At about noon on March 21 2003, the US launched the first full-scale bombing of Iraq, ordering about 1,700 sorties and firing more than 500 cruise missiles.
Sometime during that day, amid the frenzied activity at the Pentagon, an e-mail was sent with an order originating in the office of Paul Wolfowitz, then deputy secretary of defence, to hire Shaha Riza, a World Bank employee.
