Tyler Drumheller was the Chief of Europe in the CIA until 2005. He has a new book out called, On the Brink: An Insider’s Account of How the White House Compromised American Intelligence. Here is an excerpt from the introduction.
…never have I seen the manipulation of intelligence that has played out since the second President Bush took office. As chief of Europe and one of a handful of geographical division chiefs in the Directorate of Operations- the covert branch of the agency- I had a front-row seat from which to observe the unprecedented drive for intelligence justifying the Iraq War and for someone to blame for the September 11 attacks. One of Tenet’s most experienced top deputies, I watched my staff being shot down in flames as they tried to put forward their view that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. I watched as politicians, using intelligence that was at best questionable, spoke passionately about the impending threat of nuclear attack by Iraq before we sent our men and women to die in the Middle East. I railed inwardly at the stubborness of this country’s leadership as it ignored voice after voice that warned of the perils of an ill-prepared war in the Arab world. Eventually I had to accept that nothing we said or did was going to change the administration’s collective mind.
So, will anyone ever be forced to take accountability for this? From Think Progress:
STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve talked a lot about the consequences of the Democrats taking over congress in the last week. Nancy Pelosi said this: “we win, speaking of the democrat, we get subpoena power.” If you’re subpoenaed by the Democrats, would you go?
CHENEY: I have no idea that i’m going to be subpoenaed. Obviously, we’d sit down and look at it at the time. But probably not in the sense at that Vice President and President and constitutional officers don’t appear before the Congress.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s your view of executive power? You’re not going to go up and testify.
CHENEY: I think that’s been the tradition. I can’t remember the last time a President did appear before the Congress. Or a Vice President.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Gerald Ford, I think.
CHENEY: That’s right. But not on a subpoena, he did it on his own.
I can’t wait for the showdown. Let’s make popcorn.
What did he do at the time? Did he try to talk to George Tenet, and if so, what was the excuse Tenet gave him?
Did he try to talk to the Senate or House intelligence oversight committees?
Did he try to talk to people in the press?
Is there any internal CIA body he could appeal to?
Why all this latter-day handwringing and “I told them so” stories? Why didn’t it have an effect, and can some mechanism be put in place to prevent that in the future???
I’m just starting the book, so I don’t know what he did at the time besides try to argue his case within the system.
That was my first thought also. What did he do, & when? I think Goodyear is going to show an increase in profits as they have to sell bigger & better tires to support the wagon many will be jumping on saying they tried to stop the mess from happening, now that they may soon be held accountable.
And the arrogance of that “fat bastard heart attack” cheney is unbelievable.
Cheney has every reason to feel invincible. He’s the dude with a finger on the nuclear trigger.
We are so fucked. We got fucked so bad in 2000, it’s beyond the pale.
Cheney in ’08. That’s my prediction.
And it won’t be an election.