Tribune – Comment, news and reviews from Britain's democratic left

Just as generations were encouraged to believe that student Gavrilo Princip virtually single-handedly started the First World War by shooting Archduke Franz Ferdinand, we appear to be in the early stages of the drafting of a new myth. We are now being invited to believe that the Iraq invasion, and everything that has ensued, is all the fault of a lying fantasist called Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, otherwise known as “Curveball”. Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who used Curveball’s dubious testimony to galvanise the United Nations into supporting the war, is said to be incensed and seeking to rehabilitate his tarnished political credibility.

A CIA station chief says his doubts about Curveball are vindicated. And just when we think the line between farce and bloody tragedy cannot get any fuzzier, we learn that 57-year -old computer expert Dennis Montgomery was paid more than £13 million after fooling the CIA that he had developed software to decipher coded al Qaida plots supposedly hidden in al-Jazeera broadcasts. On the strength of his “intelligence”, President George W Bush ordered passenger jets flying from London to be turned back over the Atlantic or face being shot down. A French investigation into the technology found it to be bogus. Mr Montgomery was behind claims that Somalian terrorists planned to disrupt Barack Obama’s inauguration. His software was also said to identify terror leaders from photographs taken by aerial drones. The CIA admits it was “played” or “had”, but no more is to be made of it.

Meanwhile, Dennis Montgomery awaits trial in Nevada on charges of passing dud cheques worth £1.1million to Las Vegas casinos. The dodgy dossier of Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell is – almost – quaint by comparison.