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On the Brink: An Insider's Account of How the White House Compromised American Intelligence
Though much has been written about the machinations of the Bush Administration and the recent failures of the Central Intelligence Agency, there is still a great deal of information that remains unknown to the American public. In this eye-opening new book, former CIA division chief Tyler Drumheller explores the gradual erosion of the agency's independence over the past 30 years, witnessing its decline through the prism of his own experiences.
A dedicated intelligence professional, Drumheller worked for several administrations, from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, rising through the ranks to become head of the agency's European division. From that privileged position he watched with growing dismay as the CIA descended into bureaucratic inertia and later, with anger as ideological powerbrokers used the agency to achieve their own political goals.
At Langley, Drumheller had a front row seat alongside Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, and George Tenet. As only a few insiders can, he offers first-hand insight into the agency's relationship with the Bush Administration, sheds new light on how America propelled itself into war with Iraq, and explains how it has had a detrimental effect on our abilities to defend ourselves.
A dedicated intelligence professional, Drumheller worked for several administrations, from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, rising through the ranks to become head of the agency's European division. From that privileged position he watched with growing dismay as the CIA descended into bureaucratic inertia and later, with anger as ideological powerbrokers used the agency to achieve their own political goals.
At Langley, Drumheller had a front row seat alongside Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, and George Tenet. As only a few insiders can, he offers first-hand insight into the agency's relationship with the Bush Administration, sheds new light on how America propelled itself into war with Iraq, and explains how it has had a detrimental effect on our abilities to defend ourselves.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 30, 2011
I added this book to my queue after hearing an interview with Mr. Drumheller from the Spy Museum's SpyCast in DC. It was an interesting look into the intelligence world from Mr. Drumheller's perspective has a senior intelligence officier. The contents were interesting but the writing style was hard to get into and a lot of what is in the book seems out of place at times. The overal focus of the book is good (it is always good IMHO to get many different sides of a story/even) and it is worth a read if you are interested in current history, politics, terrorism, Cold War, and intelligence.
February 11, 2023
You sort of get the feeling that Drumheller wrote this book just to be able to say “the intelligence community are the victims here”. I can’t say he necessarily convinced me on that. There seems to have been more than a few failures and an overall lack of failsafes. I can empathize with Drumheller’s frustration knowing what he knew and said to others who clearly either chose to ignore or possible knowingly disregarded his warnings.
I really enjoyed Monaghan’s inclusion of the relevant section of the official report at the end of the book. It laid out what Drumheller said and the contradictions or those conversations that so many could conveniently not recall without bias or Drumheller commentary.
I’m sure the book would have been 5 stars if not for redactions but of course that is just a part of process when your book centres around your employment in the CIA. That being said, if you are looking for a book that gets into the weeds on what the CIAs true information was on Iraq before the invasion, Drumheller does a great job of laying out who those actors were that supplied the information and the issues of credibility/reliability, along with the intra-agency dynamics and foreign agency dealings.
His insight into the larger political dynamic of it all could have used some guidance from experts in the field. His perspective of being a life long Republican turned recent Democrat at the time did place him in an interesting position which I think did add value to how he saw and interpreted things unfolding both politically but also within the agency.
I really enjoyed Monaghan’s inclusion of the relevant section of the official report at the end of the book. It laid out what Drumheller said and the contradictions or those conversations that so many could conveniently not recall without bias or Drumheller commentary.
I’m sure the book would have been 5 stars if not for redactions but of course that is just a part of process when your book centres around your employment in the CIA. That being said, if you are looking for a book that gets into the weeds on what the CIAs true information was on Iraq before the invasion, Drumheller does a great job of laying out who those actors were that supplied the information and the issues of credibility/reliability, along with the intra-agency dynamics and foreign agency dealings.
His insight into the larger political dynamic of it all could have used some guidance from experts in the field. His perspective of being a life long Republican turned recent Democrat at the time did place him in an interesting position which I think did add value to how he saw and interpreted things unfolding both politically but also within the agency.
October 1, 2017
A short and fairly interesting account of intelligence manipulation pre-2003 IQ War by the CIA chief of European operations. For understanding the Iraq War the most valuable thing about this book is his 2 chapters on the Curveball source that claimed knowledge of mobile biological weapons facilities in Iraq. Drumheller shows how this source came to the attention of the CIA and why his division considered it so unreliable (never got to vet him, seemed drunk and depressed, couldn't prove he had the position he claimed to have, inconsistent stories, Germans warned us he was unreliable. He also convincingly shows that the CIA warned the Bush administration repeatedly about this source, but they nonetheless stuck his claims in several major speeches as a key part of the case for war. There's also some interesting stuff about the unprecedented politicization and intimidation the intelligence agencies faced in the Bush administration. Not as exciting as other memoirs (Robert Baer's for instance), but worth reading if you are studying Iraq or intelligence work in general.
January 29, 2009
Exposes the chaos that we call our intelligent agency and how our inept executive branch screws it up
February 23, 2009
ex CIA tells how we made up reasons for Iraq war
February 7, 2010
Interesting perspective, from inside the CIA. More of the same bad news about the Bush administration and how they screwed things up, royally.
March 3, 2015
Outstanding book. Tyler Drumheller gives an insider account of the Bush Administration's fabricated intelligencce that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
January 23, 2016
Nothing in this book turned me on. No great revelation. I get the feeling that Drumheller wasn't much of a spy, and he wasn't very good at playing internal politics either.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews