‘Curveball’ Revelations: Way Outside and Foul

Re “ ‘Curveball’ Debacle Reignites CIA Feud,� April 2: At first blush, I had to make sure it wasn’t just the fact that April 1 had come around again.

As part of the several articles The Times has run on the unfortunate series of events leading up to the Iraq war there was, on the front page, detailed revelations that the entire U.S. intelligence complex was thrown a “curveball� by a single congenital liar regarding the extent of the nascent biological weapons program in Iraq maturing into a threat. Of course, it is clear that Iraq was not a threat to us or anyone else. Extensive inspections turned up nothing.

And still we are mired in an occupation that has the potential to be the next Afghanistan, where opium poppies are now the primary staple crop in a country torn by chaos in the wake of “free� elections.

The fact that we were lied to is bad enough. The fact that we didn’t know any better then and that the administration continues to perpetuate those same lies to this day is inexcusable. If only this all were an April Fools’ joke.

Steve Gerhardt

Redondo Beach

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I think I get it. Colin Powell pitched the United Nations a curveball, then George W. Bush pitched the American public and the rest of the world a slider, Dick Cheney followed up with a dancing knuckleball that bewildered us about “weapons of mass destruction� and imminent “mushroom clouds.�

While it should have been a called strike three, they got a walk into Iraq! We need a new rule book and new players!

Vic Gainer

Palm Springs

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Will former CIA Director George Tenet now give back his Medal of Freedom, will former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz now write “Fog of War II,� will Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice now read carefully the memos she receives, will we now believe those CIA agents who argued that they were being pressed to slant their analyses toward an Iraq war, will the person who outed former diplomat Joseph Wilson’s CIA-operative wife be prosecuted, will the neocons say they were just theorizing for over 10 years that a war with Iraq would be necessary, will Vice President Dick Cheney finally admit that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Shall I go on?

Samuel Sensiper

Santa Barbara