OPERATION CURVEBALL EXPOSES DUPLICITY REGARDING IRAQ
Most political observers know that the United States started the Iraq War based on a lie. Few, however, know where the lie originated. Operation Curveball, directed by Johannes Naber, puts the blame on the German government, though the role of the American government is also revealed.
At the center is Dr. Arndt Wolf (played by Sebastian Blomberg), an expert in biological weapons who served on an assignment in Iraq as chemical weapons inspector to verify whether the country was in compliance with UN Resolution 687 of 1991, which required Iraq to “unconditionally accept the destruction, removal, or rendering harmless” of all biological and chemical weapons, ballistic missiles with a range greater than 150 kilometers, and related components, research programs, and facilities. While back in Germany in 1999, he meets Iraqi dissident Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi (Dar Salim). Alwan, later known as Curveball, opportunistically draws a diagram of a truck containing anthrax and tells Wolf that several such trucks are in constant travel throughout the Iraq highways. Just why chemical weapons would implausibly circulate, with potential harm to thousands or millions if an accident occurred, is never asked, however. Wolf then files a report.
Soon after the attack on 9/11, letters laced with anthrax are received by several prominent Americans. Suspicion in Washington arises that the anthrax came from Iraq, so confirming evidence is sought. Germany’s intelligence agency assigns Wolf, who consults Curveball again. Wolf then informs his boss, Dr. Schatz (Thorsten Merten) of the information and reveals that Curveball is the source. German intelligence then rounds up Curveball for further questioning, offers him German citizenship if he will tell the truth, and he admits that he made up the entire fable. Wolf is then fired, and Curveball becomes a German citizen. But Wolf’s false report leaks from Germany to the USA.
One day in 2002, Curveball realizes that he is being followed, so he goes to Wolf’s residence. While Wolf is on the toilet, his residence is entered, Curveball is kidnapped, and Wolf decides to follow the van that is taking Curveball away. American CIA agents, the kidnappers, head for a German intelligence facility, set up a camera, and ask Curveball to admit the traveling trucks falsehood. Curveball then bolts from the facility and joins Wolf, but German police arrest both on the highway back from the intelligence facility. After they are released separately by German intelligence officials, Curveball agrees to receive generous checks for the rest of his life by keeping his mouth shut. Wolf soon asks Schatz why the charade and is told that the German government wants to enhance cooperation with the United States. Schatz tells Wolf that he will be charged with treason unless he, too, is silent. Yet the German government opposed the war.
Titles at the end note that after the American attack on Iraq in 2003 no weapons of mass destruction were found after all. But Curveball’s identity was still secret—that is, until 2011, when he went public and his German government checks ended.
The peculiar docudrama, which ends with a reminder that at least 150,000 civilians died in the American attack, has been nominated by the Political Film Society as the best film exposé of 2021. MH