I just finished reading Ray McGovern's piece
Intelligence Officers, Learn From History about the Tyler Drumheller
WaPo story over at truthout (yeah, I know many here consider that to be sita non grata; if you'd prefer, you can read it
here instead). I found it to be helpful in that Ray's background in intelligence gives him the ability to share personal perspectives on some of the players, including McLaughlin and Gates. A few quotes below the fold:
If you fabricate, or acquiesce in the fabrication of, evidence used to "justify" launching a war of choice, you will have to live with that for the rest of your life.
I continue to believe that most intelligence officers have a conscience. The problem is they are often too late in acting on it.
I knew McLaughlin well. When he was a young analyst, I chaired his first National Intelligence Estimate and shared after-hour sandwiches as we crafted articles for the President's Daily Brief. Sadly, he fell in with bad companions and let himself be seduced by Robert Gates, who had his own agenda as he climbed the ranks to be head of CIA analysis and then CIA director.
Full disclosure: Gates worked for me when I was chief of the Soviet foreign policy branch in the early seventies. To this day, I am proud to have put in his efficiency report a warning about the Cassius-like ambition that later succeeded in advancing his career so rapidly.
Enough on Tenet's possible motives. How about Drumheller's? In the days ahead, expect to hear that he is just trying to promote the book he has written, or that he has axes to grind with Tenet and McLaughlin. I had a chance to hear Dremheller speak, together with Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), on Iraq at George Mason University on June 21. He was asked about Curveball, but never once mentioned the book - strange way to promote it. He did not go much beyond what he had already told the press and the various commissions investigating CIA performance.
One ringing lesson here is the need for whistleblower protection for those working in the national security arena. There is none now, and Congress has just rejected all recent attempts to craft legislation with teeth in it.
Ray concludes his piece with a quote from his group Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity's 2003 memorandum:
Many former colleagues and successors are facing a dilemma all too familiar to intelligence veterans - the difficult choices that must be faced when the demands of good conscience butt up against deeply ingrained attitudes concerning secrecy, misguided notions of what is true patriotism, and understandable reluctance to put careers - and mortgages - on the line...We appeal to those still working inside the Intelligence Community to consider turning state's evidence.
Whether or not that message will be heard by those who need to hear it depends in part on how much coverage his piece gets. I for one would like to see it get more exposure. If you think it deserves more airplay as well, how about a diary recommend?