( CNN ) -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday that U.S. intelligence officials should be questioned over their handling of `` Curveball , '' an Iraqi defector whose now discredited claims on weapons of mass destruction helped fuel the Bush administration 's drive to war in 2003 . It has become clear over the years that `` the source called Curveball was totally unreliable , '' Powell said in a statement to CNN . `` The question should be put to the CIA and the DIA ( Defense Intelligence Agency ) as to why this was n't known before the false information was put into ( a key intelligence estimate ) sent to Congress , the president 's State of the Union address and my February 5 presentation to the U.N. '' Powell , in an address to members of the United Nations Security Council in February 2003 , said the U.S. government had `` first-hand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels . '' `` The source was an eyewitness , an Iraqi chemical engineer who supervised one of these facilities , '' Powell said at the time . `` He actually was present during biological agent production runs . He was also at the site when an accident occurred in 1998 . Twelve technicians died . '' Two months later , the invasion of Iraq began . No biological weapons , no germ labs , and no weapons of mass destruction were found . The defector , Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi , has admitted in an interview with Britain 's Guardian newspaper that he lied to help bring down Saddam Hussein 's regime . `` I had the chance to fabricate something , to topple the regime , '' he said . `` I did this , and I am satisfied , because there is no dictator in Iraq anymore . '' When Alwan spoke to CNN in 2008 , he said , `` I never told anyone Saddam Hussein was producing weapons of mass destruction . '' At the time , intelligence sources told CNN that Alwan had claimed that Iraq had a secret bioweapons program . But now , Alwan admits that after he was granted asylum in Germany in 2000 , he used his training as a chemical engineer to concoct for his debriefers a story of Iraqi WMD production . Although the CIA was not given a chance to interview Alwan directly , and German officials had questioned some aspects of Alwan 's story , his assertions were included in the material provided to Powell for his U.N. presentation . Tyler Drumheller , who was the CIA 's chief of European operations at the time , agrees that the `` Curveball '' information was not well-enough vetted . He says he had reservations at the time about relying on it , but that when he asked for direct CIA access to Alwan through the German intelligence service , he was rebuffed . A representative of Germany 's intelligence service declined to comment . Drumheller claims top Bush administration officials were too willing to believe Alwan 's story `` because that was the only piece of intelligence they had that really fit what the administration was looking at . '' Former President George W. Bush declined through a spokesman to comment . Representatives for former Vice President Dick Cheney , former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld , and the DIA did not reply to CNN 's inquiries . Former CIA director George Tenet , who was Drumheller 's boss , wrote in his memoirs that `` perhaps some people 's recollections of 'if only someone had listened to me ' have become sharper than reality . '' Without naming names , Tenet said that `` concerns about Curveball did not get disseminated far and wide through the agency as they should have been . '' Former Homeland Security adviser Frances Townsend says that the U.S. government should seek Alwan 's extradition and prosecution , for `` intentionally lying and deceiving the U.S . government . '' `` It absolutely makes my blood boil , '' she told CNN . Not all observers are accepting Alwan 's claim that his goal in spinning his WMD tale was to free the people of Iraq from Hussein . `` He told the story because he wanted to get out of a refugee camp in Germany , '' said Bob Drogin , author of a book about the episode . `` He wanted to get his wife out and bring her to Germany , he wanted to get citizenship , and he wanted a Mercedes Benz . And he got all of those things . '' But in his interview with the Guardian , Alwan said he had already won asylum before he spoke to German intelligence about weapons programs in Iraq , and that telling them his story did not win him a life of ease . Alwan insisted he is proud of the role he played in the toppling of Hussein . In the video of the interview posted online , he said that if he had it all to do over again , he would say the same thing `` because I would n't want that regime to continue in our country . '' CNN 's Frederik Pleitgen and Pam Benson contributed to this report .
Colin Powell says US intelligence officials should be embarrassed over their handling of ` ` Curveball '' who was an Iraqi defector whose claims of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have been discredited . Powell 's claims helped bolster the Bush administration 's case for going to war in Iraq . Curveball now admits he lied , but says he does n't regret his actions .