The defector, Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, said in an interview with the Guardian that he had fabricated claims of mobile biological weapons and clandestine factories made to German intelligence officials throughout 2000.

Former U.S. President George W. Bush and other high U.S. officials cited the threat posed by Iraqi biological weapons as justification for the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The information from Janabi formed the basis of a 2003 speech by former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell before the United Nations Security Council.

No such weapons were found and years of political and sectarian bloodshed followed in Iraq, resulting in more than 100,000 mostly civilian deaths.

"Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right," Janabi, codenamed "Curveball" by U.S. and German intelligence officials, told the newspaper. "I had a problem with the Saddam regime," he said. "I wanted to get rid of him and now I had this chance."

Reuters