Curveball's True Identity Comes to Light

Curveball, the Iraqi informant whose tall tales of mass weaponry helped push the US to war, has been identified by 60 Minutes as a lousy student—not the brilliant chemical engineer he claimed to be—who lied through his teeth to get his green card. This week's show names him as Rafid Ahmed Alwan and provides the first detailed look at him.

Alwan showed up at a refugee center in Germany in 1999, the show says, and began fabricating tales that were credible because he briefly worked at an Iraqi biological site. He was "trying to get his green card and playing the system," said a former CIA official. German officials warned George Tenet that Alwan's information could not be verified. Alwan is thought to be living freely in Germany today. (More Iraq stories.)