Former CIA Officer (Drumheller): CIA had a senior Iraqi source who refuted what Curveball was saying

[sabra]

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/2599/Former_CIA_Officer_Takes_on_Tenet_Book

Former CIA Officer Takes on Tenet Book
Tyler Drumheller Criticizes Account of Curveball in "Center of the Storm"


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In late January, after the State of the Union address, and a look at the draft of the Powell speech, I realized that despite the meetings and other contacts, the DCI's office had not come to grips with the serious concerns regarding Curveball himself.

I met with John Mclaughlin the week before the Powell speech. John can say what ever he wants on this point but he, his chief of staff and George all know the meeting took place, and that I warned them that there were questions about the reporting. In the book, George throws up a good bit of dust talking about fabricators and burn notices, reinforcing the fact that we sometimes forget--he was not a professional intelligence officer. If he were, he would know that Curveball was a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) case and a BND source. We were not able determine that he was a fabricator until we obtained direct access to him in March 2004, but he should also know that while the issue of fabrication is being investigated you can not responsibly use the reporting the case produces. Also, I know exactly what John said, "Oh my, I hope not."

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I don't want this to be a point by point study of George's book, but it is also interesting to note that George completely ignores the fact that we had reporting from a separate sensitive source, refuting what Curveball was saying. In a real case of tragic irony, this reporting from a senior Iraqi official was manipulated, diluted and never properly used in the policy process.

The run up to the war on Iraq is a complicated and murky picture and it is important to remain focused on the main; the policy on Iraq was set by political leaders in the administration who then picked and chose intelligence, no matter what the source, to support their position. George's role is equally complicated and in the end sad, as only he knows how he was able to stand by while the matter moved toward war.