The Road to the Iraq War | 6. Big, if True

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2021

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On Feb. 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell went to the United Nations to make the Bush administration’s closing argument for war with Iraq. Powell didn’t know it at the time, but one major piece of intelligence he cited came from a shady source—a man code-named Curveball. How did Curveball’s bad information make it into Powell’s speech? And why did no one listen when a woman from the CIA tried to warn everyone? Want more Slow Burn? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately access all episodes of Slow Burn (and your other favorite Slate podcasts) completely ad-free. Plus, you’ll unlock subscriber-exclusive bonus episodes that bring you behind-the-scenes on the making of the show. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/slowburnplus to get access wherever you listen. Season 5 of Slow Burn is produced by Noreen Malone, Jayson De Leon, and Sophie Summergrad. Mixing by Merritt Jacob. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:28.0	The sun was shining, the dulks were quacking.
0:32.0	All was well as Derek Jones stubbed out his
0:35.3	lunchtime cigarette on the ground and put his rubbish in the bin. On his way
0:39.3	back to work he suddenly felt terribly guilty. But why?
0:43.0	What had he done?
0:44.0	He was wracking his brains, and then he saw it.
0:48.0	A duck pointing angrily at his discarded cigarette butt.
0:52.0	You don't think you're a litterer, but cigarette
0:54.6	but are rubbish. If you smoke bin your but's keep Britain tidy.
0:59.2	In late December 2002 most of Washington was winding down for Christmas.
1:05.0	Young White House staffers were hard at work writing thank you notes for the gifts that have been sent to the president.
1:10.0	But Bush wasn't ready to sign off for the holiday yet.
1:13.3	He called a meeting, and he asked the CIA to give him its best version of the case for war with Iraq.
1:19.1	The call went out when they started developing the case for anybody who had anything they would like to contribute.
	...

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