We have published an eye-catching interview today about the Iraqi defector codenamed Curveball by the CIA.
In the run-up to the Iraq war, Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi made a series of claims about Saddam Hussein's chemcial weapons capabilities to German intelligence, who passed the information on to the CIA.
He said Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme and fabricated tales of mobile bioweapons trucks and clandestine factories. His claims were famously used by former US secretary of state Colin Powell in a briefing to the United Nations.
The claims – later proved to be false – formed the basis of Washington's justification for invading Iraq.
Curveball tells the Guardian that he made the claims in an attempt to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime, from which he had fled in 1995. You can watch a video version of the interview here.
The story raises a number of issues. What are the consequences of his new admissions? How significant are they? What were his original motivations for lying? Can we believe what he says now? Our Baghdad correspondent Martin Chulov, interviewed Curveball in Germany with our Berlin correspondent Helen Pidd, and they are both online now to answer your questions about the story (@martinchulov and @pidd).
Thanks to those commenters who have submitted questions already - Martin and Helen will return throughout Wednesday to answer more.
