The Dusty Dog

A Spy Speaks Out

This spy, Tyler Drumheller, spoke out on CBS 60 Minutes last night. What he has to say is harrowing, to say the least. Following is an excerpt:

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."

What did this high-level source tell him?

"He told us that they had no active weapons of mass destruction program," says Drumheller.

"So in the fall of 2002, before going to war, we had it on good authority from a source within Saddam's inner circle that he didn't have an active program for weapons of mass destruction?" Bradley asked.

"Yes," Drumheller replied. He says there was doubt in his mind at all.

"It directly contradicts, though, what the president and his staff were telling us," Bradley remarked.

"The policy was set," Drumheller says. "The war in Iraq was coming. And they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy, to justify the policy."

Drumheller expected the White House to ask for more information from the Iraqi foreign minister.

But he says he was taken aback by what happened. "The group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq war came back and said they're no longer interested," Drumheller recalls. "And we said, 'Well, what about the intel?' And they said, 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change.'"

"And if I understand you correctly, when the White House learned that you had this source from the inner circle of Saddam Hussein, they were thrilled with that," Bradley asked.

"The first we heard, they were. Yes," Drumheller replied.

Once they learned what it was the source had to say — that Saddam Hussein did not have the capability to wage nuclear war or have an active WMD program, Drumheller says, "They stopped being interested in the intelligence."

Unfortunately, the dubya cockroach supporters, those jingo Americans (the few that are left) who believe in their blackest hearts of black hearts that WMD's were only one reason for invading Iraq. To justify the invasion, they fall back on the notion that we invaded to topple Saddam and bring democracy to the Iraqis. Total hooey, for sure. Kind of sounds like the backpeddling that dubya is saying about the leaking of Valerie Plame's name to the press after initially stating that he would fire the leakers in that case: "I declassified it, and I did it because I can, and it's within my authority to do so." (I'm paraphrasing, of course, but it's exactly what happened.)

Nuff said. I'm already late for work.

posted by Dusty Dog at 4/24/2006