a frightening glimpse at how easily we could make the same mistakes again. . . . The real value of Drogin's book is its meticulous demonstration that bureaucratic imperative often leads to self-delusion.”—Washington Monthly
“Drogin delivers a startling account of this fateful intelligence snafu.”—Booklist
“By the time you finish this book you will be shaking your head with wonder, or perhaps you will be shaking with anger, about the misadventures that preceded the misadventures in Iraq. This book is so powerful, it almost refutes its subtitle: The man called Curveball did not cause a war; he became a pretext—one among many.”—George F. Will
What the critics say
“There used to be an old rule that real journalists 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
“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, comedian and political activist
“Bob Drogin struck journalistic gold in this story of a conman who told his intelligence handlers exactly what they wanted to hear. If this twisted tale 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