The defector whose claims that Iraq had biological weapons were used to justify the 2003 US invasion has admitted that he lied to help get rid of Saddam Hussein, the Guardian newspaper said Tuesday.

"Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right," Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi told the British newspaper.

"They gave me this chance. I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime. I and my sons are proud of that and we are proud that we were the reason to give Iraq the margin of democracy," he added.

Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German and American intelligence officials, told the BND, Germany's secret service, that Iraq had mobile bioweapons trucks and had built clandestine factories.

The faulty information formed the cornerstone of former US Secretary of State Colin Powell's key address to the United Nations on February 5, 2003.

"I had a problem with the Saddam regime," Janabi told the paper during a meeting in Germany. "I wanted to get rid of him and now I had this chance."

"I tell you something when I hear anybody, not just in Iraq but in any war, (is) killed, I am very sad. But give me another solution. Can you give me another solution?

"Believe me, there was no other way to bring about freedom to Iraq. There were no other possibilities," he continued.

German authorities approached Janabi in 2000 after identifying him as a Baghdad-trained chemical engineer with possible inside intelligence of former leader Hussein's regime.

earlier related report

Zain to challenge Iraq SIM card fine
Baghdad (AFP) Feb 15, 2011 –

Kuwait-based telecoms operator Zain said Tuesday it would challenge what it called an "unjust" $262,000 fine imposed by the Iraqi government over the distribution of SIM cards.

On its website, the Iraqi communications and media commission said it had slapped the fine on Zain — the biggest telecoms provider in Iraq with a 55 percent market share — for placing five million SIM cards on the market "without obtaining prior legal approval".

The fine must be paid within three months of January 11, the date it was imposed, but Amin al-Zubaidi, the head of Zain's regulatory department in Iraq, said it would be challenged.

"We were very surprised with these unfair and unjust penalties," he told AFP. "Our legal department is preparing a formal response challenging the grounds of such penalties."

In May 2009, Zain and its two rivals Asiacell and Korek were fined a total of $20 million after they were cited for faulty service. Of that amount, more than $18.5 million was levied against Zain.

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