The CIA did not believe them, a spokesman telling the paper “no useful information” had been collected.Defectors also duped the CIA, which continued to believe one Iraqi claiming knowledge of Saddam’s biological weapons, even after it had been warned by the Defence Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon that he was almost certainly peddling false information.Other defectors were provided by Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress who is in disgrace with the Bush administration because the INC had fed false information that exaggerated the WMD threat. “I just heard my four-year-old son Jack ask why they are so many Americans everywhere,” he said, looking to the youngest of his three children on the stage with him. Well, I have an answer for him, [It's] because when John Kerry is elected, we are going to restore real American values to this country. We are going to do great things when we take over the White House next year.”As they continue on a four-day tour, Mr Kerry and Mr Edwards will encounter people much more difficult to persuade than those here. But yesterday in Cleveland, before the rain came down, they at least made a start..

The CIA was braced yesterday for a fiercely critical Congressional report expected to place primary blame on the agency for the pre-war intelligence debacle over Iraq’s still-unfound weapons of mass destruction. Yesterday, as they stood on the stage with their wives, Elizabeth Edwards and Teresa Heinz Kerry, this foursome looked like two sets of parents at a wedding, eyeing the other up, polite but not entirely sure what sort of marriage this might be.In so many ways, the two Js (is that what they are going to be called?) could not be more different. Mr Kerry, the serious, rather dour, grey-haired bearer of gravitas and experience, contrasts sharply with the more youthful, charismatic Mr Edwards, whose easy, southern accent and genuine charm made him such a success during the primary election season.Of course, Mr Edwards – considerably less liberal politically than Mr Kerry – was selected to complement the older man, to make up for the shortfall in those areas of humour and vitality where he is most lacking. Today you are the first city to get a different kind of electricity – Senator John Edwards.” A body of work has already been written about the relationship between these two men, which is said to be cordial rather than warm.

the public square was lit by electric street lights, the first city in America to get this. Mr Kerry pretended not to notice.”In 1879, something happened in Cleveland,” continued Mr Kerry “You may not know … Today, with an unemployment rate that is as high as 10 per cent in some of its urban areas, the Democrats believe it is a place they can win back.It is clear from yesterday’s events that Mr Kerry realises one of the most potent weapons in his armoury for this fight is the senator from North Carolina he selected just the day before to be his running mate.Indeed, as Mr Edwards was welcomed on to the stage – looking as though he had come straight from the tanning room of a health club – it was a tough call to say whether he received louder applause than the man he hopes to be working for. Last time around, George Bush won this state by a margin of 4 per cent. “Together, over the next 120 days, we are going to fight for the America we believe in.”If Mr Kerry and Mr Edwards are going to transform such campaign rhetoric into a bankable victory, it is in cities such as Cleveland and states such as Ohio, where they will need to be at their most convincing. There was screaming, a warm-up band, placard-waving and even one or two faintings.”Together we are going to end the Bush presidency,” yelled a beaming Mr Kerry on a stage set up in a park that had, until recently, been a parking lot. The faithful had been queuing for hours, gathering alongside the slate-grey waters of Lake Erie in anticipation of the”New Start”.