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.
