On the Brink: An Insider's Account of How the White House Compromised American Intelligence

If one is a careful reader, this book provides a fascinating window on how CIA went about its business in the period prior to the tragic attacks of 9/11 and Operation Iraqi Freedom. This, one would suspect, was an unintended consequence of the book. The book is rather disjointed and episodic, but this is probably due to the fact that it is really the informal personal narrative of veteran CIA Officer Tyler Drumheller. In order to look into the window on CIA activities, one has to sort through the narrative for interesting pieces of information. For example, early on in the narrative the reader learns that prior to 9/11 Drumheller, as chief of the European Division of CIA's Directorate of Operations and his leaders had agreed to "press harder on counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation issues in Europe" and that he "wanted to be more aggressive" in this effort. We are then told that this was really hard because the European security services had a different approach than we did. As an example, Drumheller noted getting a telephone tap in Germany was much more difficult than in the U.S. because the German services had to get taps cleared through a committee of parliament. Yet if the Germans didn't routinely tap telephones there would scarcely have been a legal procedure for doing so in place. Nonetheless one is left with the impression that this was a show stopper for CIA. Also apparently only after his retirement in 2004, did it occur to Drumheller that CIA could have attempted to recruit informants from the large expatriate Muslim population then living in Europe. Country to Drumheller's contention, the risk to CIA relations with their European counterparts would have been minimal, if the recruitment was handled properly. Again this risk was apparently a show stopper for CIA. Finally it is clear from this book that, as late as 2004, CIA still had only a minimalist understanding of the structure and nature of the al Qaeda terrorist movement and, according to Drumheller, was unable to determine if the target should be worked by the geographic divisions or as transnational issue by the Counter-Terrorism Center. This is pitiful. The issue of Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and the role of a dubious informant called Curveball are also enlightening. Apparently the CIA office for non-proliferation (WINPAC) chose to accept Curveball at his word that the Iraqis had mobile biological warfare laboratories and weapons. Since Curveball was a German asset, Drumheller's division got involved and a nasty fight developed over Curveball's reliability. It is astonishing that in this fight it apparently did not occur to anyone to use CIA's all source charter to look for actual evidence to support or refute Curveball. Indeed apparently no one even bothered to check with bio-warfare experts such as those at Fort Dietrich to see if what Curveball claimed made any sense. Is this what our inflated intelligence budget is buying us?

On The Brink, is a fascinating look at life inside the CIA, with many insights into the operation of the Bush administration and other presidencies. Drumheller makes a convincing case, about the subtle ways the CIA was led to favor pro war evidence and suppress contrary information. This book is an excellent read and well worth it; Drumheller is a very good writer: Subtle and Intelligent, and a true patriot.

It took courage for Tyler Drumheller to bring his story to the public. He gives his own account of how difficut it was to write this book, and one can see how he might have abandoned the project at any point. Yet his moral conviction that the story had to be told bore Drumheller through the task. The human interest aspect of this book is as fascinating as the public affairs aspect.

Although Drumheller's book rambles some and feels incomplete, this can be forgiven since 1/6 of the original was excised by the CIA. I particularly liked the personal glimpse of this fine professional and his family, rarely seen due to the necessarily hidden and shadowy roles of CIA people. I would enjoy having these people as friends. The book makes a significant contribution to our national security discussion. Specifically, it shows that a key part of the CIA (Drumheller's group)did not consider reliable the Iraqi source "Curveball" held by another European security service, and on whose reports the Bush administration based much of its false case for Iraq having biological weapons of mass destruction. Also important is the description of the Iraqi source in Saddam's inner circle identified by another European security service. This source reputedly claimed that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction and Drumheller's agent kept trying to meet personally with this source. Drumheller makes a strong case that George Tenet and key Bush administration figures too willingly believed and trumpeted the fabricator, Curveball, but weren't interested in pursuing the Saddam associate. In other words, the administration had its mind made up to go to war with Iraq and wanted to hear and allow only that intelligence that supported its case. The administration's methods were to not-so-subtly intimidate CIA analysts and to "stovepipe" raw data directly to key Bush figures and discourage normal CIA vetting and analytical processes. [...]. Concerning Silbermann-Robb Commission report and the Saddam inner-circle source who claimed no weapons of mass destruction, Drumheller writes: "I was questioned at length about (our agent's) tour around the world in pursuit of the Iraqi source, and I hoped the issue would be given a serious airing in the six-hundred page report when it was released on March 31, 2005. But the only references I can find are oblique and seem designed to head off any criticism of the administration for failing to consider the possibility that Saddam was not armed to the teeth. This is no doubt a consequence of the fact that the panel, for all its eminence, excluded from its considerations the behavior of the administration, as it submitted its report to the president." The Drumheller book shows serious and professional work that believed in getting the facts, whatever they happen to show, rather than "fixing the facts around the policy", which is unfortunately what our administration required. And then for the administration to blame the intelligence community for the "wrong" intelligence about the weapons of mass destruction is a real travesty upon the dedicated CIA people who were trying to serve the best interests of our country. I highly recommend this book.

Wonderful. It takes guts to write this kind of true story. Drumheller is a brave man and a hero.