Iraq war
Former CIA official: White House ignored Iraq intel
Bush, Cheney were told that Saddam Hussein had no active WMD program, former official says.
Tyler Drumheller, the CIA’s former top man in Europe, tells CBS News that the White House ignored intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. Drumheller says former CIA Director George Tenet told the president and the vice president that Iraq’s foreign minister, with whom U.S. spies had struck a deal, was saying that Saddam Hussein had no active WMD program.
The news fell on deaf ears, Drumheller says.
“The [White House] group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq war came back and said they were no longer interested,” he tells “60 Minutes.” “And we said, ‘Well, what about the intel?’ And they said, ‘Well, this isn’t about intel anymore. This is about regime change.’”
Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog. More Tim Grieve.
