Brice,
did you watch 60 minutes yesterday? If only 50% was true, then oh-boy.
Also sunday morning on FOX, it was very interesting, about the situation in
Iran and the intel there. Sounded just like Iraq.
Have a great and peaceful week.
Michael
Another Spy Speaks
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On CBS News's 60 Minutes last night, former top CIA official Tyler
Drumheller told correspondent Ed Bradley the real failure in the run-up to
war in Iraq was not in the intelligence community but in the White House.
"Drumheller was the CIA's top man in Europe, the head of covert operations
there, until he retired a year ago. He says he saw firsthand how the White
House promoted intelligence it liked and ignored intelligence it didn't.
" 'The idea of going after Iraq was U.S. policy. It was going to happen one
way or the other,' says Drumheller."
For example, Drumheller said that Naji Sabri, Iraq's foreign minister, had
made a deal to reveal Iraq's military secrets to the CIA.
"According to Drumheller, CIA Director George Tenet delivered the news
about the Iraqi foreign minister at a high-level meeting at the White
House, including the president, the vice president and Secretary of State
Rice.
"At that meeting, Drumheller says, 'They were enthusiastic because they
said, they were excited that we had a high-level penetration of Iraqis.' "
That changed completely when Sabri said Saddam had no active weapons of
mass destruction programs.
Said Drumheller: "The group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq
war came back and said they're no longer interested. . . . And we
said, 'Well, what about the intel?' And they said, 'Well, this isn't about
intel anymore. This is about regime change.' "
Drumheller's view is reminiscent of last month's Foreign Affairs article by
a fellow former CIA official, Paul R. Pillar . He wrote: "It has become
clear that official intelligence was not relied on in making even the most
significant national security decisions, that intelligence was misused
publicly to justify decisions already made, that damaging ill will
developed between policymakers and intelligence officers, and that the
intelligence community's own work was politicized."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html
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