On the Brink

Larry Johnson

18 years ago

Tyler Drumheller, the recently retired CIA Chief for the
European Division during the build up for the war in Iraq is out with a
great new book, On the Brink.
Tyler’s account takes you inside the CIA during the month before 9-11
and through the start of the war in Iraq. He was in charge of all
U.S. clandestine operations in Europe, including Turkey. But
beyond a look back at what went wrong with Iraq from an intelligence
perspective, Tyler offers a devastating critique of how the Bush
Administration has engaged in an unprecedented politicization of the
CIA. In corrupting the intelligence community the Bush
Administration has put the nation at greater risk and hobbled an
important government resource.

Tyler’s book is unique because it offers the first insider’s account
about the events surrounding the build up to the war in Iraq, including
the backstory on Curveball (the Iraqi fabricator) and the interactions
with our British and Turkish allies. (Although CIA censors
prevented Tyler from naming specific countries, a careful reader can
easily pick out who is who.) On the Brink
is a perfect companion to the other books published this year
recounting the fabrication and failure that is Iraq–Fiasco (by Tom
Ricks), Hubris (by David Corn and Michael Isikoss), Cobra II (by
Bernard Trainor and Michael Gordon), Imperial Life in the Emerald City
(by Rajiv Chandrasekaran) and State of Denial (by Bob “late to the
party” Woodward). Taken as a whole, these volumes tell a
disturbing and horrifiying story of how our nation’s security has been
hijacked and squandered by the very people sworn to protect it.
Tyler fleshes out the intelligence portion of the story.

Tyler fought an uphill battle in trying to get this book out.

CIA editors did their best to quash the story and keep it off the
shelves before the November elections. Notwithstanding the
bureaucratic and procedural obstacles erected to thwart the book, Tyler
still manges to tell a compelling story.

On the Brink is
not another bash Bush book. Drumheller makes it very clear that
George W. Bush alone is not the cause of the fiasco unfolding along the
banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. Within the CIA, Tyler points
an unwavering finger at George Tenet and his deputy, John
McLaughlin. They were warned by Tyler that Curveball, the source
claiming firsthand knowledge of mobil biological weapons labs in Iraq,
was a fraud. And they did nothing. When the full story of
the debacle surrounding Iraq is finally told, Tenet and McLaughlin will
deserve the scorn of their countrymen rather than medals of
freedom. They failed to stand strong when it counted and enabled
a flawed President to take our country to war in the wrong place at the
wrong time.

This was not an easy book for Tyler to write. He genuinely
liked Tenet and was not about to tell tales out of school. He
also was old-school; committed to protecting sources and methods.
He writes with a measure of humility that is a virtue not commonly
found in Washington, DC. But he has performed a public
service. He traces the dismantling of the intelligence communtiy
by political operatives and sounds an important alarm, reminding all
who will listen that we need a professional intelligence service
staffed by talented men and women if we are to safely navigate the
troubled waters of the 21st Century.

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